Present your case
If there’s a locomotive that you think needs to be offered ready-to-run, here’s the place to voice your opinion…
Locomotive: BR ‘3MT’ 2-6-0 Gauge: ‘O’ Proposed by: Stephen Smith, Hersham, Surrey
What is it?
The BR ‘3MT’ 2-6-0 is the biggest gap in the ranks of ready-to-run BR Standard designs, but there’s more to their appeal than that. Their high running boards, small wheels and small boilers with tall chimneys created a slightly gawky appearance but, as philosopher Francis Bacon once said, “There is no excellent beauty that hath not some strangeness in the proportion”. The ‘3MTS’ provide a vivid demonstration of what Riddles, Cox and Bond planned for the future of British Railways traction: steam lasting into the 1980s, including use on light and medium loads on longer weight-restricted routes where extra water-carrying capacity was needed. Just imagine a 1960s/early 1970s layout with a four-coach train of blue/grey Mk 2s with a ‘3MT’ at the head, coming off a branch line to make a connection with a main line service hauled by a 25kv electric locomotive. That would certainly demonstrate what Riddles and his colleagues had intended. In the event, just 20 ‘3MT’ 2-6-0s were built at Swindon. The design effectively married the ‘4MT’ chassis with a shortened GWR No. 2 boiler. They were primarily used on the North Eastern and Scottish Regions, although No. 77014 ended up on the Southern Region.
What would make it viable?
It’s a class that no one has touched, regardless of scale. BR black would suit best, although my own preference would be for green, even though none ever carried it. It’s their operation that makes them particularly interesting – double-headed on longer trains, suitable for smaller layouts and designed to run tender-first. And the case for ‘O’ gauge, specifically? There are plenty of small locomotives available, from GWR panniers to small industrials and diesel shunters, all perfect for micro layouts. But the ‘3MT’ would give micro layout operators something a bit more impressive to play with that doesn’t take up acres of space – and offers something to haul all those excellent new BR era wagons on the market.
Can I see a real one?
Sadly, No. 77014 was the last ‘3MT’ 2-6-0 to be withdrawn (on July 9 1967) and it was cut up at Birds of Risca in December 1967.