D2900

North British built a number of 0-4-0 diesel-hydraulic shunters for British Railways from 1958. This model represents the D2900-D2913 series. There were some subtle differences between the first few and later members of the batch. Powered by a MAN engine, transmission was by a Voith hydraulic unit driving a jackshaft at the rear with coupling rods to the wheels. They were withdrawn in 1967.

The kit is a Judith Edge etched brass kit. It follows Michaels usual method of frames, footplate and engine casing/cab sub-assemblies bolted together. Construction is straightforward. Recommended for motorising was a Mashima 1024 and High Level Kits Loadhauler gearbox. I bought these items and have found them to be a tight fit under the engine casing. A bit of careful fettling is needed to get them in. The wheels are Romford.

Body assembled and awaiting primer

The kit goes together very well and included on the etches are various parts for the later batch and industrial versions. The main differences being the front steps and battery boxes.

With chassis assembled and working well on dc, it was time to fit a DCC decoder. Being a short wheelbase four wheel locomotive, I opted for a DCC Concepts ZN8H with 'stay alive'. This decoder is very small and would fit easily in the body along with the 'stay alive' capacitors. Unfortunately, I did not have a great deal of success with this combination. The performance was stuttery and erratic. I happened to have a Digitrax DZ126 decoder and substituted this. The difference was immediate, a smooth running and controlable locomotive. This is another instance of less than satisfactory results with a ZN8H.

Having spare lighting output wires on the decoder, I decided to fit a working cab light as there is full interior detail. This is a nano LED acquired pre-wired from China via eBay. The DZ126 only has forward and reverse light functions controlled off f(0). However, all the functions are able to be remapped. So, I reconfigured the decoder to have the yellow output wire switched from f1 and on in either direction. This is simply done by the value 2 in CV35. I also found that the locomotive would not move on Speed Step 1, it needed Speed Step 2 to get going. Again, quite simple, a value of 20 was entered into CV2, the start voltage.

A rear view

The body was duly primed with Halfords Grey Primer and the painted green with Halfords Rover Brooklands Green. The buffer beam was sprayed red with Halfords Volkswagon Mars Red. Transfers are from Fox Transfers as usual. This is one of those locomotives were the crest faces forward on both sides, despite not being approved by The College of Heralds! Fortunately, Fox make the right hand version. With a few bits of detail painting, the body was varnished with Phoenix-Precision satin PAV72 varnish. When dry, the locomotive was glazed and assembled. Cosmetic couplings are Exactoscale 3 link whilst Alex Jackson Couplings are used to couple to other stock. The buffers are working sprung buffers and are Alan Gibson items. Finally, I noticed that windscreen wipers were fitted, so a set was made from some Shawplan parts and fitted. The last item to be fitted is a works plate made by Narrow Planet.