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GF ROYAL SCOT RELEASED
(December 03, 2008)
THE first two models of the long-awaited Rebuilt Royal Scot class 4-6-0 have now been released by Graham Farish - just in time for Christmas.
The model was first revealed at the Bachmann-Graham Farish annual Trade Open Days at its Leicestershire HQ back in July and pre-production models were on display at the N Gauge Show at the Warwickshire Exhibition Centre in mid-September.
The new model is part of GF's expanding Blue Riband range and is fitted with a 6-PIN DCC socket. The first two locos "released for traffic" are:
371-525 No 46159 The Royal Air Force in BR Green with the late "shirt-button" tender crest and LMS-style smoke deflectors
372-576 No 46106 Gordon Highlander in BR Green with early "lion-on-wheel" emblem and BR-style smoke deflectors
The third loco, 372-577 No 6115 Scots Guardsman (one of two preserved examples) will follow in LMS Black livery wth LMS-style smoke deflectors shortly, say GF.
The Royal Scots are available from Graham Farish dealers at a RRP of £97.15.
The class was originally designed and built under the direction of LMS Chief Mechanical Engineer Sir Henry Fowler with parallel boilers, the first 50 by the North British Locomotive Company in Glasgow in 1927 and 20 more at the LMS Derby works in 1930.
A 71st example with a tapered boiler followed in 1935 as a rebuild of the experimental high-pressure compound No 6339 Fury and the whole class was subsequently rebuilt with tapered boilers under Sir William Stanier's direction between 1943 and 1955.
In BR days they could be seen all over the former LMS system from London to Manchester, Glasgow to Bristol and Holyhead to Leeds, and were stalwarts over the former Midland main line via Derby and Leeds to Scotland via the Settle and Carlisle.
The first member of the class was withdrawn in October 1962 and the last in January 1966. No 46100 Royal Scot is the only other preserved example, residing for many years at Bressingham Museum in Norfolk following a stint at a Butlin's camp.
As originally built, members of the class were named after a mixture of Army regiments and original locos from the pioneering days of railways in the 1840s-1850s, but many of the latter were later re-named to a military theme.