Close-Fit models have been offered by manufacturers in the past, allowing a reasonable representation of specialised trains to be modelled. Hornby has pushed the envelope as far as it can with its new Mk.2f stock and a couple of its newer Mk.1 coach models too. Some of the livery to model fits are pretty close, whilst others only have a passing resemblance to the operational coaches.
The problem that mainstream manufacturers have in matching models of revenue stock to departmentals is that the latter rarely remain unchanged.
Adaptations for instrumentation and other fittings can change the outward appearance significantly. Anything from bogies, windows, the roof and underframes can be modified to suit the vehicles’ new role. Bogies are exchanged, windows plated over to meet the needs for equipment installed in the coaches and roofs fitted with antennae and pantograph wells.
Coach end equipment is added for operational reasons including multiple working cables for working locomotives in top and tail mode alongside electrical supply, features not fitted to standard models and expensive to tool for one-off models.
During 2020, Hornby released a number of close-fit models of departmental coaches dressed in the popular Network Rail yellow livery which will ensure their commercial success. To tool individual coach bodies to match departmental stock would be uneconomical, so the models have to be reviewed in that light.
How useful are they to the serious modeller?
R4993 PLPR2 No. 5981.
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Esta historia es de la edición December 2020 de Rail Express.
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LNER puts remaining ‘91s' into warm store
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Mk.1 Restaurant-Buffet (RBR) cars
A SURPRISING number of Mk.1catering cars have survived to see service on the privatised railway, in private operator and charter trains. They may turn up on anything from an enthusiast special to higher-end dining trains and have been formed in trains as prestigious as the locomotive-hauledBlue Pullman’ set, the ‘Great Britain’ tours operated by West Coast Railways and the ‘Northern Belle’ tour train.
Powerscene
Our authoritative class-by-class review of newsworthy locomotive workings.
End for Freightliner Class 86/6s
The company’s Class 86/6 fleet down to just two examples as seven locos are stored.
Service reductions as Covid cases increase
An increase in Covid-19 cases in early January saw the governments in Ireland and Northern Ireland impose stricter lockdown measures that impacted on public transport.
East West Rail funding go-ahead
Although it was expected, £760 million of funding has now been confirmed to build the Western Section of the East West Railway scheme.
Travellers-Fare with Hornby's Mk.1 Restaurant-Buffet car
Hornby expands its range of retooled ‘OO’ gauge Mk.1 coaches with a brand new tooling for the Diagram 24 Restaurant-Buffet car (RB) and the Diagram 33 refurbished version (RBR). It models the vehicles in both original form, finished in BR maroon and Southern Region green, together with the RBR refurbished coaches. They remained in frontline service well into the 1990s, including Cross-Country workings.
Class 92 revolution
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Bottling it!
A dig into the Rail Express archive has revealed some rarely-seen photographs of the former rail-connected Express Dairy bottling plant in South West London, which today is the site of a large mosque.
1990s ‘N' gauge Class 950
Work on the ‘N’ gauge Class 950 Track Recording Unit project, a conversion based on a standard Graham Farish Class 150/1 model, is concluded by finishing the model in 1990s condition.
