The British Rail Class 56 is a type of Co-Co locomotive designed for heavy freight work and was introduced between 1976 and 1983. In all, 135 Class 56’s were built, the first 30 by Electroputere in Romania, but due to poor quality of construction the remainder were built by BREL at their Doncaster and Crewe works.
The Class 56 was considered to be a successful locomotive and had a long service life, however performance and maintenance costs savings made from the deployment of the new imported Class 66 resulted in most of the fleet of Class 56’s being decommissioned or sold on by 2006. 7 Class 56’s are currently preserved including Frank Hornby at Barrow Hill.
Features
- Detailed body with etched grills and separately fitted hand rails
- Darkened wheels and pin point bearings
- Split frame tungsten chassis
- 5 Pole motor for smoother operation
- All wheel drive
- All Wheel pick up
- Includes etched brass name and number plates
- Directional lighting
- NEM couplings
- Includes both standard and knuckle couplings
- Includes spares bag with additional detailing parts