Rapido Trains UK 978915 GCR Mahogany 'Evolution' Non-Corridor Carriage Triple Pack

‘Evolution’ 48’ non-corridor bogie coaches Great Central Railway Mahogany Livery

Three coach pack includes:

• Brake third No.1872
• Third No.2315
• Composite No.1346

Tooling and Detail features:

• Clerestory roofs
• Electric lighting
• Footboards on guard’s bogie only
• Fox pattern bogies
• Full internal and external detail
• Working lighting
• NEM coupling pockets with kinematic coupling mechanism
• Optional ‘vacuum pipe’ close coupling bar

Rapido Trains UK is evolving pre-grouping passenger stock in an exciting new way! We are proud to announce that we will be adding a diverse collection of pre-grouping carriages to our OO Gauge range, with the new 48ft Evolution bogie coaches.

With numerous locos and a boatload of era-appropriate wagons under our belt, the pre-grouping era has become a quintessentially ‘Rapido’ thing, so we thought it was about time we produced some more suitable coaches.

Although some have already been seen in ready-to-run versions, it seemed unlikely that all of the well-known pre-1923 companies would receive a wide selection of accurate bogie coaching prototypes in OO gauge. 

We thought we would fill this void with a selection of generic 48ft bogie coaches, each detailed with an array of key features that modellers associate with their railway of choice. We have dubbed this exciting new coach project ‘Evolution’. So what tooling does this entail?

The coach roofs were one of the most notable features of the era, so we have included elliptical, arc and clerestory designs in the tooling and made the roofs easily removable so that you can fit figures into your coaches. Each roof style will also include fittings for either gas or electric lighting.

We have added some rather nice interior detailing too, including luggage racks, picture frames on compartment dividers and a fully-detailed Guard’s Van/Luggage Compartment. There are also a multitude of separately-fitted parts to bring the coaches to life, including door and grab handles and passenger emergency alarm ‘butterflies’ on one end. 

All Evolution coaches will include fitted internal working lighting controlled by our magnetic magic wand, making it much easier to see these lovely details.

To complete the appearance of different gas and electric lighting fittings, the relevant models will feature separately-fitted parts for battery and regulator boxes, a dynamo, roof-mounted gas lamps, plumbing and gas tanks on the underframes.

The new GCR Mahogany versions of the Evolution coaches represent coaching stock that would have been seen between 1912 and 1922, and perfectly compliment our exclusive models of the GCR Class 1 4-6-0 and Class 9N 4-6-2Ts. Using the critically acclaimed Evolution coach tooling, these coaches represent similar vehicles designed and built by the GCR in the early 1900s and used across the company's entire network. This makes them ideal for those who are modelling the latter years of the pre-grouping era, or the railways during the Great War.

Much like the other ‘Evolution’ Coaches, these new models are generic 48’ bogie coaches, each detailed with an array of key features that modellers associate with their pre-grouping railway of choice. .There are also a multitude of separately fitted parts and interior details to bring the coaches to life, including luggage racks, picture frames on compartment dividers and gas light fittings.