WAGR X Class

In March 1954 the WAGR purchased 48 locomotives from the Metropolitean Vickers Electrical Company limited of Manchester, England. They were delivered over the next three years and apart from early mechanical trouble which was eventually resolved they performed tirelessly and were seen all over the network from the far north to the deep south.. The X class were built with an axle load of 10.4 tons and were built with the unusual double cab, a feature back then was uncommon, but ahead of its time in principle. They had four driving axles mounted within a rigid wheelbase flanked at either end by a four wheel trailing truck. 2 Do 2 and were the only Australian locomotive to have this wheel type arrangement. Three versions of the class existed, an X, XA and XB. XA and Xb locomotives are capable of MU operation with the XA locomotive having end communication doors. The class were named after local aboriginal tribes, with brass nameplates affixed in the middle of both sides of the locomotive.

The X and XA models are a vacuum formed kit produced by X class Models. The kit is a body only kit, and is assembled using a Bachmann DD 40 chassis. I have included extra roof detail including fan cover and engine lift rings, as well as the MU plugs on the XA. The models took about a month to complete and goes together very well. The model is painted using Humbrol Green 76, and Yellow 154 and Red 174 and a mix of Matt Black and H 67 for the underframe. The models are fitted with a TSC decoder and will be fitted with a Tsunami Fairbanks Morse sound chip.