The 2024 Bachmann Collectors Club Members Day was Saturday 7th September held at the Swanage Railway, a prime venue for the Club’s annual outing which sees 150 members enjoy a free day out including train rides, behind the scenes tours and even lunch – all courtesy of Bachmann. The venue also presented the perfect location for Bachmann’s next new product announcement, this time for its EFE Rail range. The subject for this new model is the London & South Western Railway (LSWR) T3 Class, a locomotive that has been much requested in recent years and will now be produced in OO scale by Bachmann.
Part of a family of four 4-4-0 locomotives, the first T3 was built by the LSWR in 1892 and by the end of 1893, the twenty-strong fleet had been completed. The elegant appearance of the T3 carried many hallmarks of a locomotive designed by William Adams, with long frames extending beyond the smokebox and stovepipe chimneys. Intended for use on the undulating lines west of Salisbury, they worked from depots on the Bournemouth line as well as the West of England line. Whilst in service several changes and modifications were made to the locomotives and once Dugald Drummond took post as the LSWR’s Chief Mechanical Engineer he began to change the stovepipe chimney to one of his own design, whilst some examples also received Drummond boilers.
All twenty locomotives were inherited by the Southern Railway (SR) at Grouping in 1923, however with the SR being an early adopter of electrification there soon became a locomotive surplus and within ten years, all but three T3s had been withdrawn. The final three were withdrawn in 1936, 1942 and 1945 – the last being No. 563 which was then stored before appearing at the centenary of Waterloo Station in 1948. No. 563 would go on to be saved as part of the national collection, appearing at the Museum of British Transport at Clapham and then the National Railway Museum (NRM) at York.
In 2017, the NRM transferred ownership to the Swanage Railway Trust 563 Locomotive Group, a move that drew much attention at the time but one that ultimately resulted in the locomotive being restored to full working order. No. 563 returned to steam in October 2023 at the Swanage Railway where it can be found running today.
The EFE Rail model has been developed with the help of the South Western Circle – the historical society for the London & South Western Railway – who have provided archive drawings and photographs, and the Swanage Railway Trust 563 Locomotive Group who have provided access to the preserved locomotive throughout its restoration and Bachmann wishes to record its thanks to both parties.
Employing a diecast metal running plate and boiler, the locomotive is well weighted to ensure smooth and powerful operation. A plethora of separate detail parts are then added, constructed from metal and plastic, giving this model all the grace of its full-size counterpart. Sprung metal buffers are employed along with metal handrails and a representation of the inside valve gear. Turning to the cab, this is fully detailed and includes firebox lighting and a hinged loco-tender fall plate formed from metal.
The locomotive and tender are linked by a snap-together drawbar with integral close coupling mechanism and electrical connections, allowing the Next18 DCC decoder socket to be mounted in the tender alongside a pair of factory-fitted speakers. Electrical pickups are provided to all driving and tender wheels and the model’s drive mechanism, located in the locomotive, boasts a five pole motor and flywheel.
Tender detailing includes a realistic coal load, separate metal handrails and metal sprung buffers, plus separate lamp irons and brake rigging. Tenders can be modelled with or without coal rails and with different toolbox arrangements.
Further options built into the tooling suite allow locomotives with either Adams or Drummond boilers, chimneys and/or smokebox doors to be modelled. The smokebox saddle can be flush or rivetted and the cabs can be modelled with or without beading. Single or double whistles can be depicted along with the optional side chains on the front and rear buffer beams. The T3s were originally built with equalising beam suspension, and this was later changed to traditional springing, both types are included in the tooling suite along with the option for plain or fluted coupling rods.
The prototypes sported bogie splashers and on the EFE Rail model these will be supplied as accessories (for either the rear or both wheelsets, depending on the period) for display purposes or where layout conditions allow. Also included in the accessory pack will be a set of etched engine head signals of LSWR or SR pattern (again depending on the specific model) to allow authentic route patterns to be displayed to suit individual requirements.