Warbonnet

Okay, so we have kept you waiting long enough. It's time to bring back one of our all-time most popular wagons. It's time for run two of our iconic Redpath Dorman Long built PTA/JTA/JUA bogie iron-ore/stone tippler wagons! They are now back in our plans and with some new, much in demand liveries too! History These characterful wagons were built in three batches by the British Steel subsidiary Redpath Dorman Long from 1972 for transporting iron ore to Consett, Llanwern, and Ravenscraig. The tough looking tipplers stood out further with attractive liveries and rode on distinctive BSC ‘Axle Motion’ bogies. They soon became a favourite of the enthusiast as they became synonymous with the heaviest trains on the British Rail network. The Port Talbot to Llanwern trains saw 27 British Steel PTA tippers triple headed by Class 37s, before the introduction of pairs of the then new Class 56 on 30 wagon trains. Following the closure of Consett in 1980, a batch of PTAs became temporarily redundant before being snapped up by Procor. These soon found work on Mendip stone trains, going both to Foster Yeoman and ARC. Their use was in block formations from quarries at Merehead, Whatley and Tytherington to depots in London and the home counties. Once again, the PTAs found fame as wagons in the heaviest regular freight trains in the UK, with 43 wagons being hauled by a pair of class-56 locomotives from Merehead to Acton for Foster Yeoman. The wagons would be painted in distinctive house liveries of Yeoman grey and ARC mustard, and see service behind the then new Class 59, as well as a wide range of BR locos, much like their British Steel counterparts which were enjoying electric traction haulage on the WCML with pairs of Class 86 and Class 87 locomotives. The PTAs continued to provide sterling service for British Steel across Britain as well as Yeoman, ARC and its successor Mendip Rail into the 2000s when age began to catch up on them. Wagon leasing company VTG took on rakes of JTA/JUAs in the mid-2000s and they were used on spoil trains as well as sand and sea dredged aggregates until withdrawal. The Model These wonderful tipplers are among our most popular wagons we have ever produced. We last had them in stock in the early lockdown days, and while they were very nice, we have decided to give them some tweaks for run 2. Improvements have been around the bogie area, with enhanced features, now featuring better detail around the bogie centres. Also included in this new run is etched brake discs and we now have track pick up for the tail light. We are covering four different liveries in this second run, featuring two Mendip stone favourites and of course, two British steel iconic workings. First up are the Mendip packs, with Yeoman revised "Big Y" debuting for the first time on our model, a livery much in demand since we first announced our PTA models several years ago. It will be supplemented by two packs of ARC liveried wagons in their earlier livery, featuring the classic olive scheme and "Procor" markings. As well as the Mendip favourites, British Steel workings are once again well represented, with the legendary Redcar - Consett/South Bank wagons introduced to the range for the first time. This working was famous for utilising pairs of 37s between 1974 and closure of Consett in 1980. Of course, no PTA run is complete without a re-run of the famous Port Talbot-Llanwern circuit, with three Class 37s! Three new packs with new running numbers debut in the range. The price of each 5 wagon book set is £179.95, with a 10% discount if you buy both the outer and inner sets, and 15% when you order 5 or more sets. ARC, Yeoman and British Steel Consett liveries are represented by two sets, one with outer wagons featuring two wagons with buffers and traditional tension lock couplings placed at NEM recommended height, and an additional "inner" set with the higher placed knuckle couplings as per the prototypes. The South Wales British Steel livery features one outer set, and two inner sets. As per run one, the "inner" sets are just a "bolster pack" for the outer sets, and will not couple to locomotives, only the "outer" sets. Each outer set also comes with a working flashing tail lamp. Delivery is expected in Q2 2026. You can place your pre-order via your local Accurascale stockist, or via the link below to pre-order direct! Order Your Tippler Wagons Here! View the full article

A chap on here had 8 levels to his layout at one stage, started below the knee, finished above head height. No helixes either. Ran 60 wagon trains on it too with diesels with ease.

It's time to reveal our second run of Brush Type 2s/Class 30/31s, following the reveal of our Accurascale Exclusives model of D5579 in experimental golden ochre earlier this week! As mentioned on Wednesday, due to the popularity of our first production run of Class 31s, we have been able to squeeze in a quick second run with he factory, and it results in 6 different locomotives, so early pre-ordering is advised. Let's look at the sextet coming your way in Q1 2026. We've really tried to provide something for everyone! D5501 BR Green with SYP New to 30A Stratford in November 1957, D5501 was only the second Type 2 to be released from Brush’s Falcon Works in Loughborough as part of the 20-strong Pilot Scheme batch of locomotives. The Hawker Siddeley-owned company was so proud of their new 1,250hp A1A-A1A machines that this particular example spent its first few weeks on display at its new acquired sister firm Mirrlees’ Hazel Grove factory, home of the 12-cylinder turbocharged JVS12T engine that was originally installed in the class. Mostly limited to East Anglia, with the odd cross-London or cross-country excursion it initially settled into a life of express and secondary passenger work as well as parcels and freight traffic, with the latter duties dominating as more powerful diesels were introduced onto the Great Eastern and Cambridge main lines. By the mid 1960s, D5501 had been repainted to match the production members of the class, losing its picked out window surrounds and duck egg blue body stripes, and that is how the Accurascale model is represented. Later renumbered 31001 it was among the first ‘Toffee Apples’ – so named because of the shape of the power handle - to be withdrawn, succumbing in July 1976 before being scrapped at Doncaster in January 1977. D5579 Experimental Golden Ochre with SYP (Accurascale Exclusive!) Although the Brush Type 2s arguably wore one of the most attractive interpretations of the BR green paint scheme, a growing concern within British Railways was improving the visibility of its diesel motive power, which did not announce themselves to trackside workers in the same way as the steam locomotives they were quickly replacing. As well as trials with flashing lights on various classes, in January 1960, Falcon Works outshopped two ‘Class 30s’ in experimental liveries, D5578 in a French blue and D5579 in golden ochre, also described as bronze gold. Oddly only the latter retained the off-white stripes and was all the better for it. While both were initially allocated to 30A Stratford and then 31B March from November 1960, they parted company just under five years later when D5579 joined 41B Tinsley, having gained a small yellow panel – BR’s answer to the conspicuity problems – in 1963. While D5578 was painted into the standard green in September 1964, its colleague survived until January 1966 before being admitted to Doncaster for its own makeover. It was renumbered 31161 and was rescued from withdrawal as a late addition to the Class 31/4 programme, becoming 31400 in March 1988 after 31401 was condemned following an accident earlier in the year, notably swapping its Railfreight livery for a return to BR blue. It was stored just over three years later and was cut up at Booth’s of Rotherham in August 1993. 31271 Railfreight Construction One of just five Class 31s to gain Railfreight livery with Construction sub-sector decals, 31271 also has the distinction of being the only surviving example to retain the iconic Roundel-designed scheme into the present day. Built as D5801 and new to 30A in June 1961, it completed its heavy general overhaul at Doncaster in April 1987 emerging in the soon to be obsolete Railfreight Red-Stripe and was notably the last member of the class to be dual-braked as part of the ‘refurbishment’ programme. Allocated to Stratford’s FAGS aggregates pool in March 1989 it was repainted in triple grey at Vic Berry Limited, Leicester, the same month, complete with that company’s trademark black grilles, receiving embellishments such as decals and depot plaques – but no double arrows – later that year. Having been fitted with miniature snowploughs only a few months earlier it happily retained them throughout the rest of its BR career. It was finally stored unserviceable in May 1997 after being sidelined and reinstated several times and was acquired by A1A Locomotives Ltd exactly a year later as a source of spares for the restoration of 31108. Having survived a proposal to section the bodyside, it was reprieved and followed its ‘skinhead’ partner back into service, hauling its first passenger service in preservation in April 2002, incredibly still in its 1989-applied paint, albeit with a few touch ups and the reapplication of the squadron markings. It underwent extensive bodywork repairs and a full repaint into Railfreight Construction in the first months of 2004 ahead of its naming as Stratford 1948-2001 at the York Railfest event in May, becoming the fourth locomotive to be given a Stratford-themed name after 47007, 37023 and 31165. It is currently based at the Llangollen Railway. 31301 Railfreight Red-Stripe Developed from the large logo scheme, when the original Railfreight grey livery was launched on 58001 in December 1982 it was lifted by the addition of a red bufferbeam and solebars. However, when the paintjob was first rolled out on the Class 31s as they left Doncaster after Heavy General Overhaul from March 1985 only the red bufferbeams were carried over, the red lower body band not being introduced until January 1987 on 31188. Over the next 13 months, 36 other ‘refurbished’ machines were outshopped by the ‘Plant’ in the same ‘red stripe’ scheme with Bescot’s 31301 re-entering traffic after its makeover in June 1987. This had been new as D5834 to 41A Tinsley in March 1962 but spent most of the 1980s yo-yoing between the Eastern and London Midland Regions. When the locomotive fleets were divided into sectorised pools in the second half of that decade 31301 was initially allocated to departmental work, later joining Stratford FAGS aggregate pool, before returning to infrastructure work in the early 1990s. This became restricted to weekend work from 1992 along with several periods of store and around three years later it worked for the last time. A potential reprieve came in September 1999 when it was sold to Fragonset with the intention of re-instating it to traffic. Unfortunately this never took place and after hanging on for over a decade it met its fate at CF Booth, Rotherham, in February 2011. 31418 BR Blue Between 1971 and 1975, 24 Class 31s were upgraded with electric train heating capability (ETH) courtesy of a 320kW Brush BL100-30 alternator, the same as fitted to the similarly modified Class 45/1 ‘Peaks’ and Class 47/4s. Powered directly from the engine, this provided an impressive ETH index rating of 66, perfect for their expected duties shuttling empty coaching stock (ECS) in and out of King’s Cross, Paddington and St. Pancras as well as portions of ‘air-con’ trains around the Leeds/Doncaster area. An oddity within the new sub class was 31418, the former D5522 of 30A, which was from the lower geared 80mph batch delivered in 1959 and also the only disc headcode or ‘skinhead’ machine to be converted until a second series of Class 31/4s was undertaken in the mid 1980s. In 1978, having swapped North London for Gateshead via a spell at Finsbury Park, it saw its connecting doors plated over, which resulted in the loss of its centre pair of discs. It retained this basic appearance for the next nine years before being ‘refurbished’ at Doncaster in October 1987, which saw it lose its steam generator, bufferbeam cowls and bodyside banding. The ETH receptacle was also resited to the driver’s side corner of the cab front. Within days of release it was unofficially named Boadicea and received white painted ‘discs’ the following year, both customisations surviving to its withdrawal from Springs Branch with engine failure in October 1995. With minor celebrity status it was quickly purchased for preservation at the Great Central Railway, before joining A1A Locomotive Ltd’s fleet in 2002. Over the last two decades it has been slowly restored to 1970-80s condition at the group’s base at Swanwick Junction and is expected to be completed within the next few years. 31602 Chimaera Fragonset No heat 31191 was one of seven Class 31s acquired from EWS in April 1998 by Fragonset Railways along with 31186, 31459/468 and 31549/552/558. Originally stored from Toton in October 1995 it was returned to the fray courtesy of the Birmingham Railway Museum at Tyseley in June 1999 renumbered as 31602 the second member of the new Class 31/6 sub class, which included a repaint in Fragonset’s striking black livery with maroon/gold stripe and the mythical creature-themed name Chimaera. The only modification to justify the renumbering was the fitment of through ETS wiring allowing double heading with an electrical train supply-equipped Class 31/4, or for shutting down the ETS on the rear locomotive in case of fire while leading in a top and tail formation. Its first passenger use was on Silverlink Train’s Marston Vale branch between Bedford and Bletchley in summer 1999, which ended that same year, leaving 31602 with a regular diet of railtours and stock transfers until 2003 when Wessex Trains hired in loco-hauled sets for Cardiff-Brighton and Bristol-Weymouth diagrams, while 2004 saw it seconded to First North Western for Lytham St Annes-Greenbank and Manchester Victoria/Chester-Blackpool North commuter services. From 2005 Fragonset became FM Rail and when that collapsed into administration at the end of the following year it was put up for sale, eventually joining RVE at Derby, for Network Rail test train use, gaining that organisation’s house yellow in April 2007. That November it gained the new name Driver Dave Green and the following month it became one of just three Class 31s to gain brackets for UV spotlights for use with the Structure Gauging Train. It’s NR Service ended in November 2012 when it moved to DC Rail, which sidelined it at the end of 2013. It was put up for sale in 2017 but with no takers it was scrapped at Wolsingham by J Denham Metals in June 2018. Price And Availability As stated with the launch of our exclusive Brush Type 2 on Wednesday, production on this batch is very limited, so we advise early pre-ordering, either no money down direct, in instalments at no extra cost through partially direct, or via your local stockist for the main range models. Models for run two are priced £184.96 DC/DCC Ready and £284.95 DCC Sound fitted. Delivery is slated for Q1 2026, with production already underway. Pre-order your Class 30 or 31 via the link below to order direct! Pre-Order Your Accurascale Exclusive Brush Type Two Here! View the full article

Hi folks, We wont be there this year, but our friends at the Model Railway Society of Ireland will be bringing our pre-production Hunslets up for the weekend and they'll be available to see on the St. Davids MPD layout! Hope you like them! Cheers! Fran

Well, our all new Class 30/31 really has gone down a treat since they began arriving in late 2024. Picking up the "Diesel/Electric locomotive of the Year" award in the BRMAs and the Model Rail awards was a real treat and honour for us, as has all the positive reviews for our definitive Peds! Demand for what's coming next has been unbelievable, and it just so happens that we have the decorated samples ready to launch for a further, smaller run due at the end of this year. What better way than to begin the launch with our Accurascale Exclusives loco for this production run, D5579 Experimental Golden Ochre with small yellow panels! Prototype History Although the Brush Type 2s arguably wore one of the most attractive interpretations of the BR green paint scheme, a growing concern within British Railways was improving the visibility of its diesel motive power, which did not announce themselves to trackside workers in the same way as the steam locomotives they were quickly replacing. As well as trials with flashing lights on various classes, in January 1960, Falcon Works outshopped two ‘Class 30s’ in experimental liveries, D5578 in a French blue and D5579 in golden ochre, also described as bronze gold. Oddly only the latter retained the off-white stripes and was all the better for it. While both were initially allocated to 30A Stratford and then 31B March from November 1960, they parted company just under five years later when D5579 joined 41B Tinsley, having gained a small yellow panel – BR’s answer to the conspicuity problems – in 1963. While D5578 was painted into the standard green in September 1964, its colleague survived until January 1966 before being admitted to Doncaster for its own makeover. It was renumbered 31161 and was rescued from withdrawal as a late addition to the Class 31/4 programme, becoming 31400 in March 1988 after 31401 was condemned following an accident earlier in the year, notably swapping its Railfreight livery for a return to BR blue. It was stored just over three years later and was cut up at Booth’s of Rotherham in August 1993. The Model Following on from our first production run and due to popular demand, our factory has given us a production slot to follow up quickly with a second run. D5579 will be one of six locos in this run, with very limited availability due to production capacity. It will also be available from the factory with our Mirrlees sound file fitted for the first time, a sound recording that has gone down very well indeed with modellers. We will reveal the general range on Friday, with 5 other stablemates, all of which are due in stock in Q1 2026 with production already underway. As stated above, production on this batch is very limited, so we advise early pre-ordering, either no money down direct or via your local stockist for the main range models. As ever, our Accurascale Exclusive will come in special presentation packaging and certificate. Models for run two are priced £184.96 DC/DCC Ready and £284.95 DCC Sound fitted. Pre-order your Golden Ochre D5579 via the link below, available exclusively only direct from Accurascale! Pre-Order Your Accurascale Exclusive Brush Type Two Here! View the full article

Timelines eh? Sometimes manufacturers give them (always with the best of intentions) and then they sail past them. Something always comes up to derail a project and put the project back months, or even years. We've been guilty of this of course. But, it seems that we're getting better! Following the delivery of the 7mm Ruston locomotives on time from our initial release date, and our ICI hoppers arriving a quarter early from the original advised delivery date, we can now reveal that our 21 ton hopper wagons (TOPS code HTO and HTV) are also arriving a whole quarter early! Originally slated for a Q3 2025 arrival, our factory have beavered away on our latest wagon project and produced a much needed gap filler in the Ready-To-Run (RTR) wagon market in OO gauge! It is also an essential in our "Powering Britain" range of wagons. We received production samples a couple of weeks ago ahead of schedule and have began assessing them immediately. We're biased of course, but they've done a stupendous job in turning our research and design into simply beautiful models with a real quality feel. After our assessment and rigorous checks, we were delighted to green light the hoppers to leave the factory for delivery, which they did so earlier this week. We will let you feast on some further images below! As with all our non "joint-venture" models now, you can pre-order your packs with NO MONEY DOWN until they arrive in stock with us. There is no "crowdfunding by stealth" with large deposits up front, just stock ready to drop when they arrive in our warehouse. Want to spread the cost? you can do that too with our partially system for our pre-orders, or klarna, clearpay, revolut pay in three and paypal pay in three when they arrive in stock to spread the cost! The wagons will arrive in our warehouse in late May 2025. Fancy some? Pre-order yours below... Pre-Order Your HTO/HTV Wagons Here! View the full article

The Accurascale family grows even bigger as Stuart Brown joins the team as Customer Experience Representative. Many show goers and those with an interest in railway preservation will recognise Stuart from the Locomotion Models stand and of course, Locomotion Shildon and the National Railway Museum. Stuart spent 12 years with the NRM in total, in a diverse range of roles, primarily based in Shildon. A lifelong railway enthusiast and modeller, Stuart's primary interests are the industrial, light railway and narrow gauge. He joins us as a Customer Experience Representative, and will be based in our repair lab in Darlington where he will carry out warranty repairs as well as answering your queries via email and our chat service. We are sure he will also be dragged into helping us with some of our future projects too! View the full article

So, the "Expression of Interest" deadline has now passed. Did we get enough orders? Has the Electrostar made it?? Find out in the video below! You heard right, it's right of way for Electrostar! We want to thank all of you who have supported us since our initial announcement, and put your money down to confirm that you want one of our units. This strong vote of confidence has shown both Rails and ourselves that the project is indeed viable! Not only have you got our first run over the line, you have also helped modellers in the future too! "How so?" you may ask. Well, we know that many modellers had been asking Rails and ourselves for other Electrostar variants, such as the GWR and Gatwick Express units. So, buoyed by the confidence shown in our first run, we will also be tooling the 387/1s and 387/2s, as well as 379s which will form run 2! On top of that, we have more confidence now to pursue more units in the future of other classes and types. So, our CAD is off to tooling, and in approximately 4 months time we will have the first samples to show you. In the meantime, you can still pre-order run 1 both via the Accurascale website or the Rails of Sheffield website, or in store at Rails Of Sheffield with a £50 reservation fee. Pre-order below! Pre-Order Your Electrostar Here! View the full article

We were floored by the news of Andy's passing yesterday in IRM central. It's probably unknown to many, but Andy was a massive help to IRM and then Accurascale as we got into this industry with information and guidance around the market. Indeed, he was of help as we got tangled up with the infamous DJ Models in our early days and even was our product photographer at one point and helped us recruit some of our team, including Paul who has designed the Hunslet, Park Royals, 800s and ICRs. Myself and @BosKonay chatted to Andy regularly, and indeed Stephen assisted RMWeb with hosting and in recent times, a switch to the same software as this forum which went down very well among membership. He was a true pillar of the modelling community, brought many thousands of modellers together, encouraged and assisted us younger manufacturers to help us thrive and someone I counted as a friend. Still cant quite believe it. Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam

With our recent visit to China we have been able to oversee the final production stages of several of our models. We have already brought you the first hand progress reports for our Class 89 and Class 50 projects in recent weeks , along with our Buckjumpers, which we inspected in production. Now it's the turn of the Class 60! We've been a bit quiet on our "Tugs" lately, but they've been progressing well in the background. When we visited the factory a couple of weeks ago, we saw that painting was complete, printing was almost complete, and final assembly was now underway. It was very interesting to see these processes unfold over our time in the factory. For instance, checking out the paint masking tools made to spray the models. What has blown us away about our 60 has been the sheer demand for them, with the production run eclipsing our Class 50 first production run! It seems many of you were quite taken with our model of these mountain movers. The negative effect of such demand and larger production run is that it is taking longer than we planned for to get them all made. While we had hoped to have them here at the end of Q1 2025, it will now be late Q2 2025. We apologise for this slight delay, but we wanted to make sure that everyone got their tug! We will show off production samples in mid April, so keep an eye out for those, along with a sound demonstration around the same time. There is still a small amount left for pre-order, which you can do so below. Don't miss out, they're going to be very special indeed. With a price tag starting at just £169.95 each, and a lifetime warranty from the manufacturer who has produced the Diesel Locomotive of The Year in all the awards for the last three years running (as voted for by you!), it promises to be another special release from us. Pre-Order Your Class 60 Here! View the full article

Sprung buffers cost no extra to do on a model either, despite what some other penny pinching manufacturers would have you believe

Now that all our Class 31s have landed (except 31285 which is in customs, but due in our warehouse next week!) it's time to turn our attentions to the next locomotive due to arrive, our lovely Class 50s! As reported in our recent Class 89 update, we sent a delegation to China to oversee the production completion of several locomotive projects, including the Class 50. As well as company Director, Patrick and Production Manager Steve, Class 50 Project Manager Gareth was on hand to check out the final details of our hoovers first hand as they roll off the production line. When it came to analysing testing of the models, it came apparent that the wrong type of resistor had been used on the circuit boards. So, these are all getting replaced to ensure the correct functionality of the models. It was great to be there directly and work through this with the factory engineers who brought it to our attention. A simple thing that makes a big difference. Overall, we're delighted with our vacs, and they're looking splendid overall! With the rectification work on the PCBs, production is now due to be complete next week, when they will ship to our warehouse in the UK and arrive with us in late May. We're pretty much sold out of our 50s, but we do have run 2 lined up to launch pretty soon, and we will always have some spares, so make sure you register with the website to get those availability emails on the running number you want. Make sure you check out your local retailer too for availability! REGISTER YOUR INTEREST HERE! View the full article

The thing is we have said several times now it will take time to sort out and to stick with us. We are working on it still and we cant say when it will be complete. When it is complete, we will announce that it's done, and then you can contact us if you have an issue on your account. Let's work to that principle please. Cheers! Fran

Hi everyone, Thanks to all of you for your interest and orders! Response has been beyond our expectations and the order book is looking healthy already! We reckon some of these may well be sold out before delivery, so make sure you get your pre-order in soon to avoid missing out. Cheers! Fran

We're delighted to announce that James Makin is now a member of the growing Accurascale family, joining us in the capacity of Customer Experience & Online Marketing Manager. A lifelong railway modeller, James specialises in weathering and detailing rolling stock, having showcased a number of Accurascale products in our ‘Let’s Get Involved’ series, giving practical tips and hints on how you can personalise and bring your models to life. James has a strong background in customer loyalty and marketing, having built significant experience in roles within the financial services industry and a long career at International Airlines Group (IAG) working across the British Airways, Aer Lingus and Iberia loyalty programmes. His passion to continually innovate and push the boundaries to improve the overall customer experience is perfectly aligned with Accurascale’s strategy to continue to deliver industry-leading products to a fast-growing audience of model railway enthusiasts across the world. James will undertake a key role to continue cementing relationships with our Accurascale retailer network, as well as overseeing special projects, commissions and delivering a varied range of ‘How-to’ guides to help our customers get the best from our releases in the years to come. Speaking about the prospect of working with Accurascale, James said: “I’m immensely excited to be joining the team, Accurascale are at the forefront of pushing change and innovation within the hobby, and I cannot wait to help build on the excellent work that’s already led to Accurascale to be recognised as winners in so many industry awards to date.” Likewise, Accurascale/IRM Managing Director Stephen McCarron added; “We’re extremely pleased to welcome James to our family here at Accurascale. He brings a real passion for improving the customer experience at every touchpoint, and has a wealth of relationship-building experience that will allow us to really go to the next level in supporting our retail partners. With our exciting plans over the coming years, James adds a dynamic new element to our skill set. Watch out for the latest ‘Lets Get Involved’ guides from Accurascale coming soon! View the full article