A duo of Class 58s!

In my continued efforts, as Christmas approaches (and now it is the 1 December that word can be uttered!), to earn bonus points with Mrs. Woody for actually getting jobs crossed off her 'For me to do' list i have been doing flooring in the understairs cupboards. Whilst in there I came across this that I bought at the Spalding Model Railway Show last month.

 

I have been that busy I just have not got round to playing operating it and I do need to put a DCC chip in as well. However it is, unusually, a duo of locos, in this case Class 58's in EWS livery. These locos were very much the mainstay in hauling coal trains to the power stations when coal was king and much of the UK's power was generated by coal powered stations. In fact both these locos are numbered and labeled up as being based at Worksop depot in the middle of the East Midlands mining area back at the turn of this century.

Opening the box revels the two locos. One is motored and the other is a dummy (a bit like me then!) as the Class 58's often ran in pairs such was the load that they were hauling. These two date from 2004 when Hornby released them and were discontinued in 2005. Again, unusually, they are both factory weathered and the mid 2000's is when Hornby and Bachman started to offer such models. To be honest I have never been a big fan of the factory weathered locos as they usually look to my eyes as though they have just been blasted with some dirt coloured paint. However, on these two it does seem to work. 

Interestingly, loco 58024 carried the earlier EWS wording of EW&S which was quickly shortened to EWS as worn by 58037.

I do like these two and given my weakness for the EWS livery, these two should be a useful addition to the fleet.

Right! Back to the understairs cupboard flooring and more bonus points with Mrs. W!