Dapol Class 59
◆ GAUGE ‘OO’ ◆ MODEL Dapol 4D-005-002 Class 59 59206 DB Schenker red/grey ◆ PRICE £173.20 ◆ AVAILABILITY Dapol stockists Web: www.dapol.co.uk
"Initial impressions are favourable, with Dapol undoubtedly getting the overall body profile spot-on"
Both myself and Chris Leigh are big fans of the General Motors Class 59s, and I’ve enjoyed many hours on Westbury station watching the fleet grapple with heavily loaded aggregate trains from the nearby Mendip quarries. I was also lucky enough to see the National Power – and later EWS – Class 59/2s closer to home, working limestone and coal trains around the North West and the High Peak.
Lima released an impressive Class 59 model in the mid-1990s, subsequently enhanced and re-launched by Hornby in the mid‐Noughties. As good as this tooling is at capturing the look of the prototypes, its 30-year-old roots mean it lags way behind contemporary models with higher detail and technical specifications.
When Dapol announced its intention to create a high‐specification ‘OO’ Class 59, it certainly generated plenty of excitement. None of us expected, however, that it would take seven years before the models would eventually arrive! Thankfully, the wait is finally over, with the first raft of models landing in December and covering each of the three prototype sub-classes. On offer is 59005 in original Yeoman silver/blue, 59103 in ARC yellow/ grey, 59204 in National Power blue and 59206 in DB Schenker red/grey, each with an array of prototype-specific detail differences.
All models are available in three different formats: DCC‐ready, DCC-fitted (£206.73) and DCC sound with pre-installed smoke generator (£237.50). Under review here is 59206, in DCC-ready format, the prototype being notable as the first locomotive in the UK to gain DB’s famous red/grey house colours in 2009.