Accurascale today announces the British Railways 56ft 11" Mark 1 suburban coaches in OO/4mm scale. The latest addition to their "Moving Britain" range of passenger coaching stock.
Multiple running numbers in both BR Carmine and BR Blue make up the first run, with runs in BR Maroon to follow later. Delivery is anticipated for Q3 2023 with decorated samples due later in the year. Pre order this range of coaches at £64.95 each with FREE UK POSTAGE!
PRE ORDER HERE
A high specification is included in all coaches, including fully diecast chassis, full interior lighting, full interior detail including etched metal luggage racks, fully removable magnetic roof to allow for easy addition of passengers and a wealth of separately applied detail.
Full specification below:
- Scale length of 227.67mm over headstocks, width of 36mm across body at waist.
- Minimum Radius 438mm (2nd radius set-track).
- No visible moulding ejection marks or pips.
- Die-cast metal chassis with plastic body.
- Accurate BREL BR1 bogies, with separate detailing where appropriate.
- Wheels blackened RP25-110 profile for 00 gauge, set into blackened brass bearings.
- NEM standard coupling sockets, with mini-tension lock couplers with a kinematic close-coupling system.
- With no gangways, the distance between carriages is as near to prototypical as possible for R2 curves.
- Scale width wire handrails, water pipes, passenger communication gear.
- Separately fitted door handles and lamp brackets.
- Headstock pipes and cabling included in accessory polybag for customer fitting.
- Fully detailed die-cast underframe with vacuum cylinders, battery boxes, dynamo and piping applied separately.
- Accurate ‘L’ shaped bracing struts on underframe.
- Easily removable roof, to allow access to interior for customer detailing.
- Accurate interior layouts, with detailed seating and luggage racks.
- Interior bulkheads to feature picture frames, an important interior feature of this stock.
- Full guard’s compartment area detailing where appropriate, including use of etched metal detailing.
- Prism free flush glazing.
- Interior coach lighting with stay-alive capacitor, pick up from bogies and a reed switch to control on/off via magnetic wand.
- Separately fitted roof vent types, set in correct locations.
Almost 600 of these coaches were built by BR between 1954 and 1956 on the short 57ft 11" frame to provide suburban coaching stock across a variety of BR regions. Sampling a wealth of BR traction throughout their lifetime, from various types of tank engines on the Midland, to N7s, N2s, L1s, B1s and more on the Eastern Region, to most types of Type 2 diesels and more throughout their service careers.
These suburban stalwarts were almost synonymous with Brush Type 2s on the Eastern Region, and when Accurascale decided to push ahead with their Class 31 models in OO/4mm, these classic coaches seemed very much the "no brainer" to compliment them.
Debuting in the distinctive Carmine Red with black ends in 1954, it wasn't long before the transition to maroon touched these forgotten children of the Mark 1 family, without lining initially before some received these additional embellishments. From 1966 all over rail blue, including coach ends became de rigueur of the suburban fleet, mimicking non intercity DMUs of the day. This latter livery was particularly associated with the Eastern region, behind Brush Type 2s and Baby Deltics, and seen alongside Brush Type 4s and the mighty Class 55 Deltics (both of which could also be seen hauling these coaches on empty stock movements in the Kings Cross area.) They last operated a service train in 1977.
Accurascale’s research odyssey for these distinctive members of the Mark 1 family saw them visit the North Norfolk Railway for two survey trips in late 2020 and mid-2021. Their assistance during development of these models has been invaluable, with railway preservation once again assisting development of models for layouts and collections across the country and beyond.
Full access to both the exterior and interior was granted, which was required as Accurascale’s philosophy of doing things the "Accurascale Way", means capturing the full set of exterior and interior variations, not to mention covering all configurations of these coaches to allow modellers form a prototypical rake.
Innovation is a key driving force for the Accurascale development team, as the company seeks to drive the hobby forward in features as well as detail and prototypical accuracy. The Mark 1 suburban coaches have offered a perfect opportunity to innovate and solve an issue that has constantly come up through customer feedback across the industry. Granting access to the interior of coaches in an easier fashion to add passengers and further detail has been something of a riddle for manufacturers, but Accurascale has come up with a novel and innovative solution to the problem. A fully removable magnetic roof!
With a full removable magnetic roof, modellers do not need to fret about removing the bodies and breaking any of the separately applied detail, body clips or glazing. The seamless removal of the roof allows modellers to turn their empty stock movements into packed commuter trains, just like the prototype.
Of course, with a removable roof a beautifully detailed interior is also required. Once again, this is part of the “Accurascale Way” so a fully detailed interior which matches each coach configuration, including etched metal luggage racks and full interior lighting has also been included in another step to take OO/4mm coaching stock to the next level. Naturally, the exterior is dripping with detail too, with separately applied door handles (and there are many of them!) as well as intricate underframe detail and beautiful, free rolling bogies.
All six designations have been tooled and covered, five of which have different exteriors and interiors.. From about 1965, patches were added to the bottom of the bodies to rectify the effects of corrosion. Accurascale have also covered that repair for each type within its tooling suite. Both ventilator spacings on the roof, as well all three types of ventilator and on the BT and the distinctive full height periscopes, half height periscopes and removed periscopes will also be included as per the prototypes.
