ORDERS ARE now open for Rapido Trains’ ‘OO’ gauge Wisbech & Upwell (W&U) tramway bogie coaches for delivery in 2023 - and the company has announced two new train packs including locomotive and coaches.
Two coaches were built for the Cambridgeshire tramway by the Great Eastern Railway in 1884, and Rapido’s tooling suite allows differences between them to be modelled accurately. The models are the result of the company’s production of coach No. 8 for its tie-in with the film The Titfield Thunderbolt.
Both coaches were 37ft long and 10ft 2in high, but body panels and roof layouts were bespoke for each vehicle. After passenger services on the W&U ended in December 1927, both were transferred to the Kelvedon & Tollesbury Light Railway in Essex where they operated until 1951. Coach No. 7 survives in preservation.
The ‘OO’ gauge models, which are priced at £74.95 each, feature detailed exteriors with different roofs, interiors and other detail fittings. The roofs are removable to reveal the interior detail.
Five versions will be available - Composite 60461 and Third 60462 in LNER colours, E60461 and E60462 in BR livery with LNER and Gill Sans numbers respectively, and No. 7 in Great Eastern Railway maroon in as-preserved condition. If there is enough demand, models of the coaches in a ficticious BR maroon with coaching stock roundels could be produced.
In addition to the single models, two train packs featuring a Great Eastern ‘C53’ 0-6-0T (LNER ‘J70’) and both coaches are being offered. Two livery options - pre-1919 with locomotive in coach brown with blue frames and the coaches in coach brown, and post-1919 with crimson locomotives with grey frames and the coaches in maroon - are being offered. Both packs will be available in analogue (£269.95) and DCC sound (£369.95) formats.
Deliveries are expected in 2023.
• Visit Rapido Trains UK for more information.
