THORNABY CLASS 37

Shabby pre-owned loco transformed.

I'm especially pleased with the quality of the paint job. Looks like a factory finish in the flesh!

Another Class 37 has entered service, this being the 20th example in my collection (how many '37s' does one man need?!) and the fourth in the original Railfreight scheme. Considering I spent my early teens painting everything in this livery, that's quite a modest proportion! 

Obtained second-hand at a bargain price, the Bachmann Branchline model was in a sorry state; heavily bashed about and a poor runner. After a full strip-down, re-lube, partial re-wire and plenty of cosmetic work, the loco looks as good as new - and runs beautifully.

Representing Thornaby-based 37693 as it appeared in the late 1980s, this machine was a regular visitor to South Wales on metals traffic. I always loved the Kingfisher logo adopted by Thornaby, especially the full colour version. Here, the motif decals are from Precision Labels, while the rest of the transfers are from Fox. I seem to have applied slightly oversized numerals - they should be a couple of millimetres smaller, but I'm not splitting hairs - the loco sports an inherent inaccuracy anyway - the pattern of nose-side grilles isn't correct for '693. 

Furthermore, this being one of Bachmann's earlier '37s', the bonnet top doors are too small and the cab doors overly sunken.... In the big scheme of things, I don't really care - I now have a model of an unusual loco and more variety in my 1980s Type 3 fleet. When your day job forces you to be as accurate as possible, sometimes it's a relief to purposely do something wrong - a rebellion of sorts!

The Thornaby Kingfishers are striking additions - excellent decals from Precision Labels.