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Rapido UK Newsletter No. 64
©2026 Rapido Trains Ltd
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We’ve started 2026 in the same way that we mean to go on, with big new developments!
This month, we have loads of good news to share with you. There is a new announcement of a huge range of wagons and lots of shipping updates. The latter includes numerous projects that are arriving shortly or are nearing completion. That means plenty of lovely models on the way, which should keep you all very happy indeed.
The first stage of the Evolution coach range is almost here, which means it should be on the way to customers before our February newsletter.
It’s not just been a month of new toys and new deliveries; we have also made loads of progress on other, more distant models, such as the sound file for one of our most anticipated locos. You are just going to have to read on to find out which one…
A new year also brings a variety of great model railway exhibitions to look forward to. We will be attending a handful in the first quarter of the year, so later on in the newsletter we have included the details of where and when you can come and see us.
Anyway, without further ado, let's turn our attention to the Great Central Railway for our latest announcement!
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New OO Gauge Great Central Railway Rolling Stock Range
We are pleased to announce that we are greatly expanding our pre-grouping wagon fleet with a brand-new range of Great Central Railway rolling stock!
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GCR Dia.17B Covered Van (OO Gauge)
In 1910, the Great Central Railway introduced new designs for its covered vans. These would all be 19’ long, with a steel underframe and featured sliding doors on either side of the vehicle. The main difference between them was the type of brakes that they were fitted with. The unfitted variant of the design was assigned the Diagram number 17B.
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Developed as an all-purpose vehicle, the Dia. 17B would have been seen up and down the Great Central network and was used far beyond the reaches of the GCR. The Dia. 17B were not fitted with any roof or end vents, which may have limited their use for perishables.
As co-owners of the Cheshire Line Committee with the Midland Railway and the Great Northern Railway, the GCR had a vested interest in its continued success. This was a joint effort to be a thorn in the side of the London and North Western Railway.
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As such, the GCR was involved in designing a variety of rolling stock for the CLC and reused some of their own designs. The Dia. 17B covered van was one of these shared ideas.
Two hundred and seventy were built by the Metropolitan Carriage, Wagon & Finance Co Ltd at their Oldbury Works for the CLC. When built, they lacked external end-stanchions; however, these were later added to many, making them identical to their GCR counterparts.
Unlike the majority of the country's railways, the CLC avoided the grouping of the Big Four, retaining its own rolling stock into the late 1920s. In 1929, it was decided that the CLC’s wagon fleet would be divided up, with one third going to the LMS and two thirds to the LNER.
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This led to the uncommon occurrence of a single diagram being split between two 'big four' companies. The LNER designated the ones they received as Diagram 43B.
Several survived through to nationalisation, and although one was preserved, this is an example that has been heavily modified into a windowed mess vehicle by BR.
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GCR Dia. 9A / 9B 6-Plank Open Wagon
There were several other wagons which shared the same underframe design as the Dia. 17B Covered Vans.
Designed and built by the Great Central Railway, the Diagram 9A and 9B 6-plank open wagons were two excellent examples. Conceived in 1911, these were introduced to maximise the load capacity of the open wagon fleet by increasing the common 5-plank design to a 6-plank vehicle.
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The original Dia. 9A concept had a single-sided brake with a right-hand lever and lifting links on the side of the brake blocks. However, the drawings were amended in 1918 to show brakes with independent levers on both sides. It had a load capacity of 10 tons. These drawings were altered again in 1923 by the LNER.
Over 2000 wagons were produced to this diagram, making it one of the most numerous goods vehicles built by the GCR.
| In 1919, the Ministry of Munitions ordered 250 10-ton 6-plank open wagons. These were built to a very close approximation of Dia. 9A. However, after the first 40 had been built and sent overseas, the order was cancelled. The GCR kept the remaining wagons for its own fleet. | | |
The 12-ton load capacity variant of the design was designated Diagram 9B. Outwardly, they appeared the same as their 10-ton counterparts; however, the GA drawing shows them as being fitted with RCH split axle boxes.
Both variants were general-purpose open wagons, so would have been seen loaded with a multitude of goods and minerals.
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Unlike the Dia. 17B Covered Vans, there were no examples of 9A or 9B opens built for the CLC, so all of the remaining examples of these wagons were inherited by the LNER upon the grouping of the railways.
The LNER continued to produce hundreds of the Dia. 9B wagons, and the number rose from the 229 that were identified in the 1922 census to a whopping 779 examples by 1928. Over 250 of each type were inherited by BR in 1948.
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GCR Dia. 6C 3-Plank Open Wagon
Another candidate that reused the same steel underframe design was the Dia. 6C 3-Plank Open Wagon. Much like the 6-plank equivalents, these were general-purpose wagons with a 10-ton load capacity.
| | The GCR built these for both their own use and on behalf of the CLC. They featured dropside doors on both sides, GCR lifting link brakes and ribbed buffers. | Of the 50 originally built for the CLC in 1919, 49 of them survived until 1930, when they were split between the LNER and LMS using the same method as the Dia. 17B Covered Vans. They joined the surviving GCR versions that had already moved to LNER ownership as part of the grouping, but there are scant details of their lives after this date. | | |
Our new range of OO Gauge GCR wagons will have the usual wealth of full external and underframe detail. The Dia. 9A / 9B 6-Plank Open wagons, and Dia. 6C 3-Plank Open wagons also feature full internal detail.
All three wagon types are fitted with GCR ribbed buffers and have numerous tooling variants throughout the range. They are as follows:
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GCR Dia. 17B Covered Vans - 2 axle box variants, 2 types of doors including an LMS X-brace version, and GCR lifting link brakes.
The new range includes a selection of GCR, CLC and WD liveries that represent earlier renditions of the wagons. For the grouping era modeller, there are several to choose from that were split between the LMS and LNER. As some survived into nationalisation, BR liveried examples have been included too.
All models feature split-spoked or disc wheels, NEM coupling pockets, and are finished off with brass bearings and a high-quality livery application.
| | The order book is open for these exciting new models, and you can pre-order yours directly from www.rapidotrains.co.uk today or from any of our Official Retailers. | | CR No.123 “How Does It Sound?” (OO Gauge) | | |
After last month's big reveal of the painted production samples, it was difficult to find something that would outshine these gorgeous models. But we think we might have managed it.
Now you’ve seen how good it looks; we are willing to bet you are going to want to see how it runs and how it sounds. Good news, we’ve now finished the sound file for this model. So, with the new sample in hand and a file ready to go, we couldn’t resist putting together a “How Does it Sound” video, so you can check it out for yourself. Enjoy!
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As we have these incredible colour samples and the sound file has been signed off, we wanted to get the order book closed. That way, we can move forward from development and onto production. You only have a few more days to guarantee yours as the order books close on Monday the 2nd of February.
Seeing how popular this has been, we are doubtful that any of the additional stock that we order of these modes will last long. So, if you don’t want to miss out, make sure to get your pre-orders in either directly through our website or via any of our Official Retailers before the end of the day on Monday!
With all of this Scottish sentimentality floating around the Rapido office, we think we are going to have to plan another visit north of the border. Though this current Caledonian cognisance may just be because we are still picking bits of haggis out of our teeth from Burns Night!
Ah, who are we kidding? We’ll definitely be bringing these superb samples to Model Rail Scotland in two months' time, but more on that later.
| | GNR 8-Ton Van Painted Samples (OO Gauge) | | |
We’ve got good news for Great Northern Railway fans. A selection of painted production samples for the upcoming OO Gauge GNR 8-Ton Van range has arrived.
Nicely complementing the GNR J52s that arrived just before Christmas, we eagerly set them up on one of our office layouts so you can see how some of our many GNR models look together.
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In addition to the conventional goods traffic, specific versions were also built to transport meat, fruit and other more hazardous materials. We have received complete samples of the rather vivid GNR Insulated Meat Livery, the GNR Fruit Livery, and a BR Departmental example.
The wagon in the Fruit Livery is particularly interesting as it has ‘Return to Wisbech’ painted on it, meaning it ran on the Midland & Great Northern Railway to Wisbech in Norfolk, where it met the Great Eastern Railway. This makes it the perfect wagon to run with our GER C53 tram loco, which ran on the adjacent Wisbech and Upwell Tramway.
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With a range littered with intriguing versions, many of them were assigned to the transport of more specialised traffic. There is a place for these multi-purpose express covered vans in everyone’s collection.
If you don’t see your chosen version, don’t panic. We also received painted samples of the bodies for the entire range, but as these complete samples looked so much nicer set up on the layouts, we thought they would be the best versions to demonstrate the project's current progress.
| | In addition to our range, The Wagon Yard have a rather stylish Cheshire Lines Committee exclusive version. Finished with bold CL lettering painted on the sides and whitewall tyres, these 8-Ton Vans will look great alongside the CLC versions of today's new announcement. Don’t forget there are also CLC versions in our GCR 6-wheeled 15T Brake Van range, so you have everything you need to make up a full CLC train! | | We have been reviewing the samples over the last few weeks and are pleased to say that the small number of revisions have already been fed back to our factory. This means that they are still on track for being completed towards the end of Q1. Once they are on their way to the UK, we will let everyone know in future newsletters, so keep an eye out for more updates. | | LNWR Open Wagon Painted Samples (OO Gauge) | | |
New painted production samples have also arrived for the upcoming LNWR D84 and D90 open wagons. So, Northwestern fans have some new niceties to enjoy, too.
There are two prototypes within the range. The main distinction between the two is that the D90 Loco coal variants are being modelled with bottom doors, and the D84 general merchandise wagons have none.
Jason: When you said, "D84", I got excited. Here's a screenshot from one of the all-time classic Doctor Who stories, The Robots of Death, written by the late, great Chris Boucher.
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Rapido UK: You do know we're a model railway company, right? We don't make robots.
Jason: We don't make robots yet.
Rapido UK: We're going to ignore that and move on.
We have received four complete samples of the non-robotic D84s so you can see a broad spectrum of the liveries they will be available in. There are also more subtle detail differences and separately fitted parts throughout the range, so let's look closer at some of these.
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The LNWR and LMS D84s in the photo below feature bulbous axle boxes, and incurved headstocks. They also have a long brake handle and no door strip, but these will be more apparent when we show you another version in a bit.
The post-1936 LMS example has 2-ribbed buffers whereas the earlier grey one has single-ribbed buffers,
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Both prototypes survived through to the nationalisation of the railways, several examples were inherited by Royal Naval Armament Depots and the Port of London Authority for private use, and a handful even made it into preservation.
This PLA version highlights the detail differences in the range nicely, as much of it differs from the other samples. It has square headstocks, a much shorter brake handle, 2-rib buffers, flat-fronted axleboxes, and a body with overlapping diagonal side strapping and extra door strips.
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As you can see from these four samples, these wagons look great and will give LNWR modellers a much-needed and accurate open wagon model.
Given that approximately 2,500 of the D90 Coal Wagons were built, and just over 15,000 of the D84s were passed to the LMS upon the grouping of the railways in 1923, these are essential wagons to add to any LNWR or LMS collection. Expected delivery is during Q2.
If either the GNR 8-Ton Vans or LNWR D84 and D90 Open Wagons caught your eye, we suggest you contact some of our Official Retailers if you have yet to pre-order yours, as they may still have the version that you seek available. Due to their popularity, we have sold out of almost all versions directly through our website.
| | Evolution LT and Metropolitan Coach Samples (OO Gauge) | | With lots of Evolution Coach deliveries expected over the coming month or so, you would think our sights are set solely on the Batch 1 liveries. Well, let us assure you we have been very busy and managed to get the first engineering prototype of the round-topped door variants from Batch 2.5. | | |
A few months ago, we announced that we would be tweaking the tooling on the Evolution Coaches for two of our Liveries in Batch 2. Metropolitan and London Transport. This is because they famously were "ducketless". They also had panelled luggage doors and round-topped human doors, needed so they could be opened inside the tunnels.
So, we removed the duckets and the windows from the luggage doors. We then changed the remaining doors and their frames to the round-topped versions.
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This first prototype of a Brake Third shows just how different these will look to the other Evolution Coaches and how smart they are going to look when coupled to one of our Metropolitan E Class models.
These were originally intended to be part of Batch 2, but when we decided to make the tweaks to the tooling for these models, we decided to keep the order books open for a little longer. That way, you could make a more informed decision. We hope you like the changes as much as we do.
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If this lovely sample has caught your eye, make sure you get your pre-orders in as soon as possible, as we will be closing the order books next Monday (February 2nd) for both the Metropolitan and London Transport Evolution Coaches.
You can pre-order yours either directly through our website or from any of our Official Retailers. Just make sure you do so before they go underground!
| | LNER Dynamometer Car (N Gauge) | | With rather perfect timing, we have received some absolutely gorgeous painted production samples of the upcoming N Gauge LNER Dynamometer Car in time to squeeze them into the newsletter. | | |
With the bar being set incredibly high by our award-winning OO Gauge Dynamometer Car which was released a few years back, expectations were high for an equally special model for our N Gauge fans. Having received these, we are quietly confident that this more than measures up.
This is our first N Gauge model to be given a teak livery, and we think this captures the unique grain pattern and elegant finish nicely, despite its limited size!
| | The range includes several versions which cover the car's history, and a Railway Technical Centre ‘What if’ for those who are looking to represent the 'Dyno Car' in a more modern era. | | These samples will undergo a full review over the next few weeks. Once this has been fed back to the factory, they will be completed and shipped, which we expect to still be within Q1 of this year. This means they are likely to be in your hands and on your layouts toward the very end of Q1, or very early in Q2. | | We have almost sold out of all versions directly through our website; however, some of our Official Retailers have stock remaining of this famous coach. If you would still like to add this incredible model to your collection, we suggest you contact your preferred retailer with the haste of a train trying to break a speed record. | | We were serious when we said that we have loads of lovely models on the way. In addition to the delivery of OO GAUGE Evolution Coaches from Batch 1 Stage 1, GWR Dia.O19 ‘Open C’, and LMS 20t Iron Ore Hoppers, which we are expecting to arrive any day now, we have even more on the way very soon. So, let's dive into the long list of exciting approaching deliveries. | | Andrew Barclay Fireless (OO Gauge) | | |
Many of you have been asking for an update on this project, and understandably so. We thoroughly share your frustration with having to wait for their arrival. Thank you for everyone's patience; it's been most appreciated.
We have had to be a closed book on details for this one until we were 100% confident in the entire range's quality. So, it gives us great pleasure to confirm that these have now arrived in the UK have passed their QC checks with flying colours, and are already winging their way to our Official Retailers and direct customers.
Any customers who have ordered directly through our website will have received an email reminder that contains a payment link. If you have pre-ordered these models from us but haven’t had an email, don’t hesitate to contact our Customer Service department, and they will help you complete the order by phone.
These models have so much scope to be included on a multitude of interesting industrial layouts, so once you have received yours, please send us a shot of it on your layout.
| | Class 45 and 46 Diesels (N Gauge) | | |
It's not just OO Gauge models that are on the way; we have some excellent news for N Gauge modellers too.
The N Gauge Class 45 and 46 ‘Peaks’ have also been completed and have arrived in the UK. Given how well the Class 44s were received, these should go down a storm.
We are expecting these to start shipping around the time this newsletter hits your inbox.
We can’t wait to see these on your layouts and look forward to seeing pictures of them running alongside their Class 44 siblings.
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Evolution Coaches Batch 1 - Stage 2 (OO Gauge)
Hot on the heels of the versions from Batch 1 Stage 1 are those from Stage 2.
Containing the Midland Railway, Somerset and Dorset Joint Railway, and Great Northern Railway versions, this shipment is expected to arrive in the UK towards the end of Q1 with delivery to you likely in early Q2.
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USATC S160 2-8-0 (OO Gauge)
We have been reviewing the advance samples of the S160 and were very pleased with them, but we have asked the factory to make some adjustments.
The main difference is that the production models will now have metal running boards rather than plastic. This is because we found the plastic ones (whilst being scale-accurate) to be prone to bending along their length during fitting.
The new metal running boards are slightly thicker than their predecessors and will have a little less definition in the detail, but we hope this is an acceptable trade-off for strength and rigidity.
There will be no price increase for this change, but the downside is that the shipping date has been moved back a little to after Chinese New Year as we don't want to rush these. We hope you understand the change and we are looking forward to getting these onto your layouts as much as you!
You can view our delivery schedule for this and all our other modes HERE.
| | As usual our factories have been busy working on a number of projects and have sent over photos to show the latest progress. | | The LBSC vans are nearly complete - we expect to see samples very soon. | | |
Order Book Closing Dates
After last month's enormous order book closing, the number of projects with closing order books this month is somewhat more modest but no less important. It includes one of the UK's most famous locomotives, some wonderfully colourful wagons and even more Evolution Coaches.
Get your pre-orders in by Monday the 2nd of February, for the following items:
Following this, we have order books closing in early March for even more wagons.
Order books close on Monday the 2nd of March for the following:
Remember, if you want to pre-order any of these models, you can do so directly through our website or with any of our Official Retailers.
| | The Rapido Layout - Further Updates | | Our ever-evolving office layout has had much of the scenery of the upper section either completed or started. One of the major missing links was the section intended to be a long sweeping brick-built viaduct, filled with archways. | | |
You can find examples like this in metropolitan areas across the country, but for many of us southerners, it's reminiscent of the lines that enter London. Consisting of thousands of archways, the railways snake their way through the adjoining towns and head towards the major termini in the city centre.
Jonathan from JS Models has designed and created this wonderful bespoke brick viaduct off-site. With help from Dan from Tunnel Lane Model Railways, they painted, weathered and installed it onto our wooden frame. We hope you are as wowed by this as we are, because we were delighted when they presented it to us.
| | While this was going on, Dan also set to work getting the canal area and adjoining industrial units finished off. This first involved integrating the water and canal sidewalls into the layout. The Rapido team had already painted these in anticipation of this part of the project being completed. Further work was then done on the cobblestones, vegetation and scatter in this area, so it looked much more natural. Finally, the signal box and tunnel area were completed, as they received a weathering. | | Much like Jon's work on the viaduct, Dan has absolutely knocked this out of the park and has given us another area that we can photograph upcoming projects. Keep an eye out for these in upcoming pictures. | | Keep Calm and Carry on Weathering – Weathering the S160 | | |
Ok, we admit it, we didn’t keep calm, and impatience got the better of us.
Those lovely S160 samples had been sitting at Rapido HQ for a few weeks now, and they were crying out for a weathering. Well, with the expected delivery of the S160 to be in the next few months, we got rather excited and buckled under the pressure.
We handed our sample of loco No.1712 over to one of our designers, Jamie, who is a dab hand at weathering. We sent him away with a model and the only known colour S160 image from wartime (found on the cover of Over Here - The Story of the S160), and the objective of dirtying it up. The model, not the book!
Unsurprisingly, Jamie didn’t disappoint. We think he's done an incredible job of capturing its likeness, and it looks very realistic.
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There isn’t long to wait until the S160’s are completed by our factory and sent to the UK. So, if this has inspired you to have a crack at creating your own unique Rapido S160 model please make sure you share some photos with us.
We only have a handful of certain versions still available to pre-order directly through our website. If you haven’t pre-ordered yours yet and still want to add one to your collection, we recommend contacting your preferred Rapido Official Retailers as soon as possible.
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2026 Exhibition Calendar - Part 1
Just like the previous years, the early part of 2026 has a busy events calendar for us, as we are attending as many shows as possible. You will be able to come and visit the Rapido Trains UK stand at the following shows over the next few months:
- Saturday 21st February – Tonbridge Model Railway Exhibition – The Angel Centre, Tonbridge.
- Saturday 21st and Sunday 22nd March – The London Festival of Railway Modelling - Alexandra Palace, London.
- Friday 27th to Sunday 29th March – Model Rail Scotland - Scottish Event Campus, Glasgow.
- Saturday 25th April – Narrow Gauge South - Barton Peveril College, Eastleigh, nr Southampton.
Our attentive staff will be on hand to answer all of your questions, and we will have an eclectic mix of samples with us for you to enjoy. We look forward to seeing all of you, and finding out which model you are looking forward to the most.
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As you may have seen Marcia has been undergoing a winter repaint. Whilst the engine has carried blue for several decades Andy thought it was time to ring the changes and return the loco to its original livery.
After stripping the engine down the first job has been to thoroughly clean the engine and rub down the existing paintwork prior to cleaning.
| | The finished livery will be as close to the standard Peckett locomotive livery of the period as possible. This involves bodywork becoming Deep Bronze Green whilst the frames and cab interior are painted in Indian Red. This is then edged in black and lined in yellow. We think it will be rather striking! Of course it took the talented Rapido graphics team just a few moments to create this diagram: | | The undercoats for these colours are a somewhat garish green and pink - which has resulted a temporary nickname for the engine - 'The Pastel Peckett'. | | For most of the engine's preserved life the engine carried an A4 chime whistle. This was removed prior to the sale of the engine. Andy has however bought a replica chime whistle (tuned the same as an A4) which will be fitted to the engine at the completion of the repaint. | | Not all the work is being carried out at the KESR. Some of the locomotive's components have moved to Rapido HQ where Andy has carried out some of the work. | | Of course none of this comes cheap. Don't forget you can support Marcia's upkeep by treating yourself to an exclusive wagon or some Marcia merch by clicking on the button below. | | |
Well, that gets the ball rolling for 2026.
Seeing the number of deliveries that are arriving at Rapido HQ over the coming two to three months, it feels less like a ball and more like the boulder in Raiders of the Lost Ark; the outcome being more akin to the closing warehouse scene. But that can only mean one thing: loads of new models for you to enjoy, which is definitely a good thing.
Adiós, señor!
The Rapido Trains UK Team
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Jason: Is that a Dalek behind the clapped-out Rapido van?
Rapido UK: No! We don't make robots!!!
Jason: Daleks aren't robots. Just sayin'.
Jason: Oh! Did I just get the last word in the newsletter?
Jason: Hello? Anybody there?
Jason: Anyone?
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You can write to us at Rapido Trains UK, Unit 3, Clinton Business Centre, Lodge Road, Staplehurst, Kent TN12 0QF. Alternatively, you can call us on 03304 609496 or you can
e-mail us at customerservice@rapidotrains.co.uk
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