Class 50, By Accurascale

[reddragon]

I want a large logo grey roof 50, but when the one they have done goes wrong, it'll be "Rodney you plonker", so I need one with a better name!

[mevaman1]

These 2 will get my pulse racing!

[Ajax50046]

As soon as the Valiant and Thunderer twin-pack is announced my Hornby ones are going to Vic Berry’s 😄

[brushman47544]

23 hours ago, Ajax50046 said:

As soon as the Valiant and Thunderer twin-pack is announced [snip]

In which case I hope they would be in individual packaging and someone would take the Valiant and let me have Thunderer.

Edited November 30, 2022 by brushman47544

['CHARD]

Niche liveries that had a chance of becoming reality, Episode 49.

 

In 1998 50002 and 50050 were back on the main line under the auspices of D9000 Locomotives Ltd (DNLL).  Directors of the organisation approached West Coast Traincare (WCTc) with a view to establishing a thunderbird fleet of around 7 Class 50s, starting with their existing pair, that would be overhauled to main line standards and allocated to Willesden (owners of other locos had been approached by this point).  

 

WCTc was running a procurement exercise for Thunderbirds at the time - even at one stage speculatively purchasing 47484 and 47802 from EWS at Wigan CRDC.  (History records that this eventually resulted in the Class 57/3 conversion programme formulated by Porterbrook for Virgin.) 

 

Livery drawings of two alternative Class 50 designs were prepared in the Black, Red, White and Blue house colours of WCTc. Either side of a Lima model were painted in the two schemes; its fate hasn't been established*.  

 

 

Postscript: Possibly the first time this 'what-if' (that had a chance of becoming reality), has been revealed outside the small team that was directly involved at the time. 

 

 

 

 

*  not strictly true.  The loco was sourced from Sleepers Models in Erdington and ended up repainted BR Rail Blue and flogged on Ebay, I think.

Edited November 30, 2022 by 'CHARD

[ColinK]

I don’t really need another class 50, but could be tempted if a version with the original non-referbished sound is produced.

[adb968008]

flickr url / not mine

 

flckr url / not mine

 

 

i often wondered why the former, near end of life was repaired, whilst the latter at the start of its was not.

 

In both images, it seems the skin bought the damage, but the frame above the fuel tanks behind seems to hold strong

Edited November 30, 2022 by adb968008

[woodenhead]

52 minutes ago, adb968008 said:

i often wondered why the former, near end if life was repaired, whilst the latter at the start of its was not.

 

In both images, it seems the skin bought the damage, but the frame above the fuel tanks behind seems to hold strong

The 50 was owned by BR whilst DP2 was not?

[woodenhead]

2 hours ago, ColinK said:

I don’t really need another class 50, but could be tempted if a version with the original non-referbished sound is produced.

It seems quite hard to find any recordings of 50s before refurbishment, certainly there isn't a lot on YouTube, video it seems became popular in the mid to late 80s which tends to be the earliest you see BR video in any volume.  Earlier than that and you're back on film and not always with sound.  There was a BBC cine film about some trainspotters at the end of Paddington station from 1975 - it featured 47s, 50s and 52s but somehow managed to focus on the 47s and none of the 50s seen were hoovering.

 

The Zimo on my Dapol 50 does apparently have a 'hoover' function though whether it came from an actual Hoover or an EE class 50 I don't actually know.

[woodenhead]

There is this from 1982 on cine, sound quality is awful but there does appear to be some hoovering going on

 

[Covkid]

50 minutes ago, ColinK said:

I don’t really need another class 50, but could be tempted if a version with the original non-referbished sound is produced.

 

Not sure if that sound could be realistically created as all the "hoover" equipment is long gone.  If there are any high quality recordings knocking about perhaps some digi sound files could be created or manipulated.  I believe the area where the roof used to be recessed on the unrefurbished locos now forms a handy storage area under the new curved roof area.    

[woodenhead]

Another one here at Birmingham - in this video there are also some refurbished 50s still in blue but with their headlights fitted.

 

[woodenhead]

1 hour ago, Covkid said:

I believe the area where the roof used to be recessed on the unrefurbished locos now forms a handy storage area under the new curved roof area.    

Somewhere for the preserved owners to keep electrical devices for cleaning the cab interiors when they get dusty.

[Simon Bendall]

1 hour ago, Covkid said:

I believe the area where the roof used to be recessed on the unrefurbished locos now forms a handy storage area under the new curved roof area.    

 

Yes, its a handy flat space on top of the filter frames. Its also a good place for the modern kit to go such as the OTMR recorder.

[The Stationmaster]

3 hours ago, adb968008 said:

flickr url / not mine

 

flckr url / not mine

 

 

i often wondered why the former, near end of life was repaired, whilst the latter at the start of its was not.

 

In both images, it seems the skin bought the damage, but the frame above the fuel tanks behind seems to hold strong

A lot would depend on the insurance cover.  BR, under self-insurance, only paid the first £1million and anything above that was covered by their insurance policy.  Plus I think the damage to DP2 was probably more extensive and repair costs would be higher in any case because it was a singleton without a pool of components to draw on.

[47423]

A large logo Bulwark would be a definite purchase for me.  Overlooked by other manufacturers. I had a fair few miles out of it when it returned and it was talk of the school playground that day.

[brushman47544]

5 hours ago, adb968008 said:

flickr url / not mine

I took almost exactly the same photo. To think we the public were allowed almost unfettered access to the end of platform 8 without being supervised. If that was today, we probably wouldn’t get onto the platforms at all.

[wairoa]

 I definitely prefer the unrefurbished 50s. Will be interesting to see what shows up in the new year.

 

Edited November 30, 2022 by wairoa

[andyman7]

6 hours ago, adb968008 said:

flickr url / not mine

 

flckr url / not mine

 

 

i often wondered why the former, near end of life was repaired, whilst the latter at the start of its was not.

 

In both images, it seems the skin bought the damage, but the frame above the fuel tanks behind seems to hold strong

I remember the discussion about Bulwark at the time. When it was damaged it was not known that it was near the end of its life - it had just recently gone through the refurbishment programme. It was unfortunate that, having authorised repairs and returned it to service, BR's updated traction plan identified the Class 50s as an early withdrawal candidate. I believe this was because expenditure on the 158/159 fleet meant that the forward passenger loco requirement had reduced and the 50s were identified as being a relatively small fleet. 

[palmsticks]

6 hours ago, adb968008 said:

flickr url / not mine

 

flckr url / not mine

 

 

i often wondered why the former, near end of life was repaired, whilst the latter at the start of its was not.

 

In both images, it seems the skin bought the damage, but the frame above the fuel tanks behind seems to hold strong

 

[brushman47544]

7 minutes ago, andyman7 said:

I remember the discussion about Bulwark at the time. When it was damaged it was not known that it was near the end of its life - it had just recently gone through the refurbishment programme. It was unfortunate that, having authorised repairs and returned it to service, BR's updated traction plan identified the Class 50s as an early withdrawal candidate. I believe this was because expenditure on the 158/159 fleet meant that the forward passenger loco requirement had reduced and the 50s were identified as being a relatively small fleet. 

50041 returned to service in January 1985. Although it was withdrawn in April 1990, the Class 159s weren’t introduced until 1993 so BR could have got more than eight years of service from it if it had lasted until the end of 50s on the W-E line.

[andyman7]

16 minutes ago, brushman47544 said:

50041 returned to service in January 1985. Although it was withdrawn in April 1990, the Class 159s weren’t introduced until 1993 so BR could have got more than eight years of service from it if it had lasted until the end of 50s on the W-E line.

I think it was 1986 when the Class 50s were listed for early withdrawal; obviously had Bulwark's accident occurred then it would not have been repaired. In practice, once 'Sprinterisation' on the rest of the network took hold, Class 47s were cascaded to take over WoE duties.

[rob D2]

1 hour ago, andyman7 said:

I think it was 1986 when the Class 50s were listed for early withdrawal; obviously had Bulwark's accident occurred then it would not have been repaired. In practice, once 'Sprinterisation' on the rest of the network took hold, Class 47s were cascaded to take over WoE duties.

Pretty rubbish weren’t they ? Refurbished 1981-84 ish , all out of service by 91-92 ? The appeal for me is braking up the monotony on the GWML, the bold livery and the fantastic names ( except….bloody …Rodney ,Rodney or revenge ? A dish best served cold…),

IIRC the guys said with the deltic that the numbers would come off with a cocktail stick , hopefully that’ll be the case here and the cantrail too….

[The Stationmaster]

12 hours ago, rob D2 said:

Pretty rubbish weren’t they ? Refurbished 1981-84 ish , all out of service by 91-92 ? The appeal for me is braking up the monotony on the GWML, the bold livery and the fantastic names ( except….bloody …Rodney ,Rodney or revenge ? A dish best served cold…),

IIRC the guys said with the deltic that the numbers would come off with a cocktail stick , hopefully that’ll be the case here and the cantrail too….

Don't forget that refurbishment coincided with their time for a major works visit and they worked a lot better after the refurbishment than they had before.  If you could improve reliability in a class that definitely needed improvement and get more useful work out of them when nothing else was available then it was hardly a bad investment.

 

Or what did you do instead - cancel half your timetable and wait for something else to come along?  (When there was nothing else available to come along.)

[reddragon]

14 hours ago, rob D2 said:

Pretty rubbish weren’t they ? Refurbished 1981-84 ish , all out of service by 91-92 ? The appeal for me is braking up the monotony on the GWML, the bold livery and the fantastic names ( except….bloody …Rodney ,Rodney or revenge ? A dish best served cold…),

IIRC the guys said with the deltic that the numbers would come off with a cocktail stick , hopefully that’ll be the case here and the cantrail too….

I just can't order a Rodney, sorry not even with a rake of DEL or BOY wagons. There are much better names / better known locos for me, sorry AS