Dapol approves first production samples of OO Class 21 and 29 diesels

Dapol has moved its OO gauge Class 21 and Class 29 diesels out of the development stage and into the real world, with the first three production samples received, checked by the design team and passed for shipment. For anyone who has followed this North British Type 2 project for years, that is the moment the talk turns into a model you can actually plan around.

The prototype behind the release is pure Scottish diesel history. North British Locomotive Company built the Class 21s in Glasgow for British Rail between 1958 and 1960, with the fleet running from D6100 to D6157. There were 58 locomotives in the class, and 20 were later rebuilt with Paxman Ventura engines and reclassified as Class 29s. Those rebuilds took place in the mid-1960s, including work carried out between 1963 and 1965 at Polmadie in Glasgow, and no Class 29 survived into preservation. That scarcity is exactly why a ready-to-run OO model matters so much to modellers who work the 1960s and early 1970s.

Dapol has not stopped at a basic body shell. The Class 21/29 specification includes etched grilles, separately fitted handrails, cast wheels, metal sprung buffers, a five-pole motor with twin brass flywheels, all-wheel drive and pickup, independent directional and cab lighting, and a 21-pin DCC socket. The user guide also says the end lamps and cab lights can be controlled separately, and that the lighting arrangement differs between the Class 21 and Class 29 versions. That kind of flexibility is what pushes a model from shelf queen territory into something that can work hard on a layout.

The new production run is also being offered in multiple liveries, including BR plain green, BR two-tone green and BR blue, opening up options across the 1950s, 1960s and early preservation era. Dapol’s product listings already tie specific Class 21 numbers to the tooling, including D6111, D6114, D6116, D6120, D6121, D6140 and D6151, with sound-fitted and DCC-fitted versions among the options. The Class 21 models now also feature moulded tablet catchers, and snowploughs are included in the accessory pack for those modelling that fit.

For collectors and operators building a Scottish diesel scene, this is the sort of milestone that changes the conversation. The project was long debated among modellers, and Dapol had previously pointed to an expected Q3/Q4 2022 window, so the approval of these first three samples finally puts the Class 21 and 29 within striking distance of the delivery queue.