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Many layouts have featured 'might have been' lines and stations, but I don't recall seeing any based on BR loco policy taking a different turn. I know we've seen the odd NSE 'Warship' as a novelty, but what about an entire layout taking this sort of a theme?
Are you ready? You are about to enter another dimension....
Cue 'Twilight Zone' music....
Point of Divergence: 1959
When the Southern Region reject all the Modernisation Plan type 2 designs as underpowered, the light dawns to the BR Board. Instead of the masses of underpowered production type 2s, we see large order for this wonderful SR design. A total of 500 are built, numbered D6500-D6699, and D7500-D7799. The 25s, 27s and later batches of 31s are never built, and there are fewer 37s (which are seen purely as a freight design). In their heyday, Cromptons could be seen from Penzance to Wick and everywhere in between.
This timeline's 33s differ from our own's - the non-SR batches are built with the standard 4-character headcode box, looking like a cross between a 33 and a 27. Much of the fleet lasts to sectorisation, seeing many of the class painted in Provincial/Regional Railways colours, as well as most of the liveries they saw in out own timeline.
They outlast all the type 2 designs - The 24s went in the 70s, and the smaller than OTL 31 fleet go by the end of the 80s. Crompton withdrawals begin in the early 90s, but a fair few survive into the new millennium; the north Wales coast line remaining Crompton-powered into 2001.
The Crompton timeline makes an excellent 'alternate theme' for an existing small layout not set on the SR. All you need is one or more class 33s with appropriate a-historical numbers to run on your existing Scottish Highlands/West Country/East Anglian branch line. A bit of kit-bashing might be needed to produce one of the non-SR 4-character headcode versions, especially if the layout is set pre-1974
Point of Divergence: 1963
In this universe, the Western Region win their political battles, and their diesel-hydraulic plans come to full fruition. The WR never build any 37s or 47s, and production of Hymeks and Westerns continues, eventually ending with 300 Hymeks (D7000-D7299) and 170 Westerns (D1000-D1169). There are fewer 37s and 47s, and the 50s are never built.
The planned ending of unfitted freight in South Wales takes longer than anticipated, so for several years diesel brake tenders are a common sight in the valleys. The 70s see dual braking of both classes and an ETH conversion for some members of both classes, producing the 35/4 and 50/2 subclasses. Sadly the Westerns lose their cast numberplates on renumbering, although four of them regain them for the GW150 celebrations. Some enthusiasts were not happy about 51207 losing it's "Western Pathfinder" plates to be renamed "Sir Edward Elgar", but you can't please everyone!
The older hydraulic classes are not so lucky; the D600s are withdrawn in 1970, and the 22s have gone by the mid-70s. The Warships had follow them by the early 80s, casualties of the HST invasion which cascade Westerns on to their secondary duties.
Sectorisation sees both classes wear a variety of liveries; 52/0s in triple grey, 52/2s in NSE and Inter-City, 35/4s in Provincial, 35/0s in RfD and Dutch. Both classes see heavy withdrawals in the 90s, with EWS retiring it's last 35s and 52/0s in 1999. Today Virgin Cross-Country operate the handful of surviving 52/2s, mostly on services south of Birmingham New St running to Poole, Paddington, Brighton and the south-west.
A fun theme for those who like painting models in non-authentic liveries. Just remember, they're not supposed to run at the same time as those pesky 50s!
Point of Divergence - 1980
BR go for the bargain basement solution for replacement of life-expired DMUs. Instead of the class 150s, they use the Leyland bus body on a Mk1 underframe solution to produce 2 and 3 car push-pull sets. Motive power is supplied by refurbished class 25s fitted with ETH, which were only 20 years old at the time, although class 31/4s, 37/4s and 33s also see use.
The 25s become increasingly long in the tooth by the mid-90s, and a new diesel-electric motor-coach, the class 211, replaces them, working in 3 and 4 coach DMU formations using the existing trailers. At the turn of the century the trailers are themselves replaced by a new build of coaches to match the 211s.
Another good theme to add to existing layout. While the Bachmann 25 makes excellent motive power once repainted into Regional Railways livery, you will have to scratchbuild the coaches.
Point of Divergence: 1955
The 1955 Modernisation Plan decides upon large-scale electrification of all main line routes within 15 years, beginning with the east and west coast main lines, followed by the Midland and GW Bristol and South Wales lines, Bristol-York and the north trans-pennine route. Southern electrification plans include both the Bournmouth line and Basingstoke-Salisbury-Exeter.
BR build far larger numbers of electric locomotives; a hundred 85s, more than two hundred 86s and a hundred more 87s, as well as a great number of class 88 Co-Cox for heavy freight work over Shap, Beattock and the two electrified trans-pennine routes (Woodhead is converted to 25KV in 1979). Class 309 'Clactons' see service on many routes, such as semi-fasts on the ECML, and the Edinburgh-Glasgow shuttles. There is also a third-rail mixed-traffic Co-Co which works inter-regional and freight services on the Southern Region.
Far fewer diesels are built, and most of those are medium-power designs for those secondary routes that aren't scheduled for electrification. The BR management see no point in building large numbers of type 4s which would only be redundant 15 years later when the wires reached their area. The only type 4 built in quantity are the class 52 'Western's for use on the West of England main line. Some of these later see service in Scotland on the Highland main line to Inverness after being displaced when the wires finally reach Plymouth in the mid-80s.
One consequence of the electrification policy is that steam tractions lasts much longer; in fact, the final steam withdrawals aren't until 1979, the '15 year plan' proving a little over-optimistic. After 1970 most steam survivors are BR standards, many fitted with air brakes. 9Fs hauling rakes of MGRs are a common sight in the East Midlands and the South Wales valleys well into the 70s. Main line steam passenger haulage lasts as late as 1976, with haulage by Britannias and rebuilt Bullied pacifics, the latter displaced from their home territory when the third rail reached Exeter in 1970. One of their last routes is Birmingham-Oxford-Reading on cross-country workings to the south coast, handing over to a class 75 electric at Reading for the runs to Poole or Portsmouth.
This one has a lot of potential, although it would require an entire layout themed around it. I can imagine a n-gauge layout set in the early 70s with steam still running, with 9Fs, Britannias and Merchant Navies sporting BR double-arrows on their tenders (and the Pacifics in rail blue!) The 88 is a must, stretch a Lima body to fit a suitable continental Co-Co chassis. Getting the HAAs for the 9F to pull might be a problem, though...
Point of Divergence: 1920
The North Eastern Railway's York-Newcastle electrification at 1500V D.C. goes ahead. Vincent Raven's 2-Co-2s begin working expresses, with pairs of Bo-Bos on freight. After grouping the LNER extends electrification north to Edinburgh and Glasgow, and south to Kings Cross, and then the east-west axis from Manchester to Immingham via Woodhead. Nigel Gresley build a variety of new classes of stylish electric locomotives in the 1930s
Meanwhile the Great Western begin their own electrification, starting in the south-west, gradually extending eastwards, using 15kv ac. The wires reach Paddington just before the outbreak of WW2. At the same time the Southern extend their third-rail network, much as in our own timeline. On Nationalisation BR finds itself with three incompatible electrification systems. They adopt the GW 15kV system for future electrification, beginning with the WCML.
Today's traction bears little resemblance to our own timeline. As in Sparks-1 there are fewer diesels, although steam ends by the start of the 70s. Many new electric designs come into service, including dual and triple-voltage designs.
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All material © Tim Hall 2001, and cannot be copied wihout permission.