Want Chips With That? Class 37 Update October 2022

[Warbonnet]

Everyone is talking about our Class 37s as they get closer and closer to delivery. They have been far and away the biggest project we have embarked upon to date, covering a myriad of variations and detail differences and offering modellers plenty of Type 3s previously unavailable in model form. 

You have followed us on our journey through development, delayed by COVID and the fall outs it has created in global supply chain issues. You have also seen delivery of our lovely Deltics earlier this year and the popularity they endured, selling out in record time from delivery. With so much tech and value packed into our locos, it's easy to understand why they are so popular when coupled to our competitive pricing.

We even took part in some last-minute cosmetic enhancement, spurred on the constructive feedback from modellers on the position and size of our Scottish 'car' headlight on our decorated samples, we have resized and repositioned it to its correct spot and size as per below. 

With lessons learned from the Deltic (oh the chains, the chains of it all!) we have improved the design of these on our tractors (and will be improved on the next run of 55s) and incorporated other tweaks based on customer feedback from our first Accura loco. 

We have also pushed boundaries forwards, including new features into the design of our 37s to drive standards even further into the future. For instance, the 37s will be the first UK outline OO gauge locomotive to have hall sensors, triggering flange squeal on DCC sound fitted locomotives automatically when entering a curve (which can be turned off completely via DCC should one wish to do so!)

They also have a mindboggling amount of lighting configurations, from the early days of BR diesels with headcode boxes, through to plated over headcodes, car headlights and wipacs on our Class 37/6s, each with their own functional configuration and features such as day, night and depot models where appropriate, all controllable via DCC. 

With features like this, our Class 37 will be the most technically advanced locomotive on the OO market to date. Driving these features requires the use of integrated chips (IC) which are still feeling the effects of global shortage. Recently global brands such as Apple, Volkswagen and Toyota have all reported production issues relating to lack of supply of ICs. Unfortunately, it is something that has hampered us too.

Our Class 37 was developed at a time before a world of IC shortages. However, we were unable to foresee the turmoil in the electrical component market and have had to bid against some very large blue chip companies to secure our supply. It was also too far into development to leave such components out. 

However, there is good news!

We have secured all the ICs we need for the Class 37 production run, from modern Class 37/4 and Scottish car headlight, all the way through the Class 37/6 and the original five production variants in green and blue, covering our first run entirely. So, our full production run of new Class 37 locomotives will be the most advanced, impressive locomotives on the market, all for that realistic price. 

The securing of the chips has taken longer than anticipated, with originally a one week waiting time for the quantities we required becoming one year almost overnight. Thankfully we able to source the required ICs via alternate means but the delay has impacted our envisaged delivery times and halted production. This has come at an increased cost to us in production but it is a cost we simply refuse to pass onto our customers. 

These alternate chips required further testing to ensure they would work correctly which has further eaten into our production time. We are delighted to say that this work is complete and the PCBs are offering the market leading functions we wish it to. 

Our current production status for our Class 37s is run one is at printing stage ahead of final assembly, with the ICs currently being flashed with the required software. To accelerate production, we have requested the factory operate a night shift to speed up this process.

We had hoped to deliver this batch of locomotives this month, but as you can gather, that is now unrealistic. We have now an updated delivery date for all three batches that are as follows; 

Batch One: January 2023

Batch Two: March 2023

Batch Three: April 2023

We apologise for this delay, but we are sure you appreciate that it is something we have tried to mitigate as much as possible and as a small brand in a land of global giants and household names we have fought hard to secure the supply we need to fulfill our Class 37s and ensure that they will be the very best, realistic model at a realistic price. 

The further good news is that we have secured sufficient supply for run 2 too, so keep an eye out for that. In the meantime check out your local Accurascale stockist to pre-order your Accurascale Class 37 today. Very limited stocks remaining!  

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[Noel]

Will be worth waiting for I'm sure.