USATC S160 2-8-0 arrives from Rapidio Trains UK – a Southern allocation.

Rapido Trains UK announced their 00 Gauge USATC S160 2-8-0 back in August 2003. They have now arrived including 926004 USATC S160 No.2356 in Wartime Grey. Although technical not running on the Southern Railway during my usual 1946 to 1949 modelling period, I do sometime extend my period for and aft… The Southern Railway only had only six locomotives on loan, this was due to the SR electrification scheme, meaning that the railway had a healthy surplus of steam locomotives available for wartime traffic, allowing other regions to take more S160 locomotives. They arrived on the SR relatively late, just ready for the preparations for the D-Day landings. Constructed in the United States in multiple batches from 1942 to 1945, they were split between the ALCO, Baldwin, and Lima Locomotive Works. Collectively, almost 800 locomotives were shipped to the UK. The first 396 were assigned to the four railway companies (although under the control of the government Railway Executive Committee)…