📢 Please take a minute to read this personal message from the creator of RailwayModels.uk

Dapol 4S-027-006

D Class Southern Sunshine 1734

Manufacturer catalogue image - please note that pre-release images may be CAD renders or CGI images rather than photographs

Prototype Era
Era 3 (1923 to 1947) The Big Four (LNER, LMS, GWR and SR)

Manufacturer description

51 D Class 4-4-0 locomotives were built between February 1901 and March 1907 during the Wainwright period by the South Eastern & Chatham Railway. From delivery these locomotives were used on the prime express trains to the Kent Coast and Hastings including those carrying boat train traffic for the Continent via the Cinque Ports. During the First World War there was a considerable increase in troop and ambulance train traffic between London and the ports of Dover and Folkestone. The D Class were also utilised on trains conveying armoured vehicles to Richborough and other ports as the war advanced in Europe. Twenty-one of the Class were rebuilt between April 1921 and October 1927 as D1 Class 4-4-0s, leaving 30 D Class locomotives in operation. During the first years for the Southern Railway the locomotives continued to appear on front-line express duties. As larger locomotives appeared the D Class locomotives began to appear on South Central services. The outbreak of World War 2 in September 1939 saw many of the class laid up due to the wartime travel restrictions resulting in a reduction of passenger traffic. 28 members of the D Class entered British Railways stock, two of the total class of 30 locomotives being scrapped prior to Nationalisation. The first of the Class (No. 1242) was withdrawn in October 1944 due to wartime damage and the last in December 1956. No. 31737 survives into preservation and resides as a static display at the NRM facility in York.

Technical Specification

• Diecast Chassis

• Diecast Boiler

• Low centre of gravity between the wheels

• NEM couplings with removable coupling pocket

• Sprung buffers

• R2 (438mm/17.2”) minimum radius

• Pickup from tender and driving wheels

• Powerful 5 pole motor in boiler

• Pull-out PCB for tool free DCC & Speaker fitting.

• ‘Snap-fit’ conductive tender drawbar

• Options for bass reflex speaker in tender (pre-wired)

• Firebox glow

• Profiled wheels

• Detailed motion

• Removable coal load with internal tender profiling

• Fully detailed back-head and cab interior.

Variations

• Two boiler variations

• Two cab types

• Three Chimney Types

• Two Smokeboxes

• Three tender variations

• Additional detail variations

‘Snap-fit’ tender drawbar—a robust solution for simple mechanical & electrical connection of the tender

Dapol's Toolless DCC & Speaker Installation
Simplifying & Reducing the risk of DCC Installation

Catalogue listing

Model details

Prototype information

^* Class names often change over the lifespan of a locomotive, so this is not necessarily the class name used by the operator in the period modelled.

The Dapol Wainwright D Class Southern Sunshine 4-4-0 Steam Locomotive No.1734 is a limited edition model produced by Dapol Ltd in partnership with Locomotion Models and Rails of Sheffield Ltd. This model represents the South Eastern & Chatham Railway's D Class locomotive, built between February 1901 and March 1907, with a total of 51 locomotives produced during this period.

The model features a Southern Sunshine livery and comes ready to accept an 18-pin decoder. It has a pristine finish and is built to OO gauge standards. The locomotive's wheel arrangement is 4-4-0 and it has a minimum radius curve of 2nd radius, requiring a curve of at least 438mm to operate smoothly.

The model is designed to be used with a Next-18 decoder and features a 'pullout' PCB and solderless speaker. The drawbar between the locomotive and tender is of a new 'pinless' type, carrying the electrical connection, and the model includes a firebox flicker effect. This is the first time this type of drawbar has been used on a British outline OO scale locomotive.

The D Class locomotive was designed by Harry Wainwright, the Locomotive, Carriage & Wagon Superintendent of the South Eastern & Chatham Railway, and built at the company's Ashford Works, in partnership with Dubs & Co, Sharp, Stewart & Co, Robert Stephenson & Co, and Vulcan Foundry.

The model will be available in mid-2021 and is a first for OO scale modellers, as no ready-to-run D Class locomotive has been available previously. The model's design has been undertaken in association with a team of expert contributors from museums and specialist modellers, using the preserved No. 737 as a reference.