Rapido Trains UK Special Announcement No.5

©2024 Rapido Trains Ltd

We know we said four big announcements, but what’s a FIFTH announcement between friends?

With this spectacular loco being signed off just in the nick of time in the run-up to Rapido RailEx, it felt mean to make you wait until later in the year for it. So, here’s the final and rather special Autumn announcement for your enjoyment.

It was only a matter of time before we decided to tackle one of the pre-grouping era's most popular railways: the unquestionably beautiful and regal livery of the Midland Railway.

We are proud to announce we will be producing our first OO Gauge Midland Railway locomotive, the gorgeous 483 Class 4-4-0.

As the turn of the last century approached, the Midland Railway wanted to improve services and modernise, whilst remaining competitive and comfortable for passengers. With a variety of routes between London and the North, it was important for them to be mindful of this fierce competition.

However, with profits in mind, and the ever-growing weight and size of express locos being rolled out by their competitors, the Midland Railway wanted a way to achieve this goal without the costly expenditure of replacing or upgrading bridges that imposed restrictions on loco weights.

Thankfully, this conveniently coincided with the Midland experimenting with loco wheel arrangements throughout the late 1800s, led by designer Samuel W. Johnson. By 1900 the 4-4-0 arrangement had won the 'arms race', beating the iconic 'Singles'. As such, a multitude of 4-4-0 locos were built; these were designated as Class 2s.

With further developments in boiler designs and the advent of superheaters, loco technology had moved on quite a bit through the early 1900s, with the aforementioned profits on the minds of the Midland Railway's leadership it was decided that the Class 2s would receive an upgrade in the way of a rebuild.

Utilising a variety of parts from the existing Class 2s, the rebuilds received new frames, new larger driving wheels, new cylinders, and the newly-developed Belpaire G7S boiler, which was also fitted with a Schmidt Superheater. These rebuilds were assigned the class number 483. With so many new parts, it would be fair to say that the term 'rebuild' could justifiably be put in inverted commas. 

The first rebuild rolled out of Derby Works in Feb 1912 as No.494. Further batches were then completed by the Midland in 1913, 1914, and 1922. Having inherited the fleet as part of the grouping of the railways in 1923, the LMS then finished the job in 1924. By this time, they had been assigned the power classification 2P.

The design for the 483 Class would go on to inspire a plethora of well-known LMS locos, such as the famous 4P compounds, becoming a key link between the evolving designs of the early pre-grouping era and the later designs of the Big Four. 

Proving to live up to the task at hand, the Midland even assigned 483 No.502 to Royal Train duties, keeping it in immaculate condition at all times. Conversely, the 483s were also used on freight duties, making them an ideal all-rounder for the fleet.

With the joint acquisition of the Somerset and Dorset Joint Railway by the Midland and LNWR in 1875, it was somewhat inevitable that the Midland would trial the 483 Class on the undulating and challenging terrain of the line. In 1913 two 483s ran trials on the S&DJR, and having proved their worth five locos were rebuilt to bolster the S&DJR fleet.

Both the Midland and S&DJR 483s would work stoically alongside their 2P classmates under LMS ownership, right through the grouping era, and into the nationalisation of Britain's railways. 165 483s survived into BR ownership, which included the five S&DJR locos. Sadly, none of the class survived into preservation, with their withdrawal and scrapping happening throughout the 1950s. This was an unceremonious end for such a hard-working engine.

The Rapido Trains UK highly-detailed rendition of the 483 Class will be available in liveries that cover the loco's lengthy history. These include several in the regal Crimson of the Midland Railway, a striking S&DJR blue example and a nice selection of LMS and BR liveries too.

Detail variations include representations of locos from earlier and later rebuild batches, as well as the alterations, additions, and subtractions of parts throughout their lives, including superheater dampers, chimneys, tablet catchers, domes, safety valves, rivet patterns, tender toolboxes, bogie brakes, exhaust injector and more.

You can look forward to a smooth-running mechanism, a factory-installed speaker, NEM Coupler pockets, an ESU 21-pin decoder socket, cosmetic inside motion, and firebox flicker with a dynamic fire draw effect. Sound-equipped models will feature an ESU LokSound V5 sound decoder with accurate sounds – well, as accurate as we can make them with none preserved!

JASON: Maybe someone has a working 483 class hidden in their shed and we can record that?

RAPIDO UK: No. Are you still here?

JASON: Always.

RAPIDO UK: Great. Just... Great.

We are pleased to say that the design is complete and in tooling, so we can expect to see the first engineering prototypes in the coming months.

As mentioned earlier, this is the FIFTH announcement in our planned launch of four announcements, much like the six-book 'trilogy' of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

Friday's announcement, Project ‘Evolution’, is the perfect accompaniment to this resplendent rebuild.

The ‘Evolution’ range includes liveries for both the Midland Railway and Somerset and Dorset Joint Railway, available in 3-coach train packs, and three additional individual coaches. It means you can model a spectacular six-coach train in your chosen striking livery. Won’t they look amazing together?

The order books are open now for both the OO Gauge Midland Railway 483 Class 4-4-0 with both DCC Ready (RRP £209.95) and DCC Sound (RRP £319.95) versions available.

Batch 1 of the ‘Evolution’ coach range is also available to order. We do not expect these two projects to arrive at the same time, so you can budget for both.

You can pre-order your models directly from our website or from any of our Official Retailers.