Review by Simon Bendall
ALSO new in the Graham Farish range this month are further Mk.1 coaches, three of which are finished in Network SouthEast colours.
These re-create vehicles most commonly associated with Thames & Chiltern division services from Paddington during the late 1980s and early 1990s, prior to the arrival of the ‘Turbo’ DMUs.
Pictured here are Tourist Standard Open (TSO) No. 4945 (374-016), First Corridor (FK) No. 13328 (374-166) and Brake Standard Corridor (BSK) No. 35464 (374-193). All are fitted with Commonwealth bogies and are well finished in the colourful livery. Inevitably, steam-age features such as the end steps persist but the lack of air brakes is not an issue as all three were vacuum brake only to withdrawal.
Joining them is a Full Brake (BG) in the red with yellow stripes Parcels livery, which is numbered as 92233 (374-044). Correctly riding on B4 bogies, the lack of brake equipment variation in the tooling is an issue this time around as, with a TOPS code of NEA, it should be air-braked only. Nonetheless, it looks good in the colourful scheme.
Read more Modeller News and Reviews in the April issue of RE – out now!