Mark 5 Update - August 2022

[Warbonnet]

Time for another project update. This time it covers the one of our 'legacy' projects that suffered delays due to, well, several factors including factory shutdown due to COVID. It is of course the Mark 5 coaches. However, there's good news, LOTS of good news!

As we reported on social media (but not on here, we'll do better in future) a couple of months back, the Mark 5 coaches are now in production. We have sent out invoices for payment balances with plenty of notice ahead of their arrival so you can plan payment around your pay days too. 

We had a lot of tweaking to do from the decorated samples you saw on our stand at the recent Glasgow and Alexandra Palace shows, particularly around the glazing and the finish on the wheels to get the look of the prototype correctly modelled in miniature.

They have both now been duly nailed with the factory's help to ensure we make the best coaches around when they arrive on the market. 

The good news continues with confirmation that the Caledonian Sleeper coaches are now almost complete and are due to leave the factory at the end of this month, hitting the high seas in late August and arriving in stock in mid October. This will be the first of two batches of Accurascale Mark 5 coaches.

Our TPE coaches are just behind the sleepers in production and are due to be completed by the end of September 2022, with delivery into stock in November 2022. 

The TPE sets were shaping up rather nicely but did face some light bleed issues on the driving trailer, so we had to take our time to get this right and ensure the various complex lighting arrangements (depot, night time and day time) were correct and did not bleed out of anywhere it was not supposed to.

The destinations have been further refined on our test mule too, but it gives you some idea of the lighting set up that will be on the finished driving cars! 

With the Deltics delivered, the Classes 92, 37 and Mark 5s now in production and the Manors about to get underway, it signifies the huge push we have made to get any of the delayed legacy projects completed and delivered by the end of this year. This will now allow us to focus on keeping our announced and future projects delivered in a timely manner against the timelines we publish when we first announce them. We are finally getting there after a lot of hard work, so we appreciate and thank you for your patience!

Remember, the only place you can buy your OO/4mm Mark 5 coaches is direct via our website, so don't miss out. Pre-order yours today by clicking here.

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[John-r]

The TPE coaches look fantastic, glad I ordered a set, hmmm think I could be easily swayed by the Caledonian set as well. Great work lads.