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This month’s model favourite has been chosen by MKMRS member Martin Taylor. Martin joined the club in April 2013 after moving to the area recently.
MKMRS MEMBER
Martin Taylor
with D5310 (below)
Martin has selected the class 26 as he thinks it is a very neat model. Replacing the old Lima model, it is of a very high standard and is very well detailed.
Martin works for Network Rail in Milton Keynes and, in his role, covers Scotland. He remembers the class 26s running in Scotland and now this is his area of work, the model reminds him of seeing these engines in operation there.
Martin has also worked on a real class 26 (D5310) as a friend of his owned one. Originally based at the Bo’ness and Kineil Railway for three years, the loco moved to the Llangollen Railway in 2010 when his friend decided to sell it and purchase a class 37 instead! Martin was involved in general maintenance, tidying up, can restoration and sorting out the engine room.
The class 26 entry on Wikipedia states:
The British Rail Class 26 diesel locomotives, also known as the BRCW Type 2, were built by the Birmingham Railway Carriage & Wagon Company (BRCW) at Smethwick in 1958-59. Forty seven examples were built, and the last were withdrawn from service in 1993. Like their higher-powered sisters, the BRCW Classes 27 and 33, they had all-steel bodies and cab ends with fibreglass cab roofs.
Upon elimination of BR standard-gauge steam traction in 1968, the ‘D’ number prefix was removed and locomotives D5300-5346 became 5300-5346. In 1974 the TOPS numbering system was implemented and Class 26/0s 5300-5319 were renumbered 26007/1-6/20/08-19, while Class 26/1s 5320-7/9-46 became 26028/1-7/9-46. Number 5328 had been withdrawn in 1972 with accident damage. Routine withdrawal of the refurbished locomotives began in 1990, and the last examples were taken out of service in October 1993.
