Graham Farish 371-113 Class 31/1 97204 BR RTC (Revised).
The BR Class 31 diesel locomotives, originally known as the Brush Type 2s, were built by Brush Traction from 1957-1962 with the Class totalling 263 locos. The first Class 31 entered service in November 1957 and the design was one of the Pilot Scheme locomotives ordered by British Railways to replace steam traction. The Class was originally allocated to the Eastern Region, but gradually became common in both the Western and London Midland regions too.
The Class 31/1s were the standard locomotive, the 31/0s being the first batch of locos which were fitted with Red Circle multiple-working control equipment which was non-standard and led to them being withdrawn relatively early in the late-1970s. The 31/1s were fitted with Blue Star multiple-working equipment, as found on many other BR classes, and all had steam heating boilers making them ideal for hauling passenger services. The Class 31/1s could be found on a variety of secondary and relief passenger duties as well as parcels and freight traffic. Commonly used in East Anglia, with allocations at Stratford and March depots, they were also found throughout the Eastern Region of BR with Finsbury Park sporting a large allocation along with the depots at Tinsley, Immingham and Thornaby. Examples were also allocated to Bristol Bath Road and Old Oak Common on the Western Region, where they could be found working passenger trains as far west as Barnstaple and Paignton. In the early 1980s, Healey Mills and Bescot on the Midland Region also gained an allocation as replacements for Class 25s.
This model features pristine BR RTC (revised) livery, a coreless motor, an accessory pack, directional lighting – independently switchable at each end via switches mounted on the circuit-board, orvia dcc and a fitted speaker. It measures 123mm (length including couplings). It can use the Bachmann 36-567A DCC decoder.
Play Video: The Story of the Class 31 locomotive
