I really had no intention of buying this Loco until a Box Shifter offered it at a very reduced price. There was no need for very much research as this Loco has been researched a lot, mainly about its colour, was this unusual colour used by mistake, a variable undercoat gone wrong or as policy by the Western Region, I think the jury is still out with no definitive answer.

The Heljan O Gauge variety states on the box ‘Cromatic Blue’ , as opposed to ‘Rail Blue’ . I have added Fox Nameplates and Number Plates. I have also started to weather the loco with the grills having a wash of matt black applied by brush . For further weathering it will again go on the pile that awaits finishing.

The transformation of my newly purchased Y8 is just about complete. What was a LNER engine is now a BR Departmental Loco, in fact it is now as the Doncaster Works shunter between 1952 and 1956.

Work carried out was adding the Vacuum brake piping, re-lettering after a partial repaint. There is still a little work to be done with regards to the safety valves, I need to purchase the Ross Poppet system. I have added coal to the tiny hopper with a little spillage on the tank.

I will add a crew later and give it a very light weathering.

I really like this little Loco – one of my favourites of all time.

After backdating D6753 I started on the second Class 37 purchased from the latest batch released by Heljan. This time it was an overall green variety with full yellow ends. Again I researched all possible locos that fitted what I required, I came up with D6749, a loco that came to East Anglia about the same time as it received this interim livery.

There was no need to backdate the head codes this time as they already had the correct type, so just a case of numbering and adding detail parts.

This Loco will now join the list of Loco’s to be varnished and then weathered.