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BR Shunting Locomotives - Class 04
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The Drewry ‘Class 04’ 0-6-0 shunter went through numerous detail upgrades as the build
of 142 examples progressed from 1952 to 1962. D2205 was one of the earlier variants with
3’3” wheels, stovepipe chimney and small cabside windows. The loco was to spend its entire
working life in the North East – 16 years with BR, shedded at West Hartlepool until depot
closure brought a transfer to Thornaby, and then sold into industry spending over 10 years
working at Middlesbrough Docks. Preservation took the loco south, saved by a member of the
West Somerset Railway, before a return north to the Heritage Shunter Trust in 2012, was to
bring a superb restoration to working condition.
The model, based on modifications of the Dapol and Branchlines kits, has been finished to
the loco’s September 1967 appearance, wearing freshly applied green and yellow, but with
rail-blue style markings – a combination that was something of an Eastern Region speciality.
A skirted BR / Drewery Class 04 number D2212 at Canada Street.
BR / Drewery class 04 in tramway guise with skirts.
BR / Drewery class 04 in tramway guise with skirts.
Canada Street regular Class 04 number 11224 in black livery, later renumbered to D2254.
D2284 at Canada Road.
Class 04 D2284 shunting at Easington Lane.
D2294 is pictured trying its new wheels for size - a Dapol body on a scratchbuilt chassis.
Another view of D2294 at Canada Street captured at the Cantebury exhibition in 2018
Here's a couple of cameo locomotives made up from redundant Airfix / Dapol class
04 Drewery shunter kits. Firstly D2299 by Greg Brookes at BSC Shenston works.
Ex-BR Class 04 being stripped of spares in the scrap line, Dapol plastic kit modified by Jonny Duffett.
