Heljan Ltd Edition no. 424 Prototype Class 53 Blue livery FALCON 1200 model 53021

Offering a brand new model 00 gauge especially developed by “Heljan Model Railways” as part of their recent prototype series. This Class 53 Prototype Diesel D0280 locomotive named “FALCON” is offered in Blue livery.

D0280, named Falcon was a single brush Traction built, prototype engine. The Falcon project began in 1959 to design a new, lightweight diesel-electric Type 4 locomotive for a British Rail requirement for second generation diesel locomotives. No single lightweight diesel engine was powerful enough, so the Falcon project used twin German designed Maybach MD655 engines like those in the Class 52 Western.

The prototype, wearing a livery of lime green and chestnut brown and bearing the number D0280 after its Brush project number 280, emerged from Brush’s Loughborough works in September 1961. Returning to British Railways in 1963, Falcon spent six months working out of Sheffield on both passenger and freight diagrams, after which its testing was completed 1961.

While not in any sense a failure, the design was the victim of advances in locomotive technology.