Graham Farish - 371-055 - Locomotive, Diesel, Class 04 - British Rail - D2225

Specific Item Information: Supplied by the Drewry Car Company, the first Class 04 diesel-mechanical shunters were built in 1952 and construction continued until 1962, with a total of 142 outshopped over the ten year period. The construction was subcontracted by Drewry to two companies, Vulcan Foundry building the first whilst later examples were made by Robert Stephenson and Hawthorns. Two locomotives of the same design were built for the Central Electricity Generating Board.

Featuring a Gardner engine and using a jackshaft drive arrangement, these shunters had a top speed of 27mph and tipped the scales at just over 30 Tons. Intended for shunting duties and distributed across the British Railways regions, the Class 04 design was used as the basis of the Class 03 on which construction began in 1957. With the changing face of the railways and reduced requirements for shunting locomotives, the Class 03 was selected as BR’s standard light shunting locomotive and so the withdrawal of the 04s began in 1967. The last example was withdrawn from BR service in 1972 but several were granted a second life in private and industrial use. Today, 21 examples survive in preservation, including one of the two locos built for the Central Electricity Generating Board.

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: Graham Farish is a British brand of N gauge model trains, that belongs to Bachmann Europe.
The company entered the model train business in the early 1950s, focusing on British OO gauge rolling stock, track and accessories.
In the 1970s, it started to produce N gauge models under the GRAFAR label. After the withdrawal of Lima and Minitrix from the UK market in the late 1980s, Graham Farish was the only major supplier of British outline models in N gauge, soon withdrawing from the OO scale market.
In 2001, Graham Farish was purchased by Kader Industries of Hong Kong, and absorbed by its subsidiary Bachmann Industries. Bachmann immediately closed the British manufacturing facility and moved production to China.
Bachmann have since increased the size of the Farish range, by duplicating models introduced to the Bachmann OO range; often, an OO scale Bachmann Branchline model is followed between 6 months to a year later by an N gauge Graham Farish model.

Manufacturer Information: Bachmann, a US company founded in 1835, was purchased by Kader Industries in 1987. Kader formed Bachmann Industries Europe in 1989 with their main UK headquarters in Moat Way, Barwell, Leicestershire, UK (former Palitoy location) and the following year launched the Bachmann Branchline range for the British market with the moulds that had previously been used for the Palitoy Mainline and Replica Railways model railway products. From this starting point Bachmann has developed the range further and now produce a large range of models.
In 2001 Bachmann Branchline bought Graham Farish, an N gauge manufacturer, and since then many of their models have been made available in both gauges.
Bachmann Europe portfolio also comprises other model trains brands such as Liliput.