Rapido Trains UK have announced that their highly anticipated N Gauge LNER Dynamometer Cars have now left the factory and are on the way to the UK!
You can check out production sample images for all of these gorgeous new models right here, and place your pre-orders right now. This marks the first time ever that this iconic coach has been made available in N Gauge - and promises much of the same features as Rapido's award winning original release in OO Gauge.
The range includes all of the classic LNER, British Railways and Preservation era liveries that you would expect, including a couple of EXCLUSIVE special editions for Rails of Sheffield and the Railway Icons collection, in collaboration with Locomotion Models. What's more there's a special 'what if?' colour scheme depicting what would have happened if the Dynamometer Car would have continued in service later and received BR Research Department red & blue livery.
EXCLUSIVE TO RAILS OF SHEFFIELD
GENERAL RELEASE RANGE
Product Features
Designed using original works drawings
Highly detailed interior detail, including the testing equipment
Highly detailed underframe including the test wheel
Interior lighting
Complex printing techniques to produce teak finish
Metal wheels
NEM coupler pockets with close coupling mechanism
Prototype Information
Best known as the vehicle that recorded the 126mph run of LNER ‘A4’ No. 4468 Mallard on July 3rd 1938, the North Eastern Railway’s test car, built at Darlington Works in 1906, is now on display at the National Railway Museum, where it has been reunited with Mallard.
A Dynamometer Car scientifically measures the performance of locomotives in order to effect improvements. Inside, instruments measure the speed, power and other statistics of locomotive performance, many of which were applied to a paper trace operated mechanically from the movement of the vehicle. The NER’s vehicle was also equipped with a drop-down bed hanging in the ceiling for operators to sleep in. It was also fitted with equipment to allow operators to speak to the driver.
No. 23591 passed into LNER ownership after the Grouping of 1923 where Chief Mechanical Engineer Sir Nigel Gresley used it extensively to test his new designs and modifications against established locomotives. It was even used behind the UK’s only steam-diesel hybrid locomotive! The Dynamometer car and its paper trace recorded Mallard’s top speed of 126mph on Stoke Bank in 1938. The vehicle eventually passed into British Railway ownership and continued to be used for scientific testing including the famous 1948 Locomotive Exchange Trials. The Dynamometer Car is now preserved as part of the National Collection at the NRM in York.