Dapol unveils GWR Toplight Main Line and City coaches

Dapol has unveiled plans to produce a set of Great Western Railway (GWR) Toplight Main Line and City non-corridor carriages for ‘OO’.

Built in the early 1920s, half-a-dozen six-car sets of these steel-panelled close-coupled carriages were introduced on GWR suburban services to/from London Paddington and the City of London via the Metropolitan Railway’s underground system. As a result they were built to conform with the restricted loading gauge within the tunnels. They remained in service into BR days, with the last examples withdrawn in late 1957.

Already at an advanced stage, the first Engineering Prototype (EP) samples have been received by the company’s development team for evaluation, while the first decorated samples are expected during the second quarter of the year. Tantalisingly, the company has also confirmed that Toplight corridor coaches are also in development.

Whilst the coaches will be available individually, they will be accurately numbered to form prototypical six-vehicle sets comprising two Diagram D62 Brake Thirds (BT), two Diagram C37 Third Class (T) and two Diagram E101 Composites (C), in a selection of liveries across two batches. The first batch will be finished in GWR lined crimson, GWR Twin City crest chocolate and cream and BR maroon (see table 1 for details), while the second batch will appear in GWR brown, GWR shirtbutton and lined chocolate and cream colour schemes (see table 2).

These all-new highly-detailed coaches are set to feature frosted Toplight windows, bolection window mouldings, separately fitted roof vents, metal conduit and handrails, etched brass door handles, wire commode handles, detailed and decorated interiors, heavy diecast chassis, 9ft bogie bolsters with diecast frames, electrical pick-ups, detailed underframes, brake rigging and sprung metal buffers. Each vehicle will also include a six-pin Digital Command Control (DCC) decoder socket, while the Brake Third/Second carriages will feature a working (non-removable) tail light at the brake van end. 

Priced at £60 each, the first releases are expected during late 2022, while the second batch is expected to follow in early 2023.

Visit www.dapol.co.uk for more information.