All The Colours Of Route 66 - Class 66 Decorated Samples Revealed

Warbonnet · June 20, 2023

Our big announcement at the 2023 Model Rail Scotland show was the addition of the ubiquitous Class 66 to the Accurascale Diesel Depot. Adding the most numerous diesel locomotive of the current era (and indeed, the last 25 years!) was essential to match the vast array of wagons we have produced over the last five years, and indeed what we will produce in the near and longer term future.

The announcement of the Class 66 has gone down very well indeed, with significant demand from current era modellers, and those becoming nostalgic for those early years of privatisation, going by the demand for our model of 66001 as delivered with red grilles.

As you can see, we have now reached the decorated sample stage as we look to assess the colours of the new batch of locomotives, as well as the fit and finish to the additions to the tooling suite we have made, and the changes to the original Hattons tooling.

Overall, we are delighted with how the model is shaping up so far, but as always, some subtle tweaks are required. Firstly, the yellows will be tweaked ever so slightly shade wise. the DB grey band is too light in its shade and the Freightliner green is also too light in our view. The TOPS panel on 66779 will also be altered in colour.

We will also be improving the fit of the removable hatch to fit a DCC decoder. The typeface on 66763 is also hilariously wrong and will be corrected on the production models you receive.

Overall though, we are pretty pleased with how this locomotive is shaping up, so here a look at each livery announced to date that make up the first run, including Accurascale Exclusives of 66001 and 66779 'Evening Star'.

The best news of all is that these minor tweaks have not impacted on the delivery schedule, so we are on course for delivery in Q1 2024 with production soon to get underway.

Place your pre-order today via your local stockist, or direct via our website (the only place you can buy our Accurascale Exclusives!) via the link below!