20/20 SOUND – NEW TOOLING AND SOUND UPGRADES FOR THE GRAHAM FARISH CLASS 20/0
The iconic BR Class 20 Diesel Locomotives are famous for working in pairs and so we are delighted to reveal a pair of major enhancements for the popular Graham Farish N Scale Class 20/0 models. Firstly, new tooling has been developed to allow the locomotives originally built for Scotland, with their large cab side windows and token catcher recesses, to be modelled faithfully and with multiple variants to depict different stages of their working lives. In addition, a new chassis has been developed and now incorporates a speaker and Next18 DCC decoder socket, allowing SOUND FITTED models to be offered for the first time.
The English Electric Type 1 was conceived following the Modernisation Plan of 1955 which called for the widespread introduction of diesel and electric traction. Twenty 1,000hp Bo-Bo locomotives were ordered as part of a pilot scheme, but even before these deliveries were completed, further orders were placed. By 1962 a total of 128 locomotives had been delivered, more than half of which were allocated to the Scottish Region. Uniquely, the machines sent to Scotland had larger cab side windows below which large recesses were cut into the bodywork. Within the recess a swing out tablet catcher could be fitted for the semi-automatic exchange of tokens used for single line operation, while the larger windows allowed the crew access to the equipment from within the cab. As it happened, few locomotives were fitted with the catchers as the practice ended soon after the diesels arrived and the recesses were later plated over. As the locomotives moved around and many left Scotland, the larger windows remained a telltale sign of their original provenance.
Following assessment of the various pilot scheme designs, the English Electric Bo-Bo was a standout success story and British Rail selected it as it’s standard Type 1 locomotive, leading to a further one hundred being built between 1966 and 1968. The locomotives were principally designed for freight work but also saw service on passenger trains, particularly during warmer seasons when their lack of train heating capabilities had no consequence. Becoming Class 20/0s under the Total Operations Processing System (TOPS), the only drawback of the design was the single end cab, unlike modern designs that have a cab at each end. BR resolved this problem by regularly operating the Class 20s as pairs, nose to nose, and with the combined power of 2,000hp they were able to haul the heavier block freight trains.
The introduction of new locomotives in the late-1980s began the decline of the Class 20s and a large number had been taken out of traffic by the mid-1990s. More than a dozen however were given a second life as part of the DRS fleet and these were designated Class 20/3 following refurbishment. Today, a handful of original Class 20/0s remain in use on the national network with private operators, meanwhile the type is strongly represented in preservation.
Graham Farish’s high-fidelity N Scale model of the BR Class 20/0 was first introduced in 2012 and the original tooling suite catered for the locomotives first delivered to English depots, with small cab side windows and both disc headcodes and the later central headcode boxes, as fitted to the final 100 locomotives. New tooling has been developed allowing models of the locomotives originally built for Scotland to be modelled; these had larger cab side windows with recessed bodywork below and the expanded tooling suite allows locomotives to be modelled both with and without the tablet catcher fitted into the recesses, or with the recesses plated flush as occurred in later years.
Alongside the new tooling, the Graham Farish Class 20/0 now benefits from a new chassis and gearbox permitting the reconfiguration of the internal components. This has allowed the model’s technical specification to be upgraded with the addition of a speaker and the Next18 DCC Decoder interface so that the N Scale Class 20/0 can be offered with SOUND FITTED for the first time.
The first releases of the new and upgraded Class 20/0s will be centred around the locomotives originally built for Scotland including a pair in BR Green, one of which is fitted with a tablet catcher. Two BR Blue machines will be available, both of which retain their cab side recesses, while a final pair wear the iconic ‘Red Stripe’ livery of BR Railfreight – these locomotives had their recesses plated over by the time they received their new colours but still retain the larger cab side windows.
With delivery due in late-2026, the new Graham Farish Class 20s are priced at £169.95 or £279.95 with SOUND FITTED. Contact your Bachmann retailer to order yours today.
