Trix Warship

So, another new addition to my loco collection.  This one is the Trix model of the BR Western Region 'Warship' diesel.  It was produced from around 1960 until around 1970 and is probably one of the commonest Trix loco models you will find secondhand.  

  

This one, however, isn't entirely original.  Trix  modelled the locomotive in its earliest form, without a yellow warning panel or head code boxes, (early locos instead carried a bracket on their nose to take the train route reporting boards used on Western Region steam locos, with head code boxes fitted as new to subsequent locos and retro-fitted to the early examples), but a previous owner has added both.  Up close, you can see that the head code boxes are actually painted on, but nonetheless are surprisingly effective, capturing the front-end of the real locomotives as most remember them.  (Trix never, as far as I know, fitted head code boxes, but did, from 1967, add a yellow warning panel in the form of a crude and non-prototypical yellow strip across the nose at each end).  The lack of originality of this particular example worked to my advantage, as it put off the collectors and ensured that I got it for a reasonable price.  

The 'Warship', in common with most sixties Trix, is an extremely good runner and here is seen on the layout: 

It's seen hauling a rake of my Trix coaches, (some still have the Peco-style couplers at at least one end to facilitate their use with locos likewise equipped).  At one point it passes my other Trix loco, a Standard Class 5 (the other commonest Trix loco available secondhand and of similar vintage), also hauling some Trix coaches.  The Standard 5 and its train were actually meant to feature more prominently, but the coaches decided not to play ball, with the trailing four constantly uncoupling from the front coach every time the camera was running.  Another reason I dislike Peco couplings - many swear by them, claiming that they are 'oh-so-superior' to the Tri-ang type coupling, but I've never had an entirely satisfactory experience with them, finding them ready to uncouple on even the mildest of curves.

The Trix 'Warship' models D801 'Vanguard', the second, I think, of the class built and named for the Royal Navy's last battleship.  The real 'Vanguard' had a relatively brief career, falling foul of the fact that, by the late sixties, all of the Western Region's diesel-hydraulic locomotives were deemed 'non-standard' and slated for withdrawal in favour of diesel-electric locomotives.  After around only ten years in service, 'Vanguard' was withdrawn in 1968.  Many of its sisters lingered until around 1972 - I can vaguely remember, as a young child, seeing them at Salisbury station in the early seventies, when they were still being used on Waterloo-Exeter services.  So, the model has long outlived its prototype and is still going strong, as can be seen.