REVEALED - Our Class 31 Run 2 Announcement Is Here!

[Warbonnet]

It's time to reveal our second run of Brush Type 2s/Class 30/31s, following the reveal of our Accurascale Exclusives model of D5579 in experimental golden ochre earlier this week! 

As mentioned on Wednesday, due to the popularity of our first production run of Class 31s, we have been able to squeeze in a quick second run with he factory, and it results in 6 different locomotives, so early pre-ordering is advised.

Let's look at the sextet coming your way in Q1 2026. We've really tried to provide something for everyone!

D5501 BR Green with SYP

New to 30A Stratford in November 1957, D5501 was only the second Type 2 to be released from Brush’s Falcon Works in Loughborough as part of the 20-strong Pilot Scheme batch of locomotives. The Hawker Siddeley-owned company was so proud of their new 1,250hp A1A-A1A machines that this particular example spent its first few weeks on display at its new acquired sister firm Mirrlees’ Hazel Grove factory, home of the 12-cylinder turbocharged JVS12T engine that was originally installed in the class.

Mostly limited to East Anglia, with the odd cross-London or cross-country excursion it initially settled into a life of express and secondary passenger work as well as parcels and freight traffic, with the latter duties dominating as more powerful diesels were introduced onto the Great Eastern and Cambridge main lines. By the mid 1960s, D5501 had been repainted to match the production members of the class, losing its picked out window surrounds and duck egg blue body stripes, and that is how the Accurascale model is represented.

Later renumbered 31001 it was among the first ‘Toffee Apples’ – so named because of the shape of the power handle - to be withdrawn, succumbing in July 1976 before being scrapped at Doncaster in January 1977.

D5579 Experimental Golden Ochre with SYP (Accurascale Exclusive!)

Although the Brush Type 2s arguably wore one of the most attractive interpretations of the BR green paint scheme, a growing concern within British Railways was improving the visibility of its diesel motive power, which did not announce themselves to trackside workers in the same way as the steam locomotives they were quickly replacing. As well as trials with flashing lights on various classes, in January 1960, Falcon Works outshopped two ‘Class 30s’ in experimental liveries, D5578 in a French blue and D5579 in golden ochre, also described as bronze gold. Oddly only the latter retained the off-white stripes and was all the better for it.

While both were initially allocated to 30A Stratford and then 31B March from November 1960, they parted company just under five years later when D5579 joined 41B Tinsley, having gained a small yellow panel – BR’s answer to the conspicuity problems – in 1963. While D5578 was painted into the standard green in September 1964, its colleague survived until January 1966 before being admitted to Doncaster for its own makeover.

It was renumbered 31161 and was rescued from withdrawal as a late addition to the Class 31/4 programme, becoming 31400 in March 1988 after 31401 was condemned following an accident earlier in the year, notably swapping its Railfreight livery for a return to BR blue. It was stored just over three years later and was cut up at Booth’s of Rotherham in August 1993.

31271 Railfreight Construction

One of just five Class 31s to gain Railfreight livery with Construction sub-sector decals, 31271 also has the distinction of being the only surviving example to retain the iconic Roundel-designed scheme into the present day. Built as D5801 and new to 30A in June 1961, it completed its heavy general overhaul at Doncaster in April 1987 emerging in the soon to be obsolete Railfreight Red-Stripe and was notably the last member of the class to be dual-braked as part of the ‘refurbishment’ programme.

Allocated to Stratford’s FAGS aggregates pool in March 1989 it was repainted in triple grey at Vic Berry Limited, Leicester, the same month, complete with that company’s trademark black grilles, receiving embellishments such as decals and depot plaques – but no double arrows – later that year. Having been fitted with miniature snowploughs only a few months earlier it happily retained them throughout the rest of its BR career. It was finally stored unserviceable in May 1997 after being sidelined and reinstated several times and was acquired by A1A Locomotives Ltd exactly a year later as a source of spares for the restoration of 31108.

Having survived a proposal to section the bodyside, it was reprieved and followed its ‘skinhead’ partner back into service, hauling its first passenger service in preservation in April 2002, incredibly still in its 1989-applied paint, albeit with a few touch ups and the reapplication of the squadron markings. It underwent extensive bodywork repairs and a full repaint into Railfreight Construction in the first months of 2004 ahead of its naming as Stratford 1948-2001 at the York Railfest event in May, becoming the fourth locomotive to be given a Stratford-themed name after 47007, 37023 and 31165. It is currently based at the Llangollen Railway.

31301 Railfreight Red-Stripe

Developed from the large logo scheme, when the original Railfreight grey livery was launched on 58001 in December 1982 it was lifted by the addition of a red bufferbeam and solebars. However, when the paintjob was first rolled out on the Class 31s as they left Doncaster after Heavy General Overhaul from March 1985 only the red bufferbeams were carried over, the red lower body band not being introduced until January 1987 on 31188.

Over the next 13 months, 36 other ‘refurbished’ machines were outshopped by the ‘Plant’ in the same ‘red stripe’ scheme with Bescot’s 31301 re-entering traffic after its makeover in June 1987. This had been new as D5834 to 41A Tinsley in March 1962 but spent most of the 1980s yo-yoing between the Eastern and London Midland Regions. When the locomotive fleets were divided into sectorised pools in the second half of that decade 31301 was initially allocated to departmental work, later joining Stratford FAGS aggregate pool, before returning to infrastructure work in the early 1990s.

This became restricted to weekend work from 1992 along with several periods of store and around three years later it worked for the last time. A potential reprieve came in September 1999 when it was sold to Fragonset with the intention of re-instating it to traffic. Unfortunately this never took place and after hanging on for over a decade it met its fate at CF Booth, Rotherham, in February 2011.

31418 BR Blue

Between 1971 and 1975, 24 Class 31s were upgraded with electric train heating capability (ETH) courtesy of a 320kW Brush BL100-30 alternator, the same as fitted to the similarly modified Class 45/1 ‘Peaks’ and Class 47/4s. Powered directly from the engine, this provided an impressive ETH index rating of 66, perfect for their expected duties shuttling empty coaching stock (ECS) in and out of King’s Cross, Paddington and St. Pancras as well as portions of ‘air-con’ trains around the Leeds/Doncaster area.

An oddity within the new sub class was 31418, the former D5522 of 30A, which was from the lower geared 80mph batch delivered in 1959 and also the only disc headcode or ‘skinhead’ machine to be converted until a second series of Class 31/4s was undertaken in the mid 1980s. In 1978, having swapped North London for Gateshead via a spell at Finsbury Park, it saw its connecting doors plated over, which resulted in the loss of its centre pair of discs. It retained this basic appearance for the next nine years before being ‘refurbished’ at Doncaster in October 1987, which saw it lose its steam generator, bufferbeam cowls and bodyside banding.

The ETH receptacle was also resited to the driver’s side corner of the cab front. Within days of release it was unofficially named Boadicea and received white painted ‘discs’ the following year, both customisations surviving to its withdrawal from Springs Branch with engine failure in October 1995. With minor celebrity status it was quickly purchased for preservation at the Great Central Railway, before joining A1A Locomotive Ltd’s fleet in 2002. Over the last two decades it has been slowly restored to 1970-80s condition at the group’s base at Swanwick Junction and is expected to be completed within the next few years.

31602 Chimaera Fragonset

No heat 31191 was one of seven Class 31s acquired from EWS in April 1998 by Fragonset Railways along with 31186, 31459/468 and 31549/552/558. Originally stored from Toton in October 1995 it was returned to the fray courtesy of the Birmingham Railway Museum at Tyseley in June 1999 renumbered as 31602 the second member of the new Class 31/6 sub class, which included a repaint in Fragonset’s striking black livery with maroon/gold stripe and the mythical creature-themed name Chimaera. The only modification to justify the renumbering was the fitment of through ETS wiring allowing double heading with an electrical train supply-equipped Class 31/4, or for shutting down the ETS on the rear locomotive in case of fire while leading in a top and tail formation.

Its first passenger use was on Silverlink Train’s Marston Vale branch between Bedford and Bletchley in summer 1999, which ended that same year, leaving 31602 with a regular diet of railtours and stock transfers until 2003 when Wessex Trains hired in loco-hauled sets for Cardiff-Brighton and Bristol-Weymouth diagrams, while 2004 saw it seconded to First North Western for Lytham St Annes-Greenbank and Manchester Victoria/Chester-Blackpool North commuter services.

From 2005 Fragonset became FM Rail and when that collapsed into administration at the end of the following year it was put up for sale, eventually joining RVE at Derby, for Network Rail test train use, gaining that organisation’s house yellow in April 2007. That November it gained the new name Driver Dave Green and the following month it became one of just three Class 31s to gain brackets for UV spotlights for use with the Structure Gauging Train. It’s NR Service ended in November 2012 when it moved to DC Rail, which sidelined it at the end of 2013. It was put up for sale in 2017 but with no takers it was scrapped at Wolsingham by J Denham Metals in June 2018.

Price And Availability 

As stated with the launch of our exclusive Brush Type 2 on Wednesday, production on this batch is very limited, so we advise early pre-ordering, either no money down direct, in instalments at no extra cost through partially direct, or via your local stockist for the main range models. Models for run two are priced £184.96 DC/DCC Ready and £284.95 DCC Sound fitted. 

Delivery is slated for Q1 2026, with production already underway.

Pre-order your Class 30 or 31 via the link below to order direct!

Pre-Order Your Accurascale Exclusive Brush Type Two Here!

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[Horsetan]

Booked the Railfreight Construction one. Will be interesting to compare it to the very old ex-Triang 31 body I have and see how far we have come in the last 50 years.

[DJ Dangerous]

I like that orange D5579 a lot. Looks to have been a short-lived livery, 1963 until January 1966, so definitely a Rule One loco.

[Horsetan]

4 hours ago, DJ Dangerous said:

I like that orange D5579 a lot. Looks to have been a short-lived livery, 1963 until January 1966, so definitely a Rule One loco.

Sold out already, apparently. Two hours is a long time in Accurascale pre-orders.

[irishthump]

Couldn't resist. I missed out on the first run so ordered the BR Blue 31418.

[DJ Dangerous]

15 hours ago, Horsetan said:

Sold out already, apparently. Two hours is a long time in Accurascale pre-orders.

Wow!

Only the sound-fitted variant still available, base model has to hold the record for A/S / IRM’s fastest sell-out???

[Horsetan]

5 hours ago, DJ Dangerous said:

Wow!

Only the sound-fitted variant still available, base model has to hold the record for A/S / IRM’s fastest sell-out???

I expect some of those will turn up on eBay at a significant markup.