Dapol and Rails of Sheffield have unveiled plans for a newly-tooled ‘OO’ gauge Great Western Railway (GW) designed Diagram Q13 Inspection Saloon for the Dapol Black Label range.
Built at Swindon Works in 1948 to Lot No. 1701, the vehicles were used for track and infrastructure inspections by senior British Railways Western Region engineers and managers. The vehicles featured an open saloon at each end with chairs and work tables, together with a kitchen, toilet and guard’s compartment.
Dapol’s model is based on GW Inspection Saloon 80975, preserved at the Llangollen Railway. This vehicle was allocated to the Bristol Divisional Engineer and remained in BR use into the 1990s and carried several liveries including traditional chocolate and cream, BR ‘Executive’ and BR ScotRail schemes.
Exclusive to Rails of Sheffield, the all-new models will appear as part of Dapol’s premium Black Label range with an extensive tooling suite that will enable detail variations to be incorporated according to the era modelled.
Currently at the first Engineering Prototype (EP) sample stage, each model will feature a highly detailed body and underframe, die-cast chassis, removable roof, separately-applied handrails, door handles and pipe runs, sprung metal buffers, footsteps, fully detailed interiors with chairs, tables, sofas and separately-fitted moulded curtains, roof vents, brake equipment, Next18 Digital Command Control (DCC) decoder interface and all-wheel pick-ups. Two alternative bodysides and four different end variations have been tooled, while several windows will be modelled partially open.
The GW Inspection Saloons will feature controllable warm white interior illumination (switchable on DC), stay-alive capacitor and working tail lamp, and they will also be supplied with factory-fitted buffer beam detailing at one end together with a small detailing pack containing parts for customer fitment at the other.
Liveries and identities planned initially include W80943 in BR chocolate and cream (Cat No. BL-201-001), W80976 in BR chocolate and cream with small yellow warning panels (BL-201-002), ADW80970 in BR blue and grey (BL-201-003), DW80975 in BR ‘Executive’ (BL-201-004), DW80975 in BR ScotRail (BL-201-005) and 80972 in GWR chocolate and cream with ‘twin cities’ crests (BL-201-006).
Priced at £149.95 each, release is anticipated during the third quarter of 2024.
Visit Rails of Sheffield for more information.
