Bachmann 2012/3 a Southern update

Since my post made on Tuesday morning about Bachmann / Graham Farish plans for 2012/3 I am able to provide a few more details / information on the Southern related elements of the announcements

’00 gauge’ SR Luggage / Parcels Vans PLV/PMV & Van U / CCT.

Bachmann have listed these as being:
39-525 Southern PLV Passenger Luggage Van Southern Railway Green
39-526 Ex-Southern PMV Parcels & Miscellaneous Van BR Crimson
39-527 Ex-Southern PMV Parcels & Miscellaneous Van BR Green
39-528 Ex-Southern CCT Covered Carriage Truck BR Blue – Weathered

As the PLV/PMV differs from the Van U/CCT (which has end opening doors) I have sought clarification from Bachmann that they do in fact intend to produce two different body mouldings and I will advise their reply in due course.

‘N gauge’ Original Style Bulleid Merchant Navy Pacifics

Those announced to be release are from the are of the Third Series that were paired with 6000 gallon tenders and different body shapes to the Second and first series. See my post on original Merchant Navy Pacifics here for more information on the differences. The ten in this series were built after nationalisation in 1948/9 so whilst they originally appeared in Malachite they never carried ‘Southern’ lettering. The Initial versions are:
372-310 No 35024 ‘East Asiatic Company’ in BR blue with early emblem
372-311 No. 35023 ‘Holland-Afrika Line’ in BR green with early emblem
372-312 No. 35028 ‘Clan Line’ in BR green with late crest.

‘N gauge’ Bulleid Coaches

Four types will become available over the next 18 months including the Brake Corridor Second (sic. aka Semi Open Brake Second), Second Corridor, Open Second and Composite Corridor versions. They will all the deep 15″ vent versions built post 1948. It has been advised that these will be produced from new research and not simply a scaled down version of the now quite old 4mm tooling (it may perhaps be hoped, or is it simple wishful thinking, that in the future this new research will be used to retool the 4mm versions?)
The initial versions will be:
374-430 63′ Second Brake Corridor Open – Green & 374-431 in Crimson & Cream,
374-440 63′ Second Corridor – Green & 374-441 in Crimson & Cream,
374-450 63′ Second Open – Green & 374-451 in Crimson & Cream,
374-460 63′ Composite corridor – Green & 374-461 in Crimson & Cream.

This combination will therefore allow for a typical 3 coach sets, BSK – CK – BSK, and longer to be created, although just like Hornby when they first introduced the Maunsell coaches Farish do not appear to grasped the Southern and the later regions use of sets by only producing one running numbered version of the Semi Open Brake Second when each set would have had two with different running numbers . I hope they prepare production to allow for twice the number of Brake coaches than the other varients.

Programme timings

It is worth noting that these plans for 2012/3 are just that; i.e. an 18 month programme, just they announced this time last year an 18 month programme which is why some items such as the ex SECR C lass have not made it into the shops yet but are still mainly on schedule.