Rapido Trains UK are producing a newly tooled range of custom designed pre-grouping bogie coaches in OO Gauge! Codenamed 'Evolution' these models include the most common features of coaches from this era to produce prototypically literate rolling stock (similarly to the Hattons Genesis Coach range).

With numerous locos and a boatload of era-appropriate wagons under their belt, the pre-grouping era has become a quintessentially ‘Rapido’ thing, so they thought it was about time they produced some more suitable coaches to pair with their other releases!

There is such a variety of coaching prototypes in the pre-grouping era that it has been impossible for our industry to make 100% accurate models for all of them. Rapido are filling this gap with a selection of generic 48’ bogie coaches, each detailed with an array of key features that modellers associate with their railway of choice.

The models are supplied as either a triple pack or as singles. The single models feature different running numbers to the main packs so that you can extend your train further.

BATCH 1 INCLUDES:

• South Eastern & Chatham Railway
• Midland Railway
• London & North Western Railway
• Great Western Railway
• Great Central Railway
• Great Northern Railway
• Somerset & Dorset Joint Railway
• London, Brighton & South Coast Railway
• Longmoor Military Railway

BATCH 2 INCLUDES:

• North British Railway (EXCLUSIVE TO RAILS)
• London & South Western Railway
• Caledonian Railway
• Highland Railway
• Metropolitan Railway
• London Transport
• Great Western Railway (early monogram version)
• Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway
• Great Eastern Railway
• North Eastern Railway
• LMS Period I

In the late 1800s, Britain's railways had grown geographically and were looking to increase the capacity of the system. The rolling stock of the time consisted mainly of 4 and 6 wheel coaches which were cramped and lacking in many facilities on the whole. With the introduction of bogie coaches, not only could more passengers be carried on a service, but it could be done, safer, more reliably and with a better level of comfort. 

There was also an increasing level of standardisation within companies to enable them to build larger batches of coaches, the earlier stock being built in very small runs or sometimes as one-offs. The coaches were used in greater numbers and longer trains across the country, from single coach branches to commuter services and top-line expresses consisting of many carriages. While the introduction of gangway ends relegated these from the more prestigious or long distance services, many coaches soldiered on in secondary and local use for many decades, through the grouping of 1923 and some even lasting until British Railways in the 1950s. 

Many coaches of this style were also bought by private railways such as the Longmoor Military Railway allowing them to carry on in use far longer than they would have lasted otherwise. This has also meant there are many preserved on Britain's heritage lines and can still be enjoyed today.