Folly #2  – These are in no particular order

OK, I admit it I like Claytons.

I probably shouldn’t as they were pretty rubbish, unreliable and short lived. With a 450 HP engine in each end at 900hp they were woefully underpowered. They spent a lot of time running around in pairs to get the power up and, probably, give you a chance of getting home.

They were a product of the BR Modernisation plan built from 1962 to 1965 for a job that was disappearing as fast as they made them. 117 were built, 87 by Clayton and the rest subcontracted to Beyer Peacock. They couldn’t even standardise them between batches as each had different multi-working gear! Their biggest achilleas heal was the engines. In most of them they had six cylinder Paxman engines.

Looking back with bucket loads of hindsight Paxman engines were crap in rail applications, but they weren’t alone in that. I think the load profile, flat out or idling was something diesel engine manufacturers hadn’t encountered before. Two were built with Rolls Royce engines as an alternative but they were rubbish, just in a different way, and ended up with Paxman engines.

By the time these were ordered the English Electric Class 20 was already in service and a reliable success. As these were a single cab at one end design they spend most of their life in pairs with the cabs at the outer end. There are still a good few of them running today!

British Rail came up with the spec for what became the Clayton as they figured they needed to address the poor visibility of the Class 20 but they were so unreliable that all but four were lined up in yards like this as  prelude to scrapping.

On a mid 70’s Merry Maker trip from Derby to Edinburgh we bunked round Miller Hill Yards to the east of Edinburgh and there were lines of 17’s along with 24’s & some 25’s all lined up waiting their fate.

I mentioned four escaped. Three made it to the Railway Technical Centre in Derby which as a Deby spotter is where I saw them. Most of the time they were inactive but one was used on the Mickleover Test Track which I used to cycle past regularly. Even then they were wrestling with poor adhesion and one of them used its gen set at one end to move whilst the other generated Plasma to torch the gunge on the railhead. I believe from some info from a colleague in later life that it also torched signalling insulated block joints.

The fourth, D8568, after withdrawal in 1971, went on to see industrial use at Hemelite, Hemel Hempstead and at Ribblesdale Cement, Clitheroe, and was then secured for preservation. This is the only one still with us.

So to MY FOLLY. The Models

I’ve a thing for models of things I saw when I was a kid in Derby or that I worked on. The research centres three qualify under the “seen as a kid” banner [as does the APT-E that sits on my test track shelf).

I thought I had satisfied that itch with the pair of Heljan 00 models seen in the pictures. They’ve had an occasional run on the test track but spend most of their time posing on the collection shelves.

When Heljan announced the O gauge version I said NO! Whilst I have a collection of 0 gauge tank engines this would be too big.  I remained unanimous in my decision for some six years. Then I got offered one part chop in a no cash changed hands deal and it was too good an opportunity to pass up. Even then its sat under the bench in its box for weeks and have now only appeared because I was doing a load of other photos.

What is its future. Well it’ll get DCC & Sound installed and, whilst its in bits it’ll get a driver in the cab. Then its for a serious weathering. Not massively filthy but work worn as in the picture below. When? Who knows!

Class 17 D8505 BR green livery Motherwell June 1967 (S)

Addendum of daft ideas

Now imagine some of the body shells had survived to now -unlikely I know but play along.

In one bonnet, using a modern diesel and alternator set, you might even get 1500 HP in there given the things they stick under the floor of modern trains are just shy of a 1000. Do that to both ends you’ve got a 3000HP diesel but more likely stuff the other end with batteries and you’ve got a fancy modern hybrid that looks the business.  New AC traction motors and all of todays fancy electronics and you got a modern loco that works and looks the part.