56 Class Diesel locos

I was looking at some of John Turner's photos of the 56 class and have some questions:

Who manufactures 56 class machines? Are they six-motor or four-motor Where do they operate? What powerplant is inside? What type of electrical system do they have? What is their power in either KW or HP Are there models of the machine in the market, what scales? After I post this I will go looking on the I-net to see what I can find there.

Reply to
66class
Loading thread data ...

Hornby in oo gauge ( was dapol and mainline before Hornby ) and Graham Farish in N gauge the real ones were built in brel doncaster and brel crewe, also in Romania ( Craiova ) at Electroputere factory

six traction motors ( Brush TMH73-62 )

They are not in service any more except in France However they operated in almost every area in england and wales on stone, coal, petrol, and metals trains

Ruston Paxman 16RK3CT ( simular to the HST )

Brush BA1101A

Engine output: 3,250hp (2,420kW) Power at rail: 2,400hp (1,790kW) Tractive effort: 61,800lb (277kN)

Hornby oo gaugeand Graham Farrish n gauge

Kindest regards Simon Judd

formatting link

model depot shop

317 Hunslet Road Hunslet Leeds LS10 1NJ
Reply to
Model Depot

They were built 1976-1983 by Electroputere, Craova, Romania (56001-56030), BREL Doncaster & Crewe (56031-56135)

Six motors - Brush TM73-62

Presently, nowhere. :( EWS were the sole operator but withdrew the last examples of the Class on 31 March 2004. However, Jarvis Fastline plan to return at least three locos to service in 2006, one of which belongs to FM Rail. Cotswold Rail have recently purchased 56057 and if all goes well, it too will return to mainline service.

Ruston Paxman 16RK3CT.

The engine drives a Brush BA1101A alternator, which in turn feeds power to the traction motors.

3250hp/2460kW

Hornby in OO, Graham Farish in N. Don't know about the larger scales though.

Reply to
Rich Mackin

Thank you Simon, et. al.

Is OO scale 4mm/ft? Do you use 16.5mm, or 18.3mm track gauge?

If I buy the Hornby model, will it operate on my 16.5mm track? If NO, then who makes good OO track? If I have to lay my own, does your shop have gauges and all the needed bits to fabricate points? There is a group of BRMNA here in the US that I am going to get hooked up with later this year. I am sure they will have much of this information, but in the meanwhile, I don't know my arse from a hole in the ground, and so have to ask a lot of questions. One hundred per-cent of my model railroad experience thus far has been strictly US outline models. 3.5mm scale, 1/64 scale, 1/48 scale, 1/32 scale.

Reply to
66class

I run the Atlanta Chapter of BRMNA. I will be happy to help in anyway I can. Feel free to call me 770 591 8938 before 8pm Rob

Reply to
Rob Kemp

wrote

Yes.

16.5mm

Yes.

John.

Reply to
John Turner

Yes.

OO uses 16.5mm. The dead scale guys use 18.83.

Yes.

But it will be about 15% overscale compared with your American models.

The most popular track for these models is Peco.

OO doesn't mean the same thing in the UK that it does in the US. It specifically means 4mm scale on 16.5 mm track.

If you look at the labels on Peco track they say OO/HO.

Many stores do. But this side of the pond you might as well get the stuff directly from the manufacturer. One of the best is C&L Finescale at

formatting link
I have built trck in 7mm scale (O gauge) using their parts .

Whereabouts are you in the US?

Reply to
Christopher A. Lee

model British outline in 3.5mm scale. Australian outline is mostly 3.5mm scale on

16.5mm gauge track and works OK with US outline equipment. The Aussies import US-built locos built to North American loading gauge as well as building their own, so I freelance a little and "import" Oz-built locos for NA use. I wanted to do the same for a group of 66 class, but 4mm and 3.5mm scales just won't work together. I originally thought I wanted to put together a small stable of 56 class, 59 class and 66 class to build a small layout in a 20 X 20 foot room. Sweet chance of that, I don't suppose anyone will ever do a model of the 59 class. More's the pity as I think it is a right attractive machine. I also need a couple of shunters for yard work, but I haven't a clue at this point what is appropriate for the period that would have seen the previously noted locos all working together. I don't want to stick an old Hudswell-Clarke machine out there, and then discover that they were all retired before the first 66 class was ever built, you know? I would like to do some catenary as well. I see a lot of it in the photos people post, but I haven't seen a photo of an electric loco yet, nothing but those passenger unit things. I guess there are no heavy-duty electric locos?

Southeast. I live about midway between Athens and Atlanta, Georgia. The little community of Between is just a little piece down the road from me.

Reply to
66class

Hornby are doing the class 59 as a 2006 relese, visit my site at

formatting link
( they are oo gauge 4mm - 1 foot ). i have in stock at the moment

56 058 in ews livery 56 113 in coal sector livery ( factory weathered ) and 56 088 in railfrieght ( with small red stripe livery ) Also i have bachmann ( oo gauge 4mm - 1 foot ) EWS bachmann 66 200 named Railway heritage committee and GBRF liveried 66 701 kindest regards Simon Judd

Model Depot

317 Hunslet Road Hunslet Leeds LS10 1NJ
formatting link

I wanted to do the

Reply to
Simon Judd

Lima did a class 59, which Hornby are planning to re-release sometime this year. IIRC Lima's model wasn't particularly accurate though - didn't really capture the look of the real thing.

If you are after a 3.5mm scale GM-EMD JT42CWR, there is a european version made to HO scale by Mehano - though details like the lights and horn grille are the continental spec, not the UK spec. Oh, and it'd need a repaint if it was to represent a UK loco.

Contemporary with the 66s would be the 08 - but pick a livery carefully, given that they are over 40 years old, they've worn many liveries which are not contemporary with the 66s. Any of the privatisation era liveries would probably be fine, and the sectorised liveries wouldn't look out of place either.

Both Hornby and Bachmann make models of the 08 in 4mm scale. If you want one in 3.5mm scale, my instinct would be to look for a dutch shunter - they had some shunters based on the same design. It may require some bodywork mods to capture the look of the UK version - possibly a reduction in the cab corners to meet the loading gauge?. I have no idea if one of these is available in 3.5mm scale at the moment though.

Plenty of electric locos - but not so many contemporary with the class

66s. That would rule out all the original types (AL1(81) thru AL5(85), and the DC overhead EM1(76) and EM2).

So you have classes 86, 87, 90, 91 and 92 to choose between.

87s and 91s are almost exclusively passenger locos. 87s have been recently retired from running the west coast express services, 91s are currently running the east coast express services. There's no technical reason they can't be used for freight, just that they haven't been. DRS did try some 87s for freight work recently, but I don't think much came of it. 86s and 90s are mixed traffic locos - equally at home on passenger or freight trains. 86s seem to appear in pairs when used for freight work, and while some are still in service, they are being gradually retired at the moment. The more powerful class 90s are generally used singly on freight. Normal duties for 86s and 90s would be container traffic.

Probably the only one that would fit your description of 'heavy duty' would be the class 92 though. This is a primarily freight loco, originally designed to haul container trains on cross-channel runs. The plan was to also use them for cross-channel sleeper services, but this never quite happened, and a number of the locos are currently stored. EWS are slowly figuring out that these are very useful locos for internal use as well as on international trains (IIRC they are the most powerful loco of any type we have in this country, and the only loco cleared for freight work above 75mph). This should give them an advantage over other operators when bidding for freight paths on busy mainline routes - and should mean that we see more of this class out and about, hauling a variety of freight trains, not just the container trains headed to/from the channel tunnel.

I think all of these have been made in 4mm scale, Hornby definately have the 86, 90 and 92 in their catalogue at the moment, and I'm sure they have made a 91 at some point. I think the 87 was a Lima offering, but I'm not sure. I haven't checked any of these for accuracy, so someone else will have to comment on how accurate (or otherwise) these are.

HTH :¬)

James Moody

Reply to
James Moody

A reasonable starting point for any British diesel & electric info is

formatting link
Gen on all classes and usually a couple of pics. There are a few minor errors on the site, but at least it gets you started.

Cheers, Mick

Reply to
Mick Bryan

87s *were* almost exclusively used on passenger workings. Now the reverse is true. GBRf are currently using them to haul postal trains and they haven't been seen on a passenger working for months.

Hornby still make the 91, but it;'s only avilable as part of a train-pack with coaches and a DVT (cat. R2427 / R2427A)

For freight use, Hornby currently produce the 90 in Freightliner green or Railfreight grey liveries and the 92 in EWS. The 86 I think is only available in Virgin passenger colours, but I'm sure it has been available in other flavours.

The Hornby 92 isn't a bad looking model.though perhaps not up to current standards. The now extinct Lima version seems to be preferred by some. Their class 90 is probably a little more crude than the 92, but still manages to look like a 90 to my eyes at least.

The Lima 87 was an OK model in its day, but it's around 25 years old now. Hornby are now beginning to re-release old Lima models, so the 87 may re-appear at some point, although it isn't included in the 2006 re-releases. Perhaps Hornby have a re-tooled 87 in the pipeline????

Adrian

Reply to
Adrian B

PolyTech Forum website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.