EXPERT MODELLERS SHOW YOU HOW
CREATE A SHABBY NET WORK SOUTHEAST CLASS 50
HOW TO
The arrival of Accurascale’s ‘50’ prompted George Dent to finish tinkering with a Hornby model, with the aim of creating a more lived-in appearance.
PHOTOGRAPHY: GEORGE DENT
There’s clearly something about the English Electric Class 50, which gained a cult following during the 1980s. With a whopping 18 examples being saved for preservation – almost half the entire fleet – the ‘50s’ continue to beguile enthusiasts of multiple generations.
I became somewhat obsessed by them myself as a teenager, despite never getting to see them at work during BR days. Perhaps it was the mystique of something out of my reach that fuelled my love affair. And it wasn’t just the big ‘50s’ that were beyond my grasp – I never did manage to save up enough pocket money to buy a Lima model!
Given that other popular BR diesel traction types have seen manufacturers falling over themselves to offer competing models, the ‘50’ has had a more modest ‘OO’ gauge career. Lima’s model had appeared in 1982 and remained in the catalogue until the end of the century, keeping many modellers occupied with packs of aftermarket etched and cast metal detailing parts to correct its various flaws.
Hornby’s 2003 version, in stark contrast, proved to be a landmark release during an exciting time of reinvention for the Margate company. It wasn’t quite perfect, but Hornby’s ‘50’ certainly set a new benchmark for detail and mechanical specification and is still available today.
When Accurascale announced, back in 2022, that it was developing a high-fidelity Class 50 model, it was probably about time that the English Electric Type 4 was revisited. It has been fascinating to see the Accurascale model up close, now that the first models have landed (see review on page 82), and their imminent arrival galvanised me to complete a project I’ve been tinkering with for months.
Last year’s Hornby release of 50044 in the original version of Network SouthEast (NSE) livery really caught my imagination, reminding me that I hadn’t worked on one of these models since the mid-2000s. I’d re-numbered and weathered a couple of versions for friends and colleagues but hadn’t touched one since. When 50044 arrived, therefore, I had resolved to try recreating the slightly shabby appearance some NSE-branded ‘50s’ found themselves in during the late 1980s.