😍 EFE Rail Announce Newly Tooled LBSCR 54' Coaches

EFE Rail have announced a newly tooled range of LBSCR 54ft 'Isle of Wight' Bogie Coaches in OO Gauge!

These brand new models have been designed and produced exclusively for Bachmann’s EFE Rail range and will be offered in 4-coach packs spanning multiple eras of operation, with every pack comprising one of each of the four different vehicle types.

Each model sports a high level of detail centred around the injection moulded bodyshells which boast fine panel engraving and intricately moulded ventilators, doors stops and door handles.

Added separately are the ornate metal handrails aside every door, the coach ends steps which are produced in etched brass, lamp irons at either end of each vehicle and the emergency brake gear which combines injection moulded components and metal wire pipework.

Glazing is added separately too, through which the interior detailing including seating and compartment partitions can be viewed. Beneath the solebars two styles of truss rod are modelled, the queen-post type found on the Brake Thirds and Third and the cross-channel type as featured on the Composite. Battery boxes are added individually along with the dynamo and brake equipment, complete with metal wire piping between the various components.

The bogies are adorned with separate springs and brake blocks to provide full relief detailing whilst on the brake vehicles, bogie footsteps are provided for the guard, aiding their access to and from the brake compartment. The bogies are fitted with turned metal wheelsets and standard tension lock couplings are employed, attached via a chassis-mounted close coupling mechanism.

Each model will be decorated inside and out to complete the look, including period-appropriate ‘smoking’ and ‘no smoking’ signage on the windows and with set numbers applied to each brake vehicle at the outer ends and on the solebars of the four individual coaches.

The railways operating on the Isle of Wight came under Southern Railway (SR) control upon Grouping in 1923, and at that time the SR inherited a disparate mix of locomotives and rolling stock which had been amassed by its predecessors. Soon, stock was being transferred from the mainland to replace the ageing vehicles and to meet the increasing demand generated by the growing number of visitors to the island.

A large number of passenger vehicles arrived on the island between 1936 and 1939 when sixty former London Brighton & South Coast Railway (LBSCR) coaches were transferred. In readiness for their new use the coaches had been rebuilt onto 54ft chassis and converted to Westinghouse brake operation – the system used on the Isle of Wight.

The coaches were formed into 4- and 6-coach sets with four of the most common vehicles to see use on the island being the 6 compartment Brake Third (Diagram 210), the 7 compartment Brake Third (Diagram 211), the 9 compartment Third (Diagram 90) and the 8 compartment Composite (Diagram 373). In common with SR practice, the 4-coach sets into which these vehicles were formed carried prominent set numbers at either end and were operated as semi-permanent sets, being used primarily on the Ryde-Newport-Yarmouth line.

British Railways (BR) took over operations on the island in 1948 following Nationalisation and the former LBSCR vehicles remained in use, supplemented by other antiquated types that had been transferred to the mainland and given a second life hauling islanders and holidaymakers alike. The final curtain fell on hauled passenger trains on the Isle of Wight in 1966, however three of the ex-LBSCR coaches, including Composite No. 6349 and Third No. 2416, were saved and today operate on the preserved Isle of Wight Steam Railway.