Hi all, I am looking for a little advice and inspiration. My layout has a certain element of shunting available to it and I was wondering which diesels I could use to shunt my yard. The layout is set in the late 80's early 90's. I already have 2 class 08 to use but was wondering if anything else would suit. Many thanks.

The farish 04 and upcoming 03 0-6-0dm shunters are excellent little models. There are also body kits available to make the chassis into a Ruston class 05. There is also the farish class 14, which might be suitable in BR blue for the easlier years of your time scale, but might be pushing it. excellent model though.

Depending on the ownership of the yard (and/or who's contracted to run it ), you've got the various BR shunters, (03, 04 and 08 are the most common in RTR). You've also got the various industrial shunters such as the Hunslets etc. that would still be in use in smaller yards, docks, private industrial lines etc. You could even use a class 14 at a push for an industrial yard. Most got sold off by BR to industries in the 70s but were scrapped after their use there was made redundant too.

The Class 09,10 and 11 are all very similar to the 08, primarily being different in gearing or their engine with some subtle differences externally. So an 09 might be a good excuse for a 'different' engine

The wikipedia articles on the different BR classes are pretty interesting, although I'm always doubtful of wikipedia's accuracy, so it would be interesting to hear how accurate they are from more knowledgeable sources.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Rail_Class_03
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Rail_Class_04
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Rail_Class_08
etc.

if i were you i would google industrial locos / private owner locos, and maybe copy one of them? you could repaint a class 03/04/14 or find a kit maybe?

you could also renumber an 08 as an 09 as zw said.

try making this loco maybe:

http://www.bescot.plus.com/trains/gillian/

or just buy a farish 03:

http://www.bescot.plus.com/trains/03189_Bescot/

check out this website:

http://preservedshunters.co.uk/


best of luck!


Tim

Thanks for that guys, certainly liking the look of the class 14.