‘Dean Goods’ – with snowplough
GAUGE ‘OO’ MODEL Oxford Rail OR76DG005 ‘Dean Goods’ 0‑6‑0 No. 2534, GWR unlined green with snowplough PRICE £119.95 AVAILABILITY Oxford Rail stockists or www.oxforddiecast.co.uk
Sometimes, it’s good to do something a bit different. Oxford Diecast and its Oxford Rail arm like ‘different’ and have a decent track record of offering slightly more unusual models, such as Land Rovers with railway wheels, or its forthcoming rail-mounted gun. You might think that there’s not much you can do with a Victorian 0-6-0, but Oxford has decided to offer its ‘Dean Goods’ – with snowplough! We’ve dealt with Oxford’s ‘Dean Goods’ before (MR240 and MR244) so we don’t need to say much more here. Needless to say, No. 2534 looks pretty effective in its unlined GWR mid-chrome green with Great Western lettering on the tender. Like the proverbial curate’s egg, the ‘Dean Goods’ is good in parts but it has a few flaws, which previous reviews have highlighted. The bit that we’re interested in here is the snowplough. Cynics might have imagined Oxford offering a locomotive with a snowplough that’s no good for anything else. Or it might have offered the ’plough with a corresponding increase in the retail price. But full credit to Oxford for doing neither.
BUFFER OPTION
The RRP is just £7 more than a standard GWR ‘Dean Goods’. What’s better is that Oxford has supplied No. 2534 without the buffers fitted. The snowplough is designed to press into holes in the bufferbeam. If you don’t want to run the locomotive with the ’plough, you can remove it and, as they’re supplied in the ‘bag of bits’, push the buffers in place, fix the tension lock coupler in its
NEM pocket and use No. 2534 like any other locomotive. The ’plough is a simple plastic moulding. Those looking for 100% prototype fidelity will question the lack of taper to the sides, the lack of point and the undernourished deflector plates on top, but it conveys enough of the outlandish look of the prototype to feel convincing. The accompanying photograph also reveals that the model still retains the connection to the vacuum brake ‘swan neck’ and lacks the side mounting equip- ment. To include such detail would have involved a costly re-tool. Overall, top marks to Oxford for offering a cost-effective solution and giving us something just that little different.
If you don’t want to run the locomotive with the ‘plough, you can remove it