The Great Western is in favour at Dapol for ‘OO’ gauge with the arrival of its hotly anticipated Collett ‘5101’ and ‘61XX’ 2-6-2Ts. Mike Wild runs the rule over these enticing locomotives.
Modelling the Great Western Railway or BR’s Western Region in the steam era calls for four things: ‘Panniers’, 4-6-0s, auto trains and ‘Prairie’ tanks. All have been well served over theyears for ‘OO’ gauge with models of the ‘Small Prairie’ classes being available from Bachmann for the best part of 20 years while the ‘Large Prairie’ was recently tackled by Hornby in 2020.
However, at the time of Hornby’s announcement Dapol had already started work on its own model of the GWR ‘Large Prairies’ for ‘OO’ gauge and, while it might have taken a little longer to arrive, it has certainly been one to keep an eye on.
It doesn’t feel as if we’ve seen as much of the development process with the Dapol model, but that’s most likely because of the lack of events over the past two years. That said, we have seen the pre-production images and the specification, both of which were tantalising prospects.
First a little history. The Great Western Railway introduced the first of its ‘Large Prairie’ collective, which dates all the way back to 1903, when Churchward…
