The Devonport Clayton...

Well well well, these things creep up on me sometimes, quietly minding my own business, planning Planet Industrials releases, designing a chassis for the Hibberd and then hoping to move onto another loco design I've the drawings, and chassis parts lined up to work on as the 'next kit'...

Then browsing YouTube finding a video of a Clayton diesel, remembering the two sold to Devonport in the early 2000s, followed by a trawl of YouTube and Google for as much as I could find - including the Clayton website and Facebook, and I find myself talking with Clive Hannaford, the Managing Director of Clayton Equipment, about the possibility of doing some kits of his companies locomotives...

A week later and we've got basic CAD complete of both 2D and 3D elements, and the test files heading off to Steve to get printed on the Formlab...

Clayton built a pair of 25t diesel hydraulics at their Hatton works in Derby, home to the infamous Class 17s (now a days they're based out of Burton Upon Trent in a much more modern facility). They lives shrouded in secrecy on the Devonport dockyard involved in the re-fit of the Navy's nuclear fleet, they're fairly camera shy, but have been spotted a few times and are visible on Google Earth! Their relative compact nature makes them a great model in OO gauge, and they are a perfect companion to the new Accurascale mega nuclear flask wagons.

The kit will follow my tried and tested design methods, but evolved again to improve ease of assembly with more tab and slots provided. It may also be the first motorised kit we fully source in the UK (apart from the motors and bearings in the chassis) which is exciting. The attached CAD renders show the cab will feature a detailed interior, that will suit a Modelu driving figure. I have yet to work out if/how to include NEM coupling compatibility, but hope to build a prototype in the next few months. The chassis design is new, and will be trialled first in the Hibberd, which we're hoping to prototype next week, in which case and assuming all is well, will allow a full range of small industrial locomotives.

I hope you can tell how excited I am about this project, make sure you subscribe to the Planet Industrials page for all the news and announcements. More soon...