At their annual Collectors Club event, this year held at the Gloucestershire Warwickshire Railway, last Saturday, Bachmann announced their intention to produce Class 117 and 121 Suburban DMUs, along with a Limited Edition E4 for the Collectors Club members.
More information about this release can be read on the Bachmann website here. Some of you will remember that The Kernow Model Centre announced their intention to produce this family of Western Region suburban DMUs at Warley last year. In fact they had already laser scanned a Class 117 and had completed their initial research. Following meetings with Bachmann after the Warley show at Warley it became clear Bachmann were also working on this model. The Kernow Model Centre had previously said that they have no interest in “taking on” a major manufacturer and so immediately offered their research and laser scan data to Bachmann and they have been working with them on this project ever since. Although primarily based on the Western Region the Class 117 units could be seen on Southern Region metals on Reading – Guildford services.
In addition to the main Bachmann releases there will also be a version of both classes exclusive to the Kernow Model Centre in the GW150 celebration Chocolate and Cream livery.
The Kernow model Centre have also advised that they have not forgotten about the Class 116 and Class 118 and further news about these will be announced in due course (but with no current timescale for such an announcement).
One of the benefits of the being a member of the Bachmann Collectors club is the fact they produce limited edition model exclusively for club members. One of the models announced and available for purchase at the event on Saturday was a version of the ex London
Brighton and South Coast Railway (LBSCR) E4 class 0-6-2t in LBSC Umber livery as Birch
Grove a livery she was also regularly seen carrying in preservation on the Bluebell Railway. This will prove to be a popular model amongst club members I am sure.
I was fortunate to attend this event as a guest of Bachmann whom I thank for their hospitality provided to myself and my other media friends.
It all looks very similar to the former Lima stuff. That was not perfect, but tooling up to produce models that duplicate existing ones, when there must still be plenty else to go at, does seem a wasted opportunity.