Dapol have today made their long awaited announcement of their 2012/13 range. Included within their new catalogue are a number of Southern Related items in predominantly N gauge but also a few items in 00 and 0 gauges and I am pleased to be able to detail the Southern Railway / Region related items below.
N Gauge Items
Following from previous announcements last October regarding the planned release of Bulleid Rebuilt Merchant Navy and Light Pacifics (see end of post), Southern Railway / Region modellers continue to be well catered for with a further number of new locomotives:
‘Schools’ V class 4-4-0′
Currently in the final cad/cam stage, this model features everything you would expect from a Dapol steam locomotive, including ‘super creep’ motor, DCC ready, traction tyres and a wealth of detail.
The initial releases planned (in both DCC read and DDC fitted options) are:
30926 ‘REPTON’ BR LINED GREEN LATE TENDER LOGO
905 ‘TONBRIDGE’ MALACHITE LINED GREEN ‘SOUTHERN’
30921 ‘SHREWSBURY’ BR LINED BLACK SMALL EARLY LOGO
929 ‘MALVERN’ MALACHITE GREEN
Class 33/0 and 33/1
Building on the sucess of their class 26 and 27 it was logical that the Southern Region’s Class 33 would follow.
The Initial release will be the class 33/1 ‘bagpipe’ loco with the class 33/0 following on a month after, during the 2012/2013 catalogue life span, although they are both in the tool room currently.
Featuring Dapol’s established award winning heavy split frame tungsten chassis and super creep motor it will also feature a lit headcode panel in the direction of travel.
The initial releases planned (in both DCC read and DDC fitted options) are:
33/0 33030 BR BLUE
33/0 D6571 BR GREEN NO YELLOW WARNING PANEL
33/0 33046 ‘MERLIN’ ENGINEERS GREY/YELLOW ‘DUTCH’
33/0 D6597 BR GREEN SMALL YELLOW WARNING PANEL
33/1 33102 BR BLUE
33/1 33103 ENGINEERS GREY/YELLOW ‘DUTCH’
Class 50
The Class 50 often seen on the Southern Region west of England line is also released in a number of versions although the early versions would not have been seen on SR lines in that condition.
D406 BR BLUE (UNREFURBISHED)
50043 BR BLUE (UNREFURBISHED)
50040 BR LARGE LOGO BLUE ‘LEVIATHAN’
50037 ORIGINAL NSE ‘ILLUSTRIOUS’
Other new locomotives include a range of GWR Pannier Tanks, the Class 22 and the General Motors Class 59.
Rolling Stock
A range of Maunsell coaches are confirmed, these had already been hinted at on Dapol’s own Facebook page some time ago. These will be ready for the fitting of the Dapol lighting bar and also their working gangway connectors.
They do not appear to have formally listed what is being released but from the images files it looks like the following:
– Six Compartment Brake 3rd,
– Corridor Composite,
– Corridor All first,
– Corridor Compartment 3rd (to be confirmed)
As this appears to be very similar to Hornby’s original releases ( I will not speculate on why) lets hope that they allow for the fact that the SR used set formations and release enough Brake 3rds to allow correct formations to be made.
These I am sure will popular and great news to accompany the previous announcement by Bachmann of their planned release of Bulleid coaches.
A CCT utility van (Van U as per SR designation) is also announced, to be released in SR green, BR Maroon (sic, perhaps this should be crimson?), BR Blue and BR Engineers red.
However within the CAD images supplied is also an image of a Van C (BY in BR parlance) as well but this has not been listed as a separate to be release item. I will endeavour to seek clarification on this in due course and post accordingly on here.
00 Gauge Items
Development still continues on previously announced 00 items such as the Class 73 as announced here and class 22 headcode disc version. They have also announced a GWR streamlined railcars which I am sure will popular of modellers of that other railway!
Signals – 2mm, 4mm and now 7mm
Further to the recent introduction of working GWR and LMS style semaphore signals in 2mm and 4mm scales the range will be expanded to include Southern Rail Post built (Ladder types as described by Dapol) and Lattice type along with bracket options. These will also be released in due in 7mm scale as well.
0 Gauge
Dapol announced at Warley last year their entry into the 7mm market with a number of private owner wagons and the Class 08 shunter. Thus year will see two Southern related items added to range:
‘Terrier’ A1x class 0-6-0′
Featuring full cab detail, their OO motor connected to a flywheel with DCC compatibility, darkened profile wheels (to Gauge 0 Guild standards) and a heavy chassis. Like many new models this will be the result of laser scanning one of the numerous examples preserved.
The initial releases planned are:
32640 BR Black (Early Crest)
32646 BR Black (Late Crest)
W8 Southern Green ‘Freshwater’
55 Stroudley Green ‘Stepney’
‘Pill Box’ Southern Brake Van
Dapol have tooled this model to include left or right duckets, and correctly depicted brake gear, handles and chassis plates etc. It is also fitted with a working tail lamp!
SR BRAKE VAN 55965 ‘SR’ Brown / Vermillion red
SR BRAKE VAN DS55148 Engineers red
SR BRAKE VAN DS55597 dark grey with yellow warning panels.
Edit 21/07/12: Following communication with Dapol they have confirmed that the brake van SR livery would be brown not grey as originally stated within their press release and also that they plan a number of variants including left and right duckets, 2 or 3 end windows, working tail lamp (where possible), air tanks where needed, axle box raised lettering etc.
A further announced 7mm release is that of an LMS pattern 6 Wheel milk tank
Previously announced Items
I also have CAD images of the previously announced Bulleid original and rebuilt Light Pacifics that I will post later in the week.
A good time to be a Southern fan whatever your scale. OO looks a bit light but I am
Delighted about the lattice signals.
Barry
I agree, whilst the method of control for the Dapol signals has come in for some criticism from some quarters the introduction of both Lattice and rail post built Southern signals in Ready to plonk form is good news indeed. The N Gauge range is reasonably considered and does show some obvious co-operation between Dapol and Hornby somewhere along the line.
Dapol’s O gauge Pill Box Brake Van
Should not the SR livery be dark brown and Venetian red? We will need some Southern wagons between the brake van and Freshwater.
The terriers are good value for money but I think that the goods wagons are too expensive.
Hi Robin, yes it should indeed by brown, the text was taken straight from Dapol’s own press release which has already had a number of errors highlighted.
Graham,
Perhaps it should be mentioned that things like Dapols award winning Tungeston chassis and super creep motor, are in fact all products provided by TOMIX, and in many cases many years old in that firms range. These cross firm products also include the multi-functional rail cleaning vehicle, and the scale working real life couplings. Items that were introduced to the TOMIX N scale range around 20 years ago. I know as I was the official importer of TOMIX (and other Japanese ranges) back in the 1990’s !!!
Anthony
Ilsenburg
Anthony
That is fair point, and the main bulk of the text for this post was taken straight from the Daopl press release. I do not think they are trying to imply or have ever stated that the design is all their own work.
Graham,
Well obviously Dapol are very caggy about what they are up to, but the modelling press in Britain (Continental Modeller excepted) seem to be totally naive towards what is happening. If they did a little more research in regards to what other non British manufacturers are providing, British modellers might have benefitted sooner. There are for example a number of further technical and detail advances produced for Japanese firms that have yet to appear on British models.
Anthony
Ilsenburg
Hi Anthony
I totally agree with you, my own model railway society has a strong North American section and for ages some of their stuff has been streets ahead of the UK market, although it has caught up a lot over the last couple of years. I am not that surprised that the UK mainstream press are only looking at what is in the UK at this moment in time.