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Tweaking a Farish class 56

Article originally publised in the 03/05 (May June 2005) issue of the NGS Journal

Grahame Hedges

This is an article about some easy to make improvements to the Farish N gauge class 56 diesel locomotive. However, more extensive and experienced work would be required to get it looking exactly like the prototype as this article only deals with simple to accomplish tweaks that all modellers should be able to carry out and that don’t involve a complete repaint.

Railfreight class 56

The class 56 locomotives were introduced 1976–84 and barely 20 years later they are all but withdrawn, superseded by the indigenous class 60s and imported class 66s and 67s. The fleet of 135 type 5 heavy freight locomotives can be split in to three main builds – from BREL in the UK and from Electroputere in Romania who were sub-contractors to Brush. The first 30 were built in Romania from British parts shipped out and the second batch, also of 30, were built in Britain at Doncaster. The final follow on order for an additional 75 locomotives were made in Britain by BREL in Doncaster and Crewe.

The Farish model represents the follow on British built version with cut-away buffer beam, oval buffers and slightly different horn cover. The first two batches have a shroud over the buffer beam and there are also some other fairly minor differences with the Romanian examples such as the main side grille mesh, window beading and round buffers (all British built examples have oval buffers).

Most British N gauge D&E modellers are very aware that the class 56 locomotive was probably Graham Farish’s least accurate model. It didn’t capture the massive heavy outlines of the prototype, the wheels didn’t line up with the axle boxes and it was probably the roof area which caused most offence as it failed to convincingly represent the domed, almost dalek look of the real cab roofs. Also the front cab windows are too square giving a surprised look instead of the more squinting sad eyes look of more rectangular ones. Finally, the overall roof profile seems too flat and the curvature doesn’t extend far enough down to the sides.

The re-released Bachmann version still uses the original mouldings so all the body faults are still there despite improvements in the chassis, wheels, performance, paint finish and packaging. Although they say they will be retooling it at some time in the future, those with old existing Farish or the current Bachmann versions have got a bit of catching up to do until then. The simple improvements I’ve attempted are;

? Improving the cab roof profile
? Reducing the front cab windows height
? Enlarging the main shoulder grilles
? Replacing the printed jumper cable with wire
? Upgrading the buffers to metal ones
? Replacing the old shiny road-roller wheels with new lower profile blackened ones (due to split gears)
? Adding steps to the bogies
? Touching up the paintwork (MU/jumper socket boxes (orange), axle box covers (yellow), fuel tank gauge (white), exhaust ports (black), quarter light glazing bars (yellow) and weathering)

The new Bachmann chassis has lower profile blackened wheels that are a great improvement. However, my model was of the old Farish type with bright shiny wheels and as with many of my Farish locos it was also suffering from split gears. This meant I had to replace the wheel-sets (that are complete with the plastic gear cog that splits) with new Bachmann ones. They’re expensive at £15 just to complete one six axled loco but at least they are the latest finer lower profile and blackened finish ones. Once they were installed and the motor was serviced it operated reasonably well although with a very loud, almost realistic, diesel growl.

A quick look at pictures of the real locomotive reveal that the two predominant grilles on each side of the roof above the single side grille should have their bottom edge in line with the top of the side cab windows. On the model they finish too high and there is a prominent lip where the roof meets the sides which is also too high. Therefore I extended the grilles down by carefully cutting in to the plastic shell and gently excavating to match the moulded depth while also filing the lip off and rounding the roof more down to the top of the side grille. When I can find some suitable fine etched brass mesh I intend to cut rectangles to fit snugly inside the indentations but until then I’ve just left them as they are in the photographs painted in a dull black colour.

Modified class 56

The roofs above the cabs were made to look more domed by building up with filler and then carefully filing and shaping to suit. I made some cut marks with a razor saw and roughened the existing cab roofs for the filler to key on to. Obviously you can’t add much filler otherwise you will end up with cab roofs that are higher than the general roof line but you can make it more domed towards the outer ends. This area will need repainting but I found that Railmatch Rail Blue does indeed match in very well with the Farish blue colour and only means the roof ends need touching in which saves the need for a complete repaint. Weathering also helps to tone things down and bring it together.

I did intend to replace the roof mounted fan grilles with etched ones but those that I purchased, despite being specifically for a class 56, were slightly too large and over-lapped the nearby panels. If I manage to find more appropriate sized ones I’ll cut out the moulded plastic grilles from the roof and replace as necessary plus hopefully installing the fans below.

I reduced the height of the front cab windows as they are far too square and don’t capture the rectangular shape of the prototype. Adding thin plasticard strips to the underside of the top of the frame directly over the glazing did this. The new plasticard strips were carefully painted yellow to form the new window surround top. This allows the blue of the roof to be extended further down over the original window surround and across the front of the cabs. It’s all a bit of a visual cheat but it makes the roof line look a bit lower, shrinks the too tall visual impact of the windows and helps make the roof looked more domed.

Other simple enhancements were to add fine wire to represent the jumper cable and replacing the plastic buffers with brass oval ones from the TPM range. They used to be available directly from TPM or the N gauge society shop but are currently out of stock. The bogie steps up to the cabs were simply fashioned from scraps of plasticard. Finally, the number of the loco that the blue Farish version was available in, 56 076, carried “Blyth Power” name plates at some time during its life and had it’s buffer beams painted red and the axle box covers yellow. This was easily replicated on my model with nameplates purchased from Shawplan.

Modified class 56 on Hedges Hill Cutting

And there you are, a few quick and easy improvements anyone can have a go at. I can’t claim they will significantly change the locomotive in to accurate highly detailed model but it should help a little and at least individualise your model. There are still a number of inherent errors that would take major surgery to correct such as lowering the height of the sides, correcting what looks like an incorrect rake to the cab front windows or moving back the bogies from the front ends. Perhaps when Bachmann get around to re-tooling the model they will address these issues.

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