Dapol - 2D-010-009 - Locomotive, Diesel, BR, Class 67 - Colas Rail - 67027

Specific Item Information: The Class 67 is a BoBo Diesel Electric mainline locomotive built for the English, Welsh and Scottish (EWS) Railway between 1999 and 2000. They were built in a joint venture between Alstom in Valencia and General Motors diesel who supplied the main drive train. 30 locomotives were ordered as Class 47 replacements for use on high speed mail and passenger trains. After several modifications the Class 67 was passed for 125MPH running in June 2003.

After the termination of the Royal Mail/EWS contract in 2003, the locomotives passed on to other operators including First Scotrail, Wrexham & Shropshire who then after the operators closure passed them on to Chiltern Railways. Two Class 67’s were used for the prestigious Royal Trains, Queens Messenger and Royal Sovereign. Other special liveries included a red livery with White Maple Leaf in honour of the former EWS and DB Schenker UK Chairman Keith Heller. This was modelled by Dapol during 2011.

Road Name History: Colas Rail is a French civil works company, a subsidiary of the Bouygues Group, specializing in railway construction works. Colas Rail is the result of the merger of Seco Rail and Spie Rail as of January 31, 2008, following the acquisition of Spie Rail by Colas in May 2007.
Colas Rail is also a railway operator, that operates freight trains in France (mainly aggregates and cereals) but also in the UK.

Read more (in French) on Wikipedia.

Brand/Importer Information: Dapol Ltd is a Welsh model railway manufacturer based in Chirk, Wales. The factory where design and manufacturing take place is just over the border in England. The company is known for its model railway products in N gauge and OO gauge. Dapol's name is a play on its founders David and Pauline Boyle's names. He owned a model concern Highfield Birds & Models. In 1981 he first tried to buy the Airfix and Mainline ranges. The Dapol brand name was first used in a Railway Modeller advert of September 1983. The first Dapol wagons (for OO) were announced to become available on 20 November 1983. From 1 March 1984 ex Airfix railway kits became available.

Dapol manufactures a growing range of N gauge locomotives, coaches and wagons, and is the main competitor of Graham Farish in the British 'ready-to-run' market. Continuous improvement in model specifications has led to the introduction of 40:1 gearing in locomotive drive mechanisms, NEM couplings on all stock, and LED lighting strips for coaching stock (yellow for 'older' coaches, to represent incandescent illumination, and white for more modern coaches and EMUs to represent fluorescent fittings).