Manufacturer catalogue image - please note that pre-release images may be CAD renders or CGI images rather than photographs
Prototype Era
Era 5 (1957 to 1966) British Railways Late Crest
Rails of Sheffield Exclusive - Pre Fitted with DCC Sound by Rails
VERY LIMITED STOCK REMAINING
British Rail 18000 Gas Turbine Prototype Locomotive nicknamed ‘Kerosene Castle’
BR green with orange/black waistband lining (1957-60 condition) and BR late crest
Model Specification
Proposed model based on a unique gas turbine prototype built for BR, but ordered by the GWR in the 1940s. British Rail 18000 was a prototype mainline gas turbine-electric locomotive built for British Railways in 1949 by Brown, Boveri & Cie in Switzerland. It had, however, been ordered by the Great Western Railway in 1946, but construction was delayed. It spent its working life on the Western Region of British Railways, operating express passenger services from London Paddington to the West of England. Loco was delivered in BR black with silver trim, but later painted in BR lined green with early emblem and then late crest, offering three livery options. After withdrawal from BR service it went abroad and was used in various experiments in Austria and Switzerland in the 1960s and 1970s. Stored for many years in Vienna, it returned to the UK in the early-1990s for preservation and now resides at Didcot Railway Centre, albeit with many external modifications and without any internal equipment. In terms of size and specification, this loco is similar to Heljan prototypes such as Kestrel and Falcon.
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