The striking Caledonian Sleeper Mk 5 carriages whisk passengers from London to destinations in Scotland overnight and now you can add them to your collection in ‘OO’ gauge. MIKE WILD gets the full story on Accurascale’s first ready-to-run passenger carriages.
New locomotive-hauled carriage sets don’t enter service very often on the modern multiple unit focused railway, but in 2019, the first of a new series of Mk 5 sleeping carriages entered service with Caledonian Sleeper for Anglo-Scottish overnight trains.
These new carriages were the first to enter revenue service since the BR Mk 4s in 1989 (the Channel Tunnel ‘Nightstar’ sleeper coaches never carried passengers and were exported to Canada) and were brought in as replacements for the ageing Caledonian Sleeper Mk 2/3 fleet. Construction started in 2016 with the full fleet of 75 coaches being completed in 2018 by CAF in Spain while testing took place at Velim test track in the Czech Republic prior to delivery to the UK via the Channel Tunnel.
Above: Accurascale’s first ‘OO’ gauge passenger carriages model the impressive Caledonian Sleeper Mk 5s.
The new Mk 5s operate in rakes of 16 coaches with formations named ‘The Lowlander’ (for Glasgow and Edinburgh) and ‘The Highlander’ …
