CHOOSING THE RIGHT ‘4MTS’
I had six Bachmann Ivatt ‘4MTS’ that needed new identities: two 32‑585s as No. 43106, two 32‑586DC No. 43154s, a 32‑577 No. 43160 and a 32‑579 No. 43096. Having seemingly avoided ‘4MTS’, which of the 50-odd allocated to the M&GN should I have on my layout? I could reduce this to four in a stroke. No. 43106, the only Ivatt ‘4MT’ to survive, was a South Lynn locomotive from April 10 1951 until July 8 1956. That covers one of my South Lynn diagrams. George detailed and weathered one of the No. 43154s back in 2009. Knowing how much I love the M&GN, he kindly gave it to me. No. 43154 was a Melton Constable locomotive, but I decided that it could cover the ‘Leicester’, the daily Great Yarmouthbirmingham service that M&GN locomotives worked as far as - yes, you guessed it - Leicester. Melton’s No. 43154 has been borrowed by the South Lynn shedmaster to cover this prestigious diagram. The main reason for choosing it was that I didn’t fancy messing about doing a George Dent-style weathering project. Left to cover were three Spalding diagrams and one South Lynn diagram. South Lynn received 19 new ‘Doodlebugs’ in 1951, including Nos. 43104‑111 (a couple spent a few months at New England first). I liked the idea of consecutively numbered models, so I went for No. 43106’s sister, No. 43105. Spalding shed was a simple, two-road affair. After nationalisation, it was a sub-shed of Peterborough New England, later being transferred to the care of Boston. Despite its small size, it had to provide cover for eight diagrams and its locomotives reached Nottingham in the west and King’s Lynn in the east. It’s difficult to know exactly which locomotives were allocated to Spalding for use on the M&GN as, officially, they were all allocated to New England. Therefore, I’ve picked two from photographs to include: No. 43085, which Hugh Ballantyne beautifully captured at Gedney, and No. 43060,
which hauled a portion of the last eastbound ‘Leicester’ on February 28 1959 and the first freight on the day following closure to passenger services, on March 2, to Sutton Bridge. It’s a worthy locomotive to model! The issue is that Fox’s BR shedcode decals only contain one plate per sheet (see panel). No. 43060 is to have the 35A New England code. Hugh Ballantyne’s photograph showed No. 43085 with a 40F Boston code. Boston took over responsibility for Spalding during the 1950s, and No. 43085 was transferred there on December 29 1957. So what about the last Spalding diagram? I went for No. 43081, purely because it stayed at New England for the whole of its life (going new there in October 1950 and being withdrawn
from there on January 3 1965). In this respect, it was unique. New England was re-coded from February 3 1958 to 34E. The accompanying photograph shows No. 43081 at Spalding in 1953 (when New England was still 35A). There’s a very strong possibility that such scenes took place later in the decade, with the locomotive wearing its 34E shedcode.