Diesel advice required

[4472]

I am thinking of acquiring a diesel loco for my layout. I needs to be a bo-bo and with lighting as it will pull a rake of lit coaches. Can anyone recommend one as most adverts do not specify bo-bo only model numbers. It also needs to be less than 50 quid as the new ones are far too dear for my meagre funds

[Bigmet]

I think you will be looking at second hand to obtain a model at the price you can pay.

TOPS classes 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 29, 33, 35, 42, 67, 68, 73, meet your requirements. All are BoBo diesel locos that could be regularly seen on passenger trains, and there are RTR models fitted with lights of all of these classes. (You might want to think about adding lights yourself, as there are several older models that were not fitted with lights, and these are more likely to fit your budget.)

Do you have any further criteria, such as period of operation, locations when in service, livery appropriately matched to the coaches, design of model mechanism?

[4472]

Many thanks, I'll be off to investigate

[Mountain]

Are we looking at 00 gauge? DC or DCC? What livery and era? Example. B.R green, or B.R. blue or B.R. blue large logo, or the late B.R. grey sectorisation liveries? Or maybe even into privitisation with the various liveries?
Or is one modelling a non British theme? Lots of choice there.
I may have the odd loco going spare if it is of a suitable era as my diesels are from the B.R. blue era mostly the small logo but an occasional large logo B.R. blue locomotive.
With lights and DCC they will cost a bit more then £50 as most of them will have the more expensive central drive mechanisms, but for DC without lights it will usually be less then £50. It all depends on what you are looking for. One may get the occasional hard wired DCC loco with a drive at one end for around £45-£50 in good condition.
Prices will vary depending what it is and if it is DC or DCC and the type of drive mechainsm it has. Lights can be carefully fitted to both DC and DCC locos if needed, though it may need some thought. Internal cab lights are easy to fit, but in reality it is rare to see a drivers cab with the light on in operation as the driver will not see the signals, which is something that some modellers forget.Still, it is nice to see lights.

[mossdp]

The early Hornby class 25 models had headcode lights. 25247 was the loco number of the blue one. There was also a green one. Later models did not have lights. Not up to modern standards in appearance or performance but should be reasonably cheap.

[Mountain]

Yes. You have reminded me about the Hornby class 25. A nice model that in its day and geared down a bit like the class 29..
I have one somewhere in blue. The number sounds familiar! Not sure if mine has lights or not. It does have a Ringfield motor. I think I converted mine to DCC.

[4472]

Looking for lighting I can only find Express Models as a supplier and only for a limited number of models. Does anyone know any others especially with generic lighting

[Bigmet]

Express models are the one name I know for this kind of product. There will have been others, but with nearly all current models having lights fitted at the factory demand will have reduced, and they could be 'last man standing' or nearly so.

[4472]

Thanks for al the advice. I ended up with a Lima class 67 EWS livered for £40. nice runner with lights

[Mountain]

Very nice. That actually is one of Limas last UK models and is one of the best. It is a shame Lima then went bust because they were really moving forward but were restricted by the UK importer who had sole Lima import rights who themselves were struggling to survive.and sadly didn't make it either.
I remember hearing about the Spanish built prototypes which when they came into the UK, they had to be tested. They were built for 125mph running for use on mail trains though shortly after the Royal Mail decided to abandon rail transport for mail altogether as aircraft and lorry was a more attractive combination at that time. During testing one was said to have lept off the rollers at high speed causing major panic to those around!

[Bigmet]

...Lima class 67 EWS livered for £40. nice runner with lights

Good price, for a centre motor with drive to both bogies model, the only one that Lima/Riko produced for the UK market. If spares are ever required, Hornby took on production of this model practically unchanged, because it had a modern drive design, so you should be good there.
Bravo, enjoy it!

[SRman]

The Lima BR class 20 was also not bad, but sort of a half-way house for the mechanism. It had the central can motor and flywheel, but only drove one bogie, and had no lights. Their class 67 went one better on both scores, although Hornby eventually superseded the Lima design with an even better model of the 67.

I think 4472 has done very well indeed for the price.

[Bigmet]

[Deviation]

The Lima BR class 20 was also not bad, but sort of a half-way house for the mechanism. It had the central can motor and flywheel, but only drove one bogie,..

But the mechanism set up was dire. It was wholly dependent on traction tyres on all the driven wheels to move itself, because the rigid plate pick ups on the cab end bogie fitted into a flanged inner hub on each wheel and were really draggy, but at least reliable. The motor was a good big can type, probably five pole and really performed. (The body one of their least accurate, though the overall shape was good.)

I had an outdoor layout at the time, where traction tyres are no good, so fitted plain wheels to the motor bogie.
And now it wouldn't move, the drive wheels just spun.
So I removed the pick up plate 'brakes', and fitted wipers on all the wheelbacks.
And now it would move, and could do scale for well over 400mph, but slipped a lot with more than 20 wagons even with some weight added.
So then I found a second hand one, and it was easy enough to transfer the motor bogie, for all wheel drive.
Now it would do more like scale 500mph, and pulled well with the power down low, low, low, for realistic speed.

The speed problem was the motor bogie gear ratio was 4:1 !
And then Bachmann brought out a more accurate class 20 with a much better engineered all wheel drive, and the Lima conversion went to a layout where its speedy qualities made it a great favourite.

Lima had the know-how to make a competent all wheel drive, but unfortunately only did so in OO at the very end of their Riko partnership, when the superiority of the Bachmann product's drives had been in evidence for near 10 years.
[/Deviation]