KMRC announce Exclusive Bachmann 00 Gauge Class 37/0 37 207 ‘William Cookworthy” in BR Blue livery with Cornish Railways branding.

Contributed by: Graham Muspratt

2 Jun 2023 00:00am

We announce an Exclusive Bachmann 00 Gauge Class 37/0 as 37 207 ‘William Cookworthy” in BR Blue livery with Cornish Railways branding - Era 8.

The English Electric Type three, later Class 37 locomotive was built at the English Electric Vulcan Works and entered service as D6907 in November 1963. Under the TOPS numbering system, it was renumbered as 37 207 in May 1974.

First working in South Wales 37 207 was allocated to Laira in October 1981 and named ‘William Cookworthy’ on 27th May 1982 at St. Austell station, this was to celebrate the loco's connection with the china clay industry, and to commemorate the man who founded the Cornish china clay movement, which is now over two hundred and fifty years old.
William Cookworthy was the first to recognise that the twin ingredients of Chinese porcelain, (kaolin for the body and petuntse for the glaze) were to be found in Cornwall in the china clay and moorstone. By 1758 his porcelain making experiments had resulted in successful firing of clay and a patent for the process.

37 207 carried the name and, in the condition, with OHLE warning labels, as depicted by this KMRC Exclusive model from early 1986 until July 1987.  
37 207 was initially withdrawn from service in December 1999 before being preserved in March 2003.
37 207 is now owned by the Heavy Tractor Group and has been converted to battery power by Meteor Power and is currently at the Great Central Railway.

Cornish Railways was established in July 1983 and based at the Area Managers Office in Truro. The first use of the crossed flags was on rebranding Bodmin Parkway station which was renamed from Bodmin Road. Following a competition the creation of "Wizzy Lizard" lead to distinctive Cornish Railways staff uniform ties, logos on selected St Blazey Class 37s, leaflets using Wizzy Lizard and local publicity including adverts in the local press. The Cornish Railcard was created along with special offers such as Kids for a Quid etc. There was even a range of merchandise available from local stations with the ties and mugs being ever popular.
St Blazey Guard Vic Millington hand-painted the Cornish Railways logos on the Class 37s as well as the various headboards on special trains organised by Cornish Railways.

Unfortunately, although the profile of Cornish Railways was raised, the organisation was deemed too small and was merged with Plymouth to create "Plymouth and Cornish Railways" in 1986. The Cornish Railcard is a legacy that lives on today.

The Kernow Model Rail Centre Exclusive highly detailed model in 00 Gauge is being produced for KMRC by Bachmann. The model is the all-new Bachmann class 37 tooling with diecast chassis block housing a five pole, twin shaft motor with two flywheels providing drive to all axles. Rotating radiator fans are driven by an independent motor and gearbox (SOUND FITTED DELUXE version), operated via a DCC function. The body includes many separately applied metal detail parts, such as: grab handles, windscreen wipers, etched fan grilles and sprung metal buffers. The Dual Fitted speaker system returns, offering authentic sound reproduction and this is pre-fitted to every model, whilst the Class 37 features a new ‘Yard Light’ mode, allowing red taillights and/or marker lights to be displayed at both ends of the locomotive when operating on DCC. Using the model on DCC also provides cab lighting and engine room lights at the push of a button, whilst analogue operation sees marker lights, tail lights and headlights – where applicable – all illuminate as desired. Each model is supplied with a full set of decorated, model-specific bufferbeam pipework and accessory parts.

The KMRC Exclusive model features the following specific detail variations:
BR Blue livery, central headcode panels – plated and fitted with sealed beam marker lights, nose headboard clips and side handrails, bufferbeam valance removed, coupling bash plate, round Oleo buffers, original windscreen, English Electric cantrail grilles, frost grilles (optional part in accessory pack), welded boiler roof, blanked boiler port and plated safety valves, sealed water filler door and plated access steps, cast bogies, original Speedo drive and mileage counter, twin fuel tanks with ex water tank gauges plated over.

The KMRC Exclusive class 37 is available in three formats, with standard DCC Ready versions, £249.95 with a Plux22 DCC decoder (The recommended decoder is Bachmann item No. 36-570). SOUND FITTED models, £349.95, are pre-fitted with a Zimo MS450P22 DCC Decoder, whilst the SOUND FITTED DELUXE format, £379.95, feature the new motorised fan system. In addition, the SOUND FITTED DELUXE specification includes windscreen glazing that has been treated with a specialist technique to replicate the tinting seen on the prototype.

The versions available now are as below:

35-302Z Bachmann Class 37/0 Diesel 37 207 William Cookworthy BR Blue livery. DCC Ready.

35-302ZASF Bachmann Class 37/0 Diesel 37 207 William Cookworthy BR Blue livery. DCC SOUND FITTED.

35-302ZSFX Bachmann Class 37/0 Diesel 37 207 William Cookworthy BR Blue livery. DCC SOUND FITTED DELUX.

Chris Trerise, Managing Director, said: “37 207 "William Cookworthy" was one of our earliest limited editions, commissioned from Bachmann in 2006 and we have been constantly asked if we would run this again. With the new Class 37 tooling from Bachmann it made sense to add an updated 37 207, but this time we have produced the later livery version complete with OHLE warning stripe which was added in early 1986.”

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