Dapol - 2D-002-008 - Locomotive, Diesel, BR, Class 50 - British Rail - 50008

Specific Item Information: The BR Class 50 is a type of Co-Co diesel locomotive built by English Electric at their Vulcan Works in Newton-le-Willows. Fifty locomotives were built between 1967-68 and initially leased to BR (fully purchased in 1973) to haul express passenger trains on the (then) non-electrified West Coast Line between Crewe and Scotland. After the West Coast Line was electrified, these locomotives were transferred to the Western Region, working from London Paddington to the South West, Oxford and from Birmingham to Bristol. In the late 1970s the fleet was refurbished and named after Royal Navy Warships. These newly refurbished locomotives, with their simplified electrics, high intensity headlights and new BR Blue large logo livery worked out of Paddington and Waterloo to Salisbury and the South West. The Class was slowly withdrawn from the early 1990s with the last one being decommissioned in 1994. More than 20 survive into preservation including class pioneer D400 (50050).

Road Name History: British Railways (BR), which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was the state-owned company that operated most of the overground rail transport in Great Britain between 1948 and 1997. It was formed from the nationalisation of the "Big Four" British railway companies and lasted until the gradual privatisation of British Rail, in stages between 1994 and 1997. Originally a trading brand of the Railway Executive of the British Transport Commission, it became an independent statutory corporation in 1962 designated as the British Railways Board.

British Rail designed and manufactured rolling stock from 1948 to 1989, at which time its subsidiary British Rail Engineering Limited (BREL) was privatised.

1997 marked the end of the privatization effort in which the last assets of British Rail were sold to 31 regional freight and passenger operators as well as Railtrack (which was later brought under public control as Network Rail), which was given the track and infrastructure.

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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).