What A 2025 We've Had - Our Year In Review!

[Warbonnet]

It's that time of year again, as we prepare to say farewell to 2025, which marked 200 years of the railway, and we saw our own little piece of Accurascale transcend onto the real railway, we look back at our year and see what we achieved.

There have been some landmark milestones, including producing and delivering our 100,000th model locomotive! Not bad for a young company.

Indeed, so many things happened this year that we simply cannot fit everything into this update. However, there are some gems in here, so crack out the selection box, get the kettle boiled, and check out some of our highlights for 2025, before getting a sneak peek into 2026!

Our Biggest Year of Delivery Yet!

2025 saw us deliver the most diverse range of locomotives we have managed to date — by far! Not only did we finally see the delivery of our Class 89 in OO gauge with our partners at Rails of Sheffield, but we also managed to deliver a locomotive on time in our O gauge Ruston 88DS, move mountains with our award-winning Class 60, and “hoover” up some plaudits with our Class 50s. 

We further showed the modelling world that we’re not just about diesel and electric traction with delivery of our sweet little GER Buckjumpers and handsome GWR/BR Pannier Tanks.

Coaches were not forgotten either, with us ending the long wait modellers had endured for Mk2c coaches — a wait of over 50 years.

On top of that, we once again showed our class-leading love for rolling stock, delivering newly tooled HTO/HTV BR 21-ton hopper wagons, our iconic “clayhood” wagons and their earlier incarnations, as well as our long-awaited NER coal hoppers. On the IRM side, we saw the arrival of the Bulleid “H-Vans” in fitted and unfitted guises, and a collaboration with our friends at Heljan to produce the “Sligo Oil” tanks, with the additional bracing tooled at our request.

This, of course, does not include the continuing delivery of the Class 31, not to mention new runs of the Class 66, IRM Cement Bubbles, Andrew Barclay and P Class tank engines, bogie ICI hoppers, and more throughout the year.

On the wagon front, despite the delivery of these newly tooled wagons and announcements of new wagons such as the IRM Palvan (now on the high seas), we feel that we have slacked somewhat over the past year on rolling stock. So much so, that we have two newly tooled Accurascale OO gauge wagons ready, with EPs in hand, to announce and deliver next year. Two more are in tooling now and nearly finished, and we also have some other wagons joining the range which will be revealed in early 2026.

Oh — and there are two coach announcements lined up too. One is a new addition to the range, and the other is something everyone is expecting. Exciting!

And newly tooled powered models (locomotives and units, etc.) in 2026?  Further clues on that front come later on in this round-up, so read on!

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Newly Tooled Model Announcements

Electro-Star of the Show

2025 was the year that saw the first Accurascale EMU announcement, as we once again teamed up with the lovely people at Rails of Sheffield to bring you the Electrostar family — beginning with the 375 and 377 in Run 1, with 379s, 387s, etc. to follow in Run 2.

What is the specification? All of it. If we’re going to do units, then we’re doing it properly — just like our wagons, coaches, and locomotives. The Electrostar will feature a specification that has not been seen in any UK RTR unit model yet and will set a new benchmark. It will also demonstrate how we will tackle future units — and yes, we are working on several at the moment.

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Accura-Gronk Is Unveiled

Every range should have a shunter, and we took on board the sheer volume of requests we receive at shows, via email and on social media, to begin work on a family built around the Class 08 — the signature shunter on the UK network for almost 70 years.

Breaking new ground was essential, considering the excellent models already available. As well as adding our lighting suites, stay-alives, excellent sound, and fine detail, we were also able to take our Gronk into new territory by offering variants such as the Class 10 and the cut-down Class 08/9s for the first time in ready-to-run format. Future runs will explore other directions we take our locos in, and of course, some bread-and-butter 08s will always feature in the range.

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Shoe-Box Sleeper Awakens

We love being able to offer complete ranges of trains for modellers. What use are certain wagons or coaches if there are no quality locomotives to pull them — and vice versa? It takes time, but this has always been a philosophy for us.

One of our earliest pieces of synergy was producing the Caledonian Mk5 sleeper coaches and the Class 92s required to haul them. Now, to complete the Caledonian Sleeper set, we have unveiled the Class 73/9 locomotives, offering modellers the chance to recreate those shorter formations, as well as the GB Railfreight variants.

Speaking of range synergy — do we have something that will go with the GB Class 73/9s? You may just find out for yourself in 2026…

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The Green Goddesses of Ireland

Our fourth and final new powered model announcement of 2025 was actually our first of the year, consisting of the largest steam locomotives to run in Ireland: the B1a 800 Class 4-6-0s.

To mark IRM’s 10th anniversary, we decided we needed a very special, Irish-designed and built subject, and the 800s fit the bill perfectly. We held a very special and exclusive event at the Fry Model Railway Museum in Malahide, Dublin, to unveil the model alongside the scratch-built masterpiece created by Cyril Fry and the original nameplates on the museum wall.

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IRM Palvans

2025 saw the announcement of the final model to round off “Project Bulleid”, as we unveiled our Palvan range on the famous triangulated chassis.

Soon after unveiling the decorated samples, an eagle-eyed modeller spotted an error with the end vents being too small. Despite production being underway, our factory pulled out all the stops and retooled the parts to correct the error. We will forever be thankful to both our factory partner and the modeller who spotted it, allowing us to deliver a correct model rather than a flawed one. These are now on the high seas and will arrive in 2026!

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We Raise Cash for Brilliant Charities!

We love what we do — making high-quality model trains for modellers to enjoy running on their layouts, personalising on their workbenches, exhibiting at shows, collecting, and displaying.

However, we always feel we can do more for those less fortunate than ourselves, or to support the preservation of the real trains our models are based on. That’s why we run our charity initiatives.

To be honest, what we do is the easy bit. We offer a model, take the money, and donate it to a worthy cause. These campaigns would be absolutely useless without your help — and you do that by digging deep and buying the models.

So all we can say is thank you to everyone who bought 66190 this year in support of Martin House Children’s Hospice. Raising £10,000 for this very special charity is entirely down to your generosity.

People like the staff and volunteers at Martin House are the real heroes in our society. What they do for our most vulnerable children is nothing short of amazing.

Yes, you get a lovely model to remind you that you did “your bit”, but there are countless other things you could spend your money on. Choosing to support a cause in this way means the world to us and our charity partners.

Thank you so much.

Thank you also to everyone supporting our charity drives in 2026 with pre-orders for 60074 for the Teenage Cancer Trust, 92029 again for Martin House, and the restoration of Wilbert. All three models will be delivered in 2026, and will take our total charity donations since last year to £65,000.

Look out for a couple more charity-exclusive models to be announced in 2026!

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We Design a Livery for the Real Railway

Accurascale began leaving its mark on the real railway this year with a couple of memorable events during the summer.

Having been fantastically assisted on our award-winning Class 60 model by our friends at DC Rail, the conversation came up about doing a special livery for their next Class 60 due into traffic. Always keen to help, and thanks to the Cappagh Group, DC Rail, and UKRL, we were able to work on designing an actual livery for their next 60 to be outshopped from Loughborough.

60099 is a special Class 60 in the DC Rail story, being the first to receive a “Super 60” overhaul outside of DB and Toton.

As a result, 60099 will lead our next production run of Class 60s, and we have the exclusive rights to replicate the livery in miniature. Look out for delivery of the model as part of our "Accurascale Exclusives" range towards the end of next year.

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DB Cargo UK Names a Locomotive After Us!

It’s time for an obligatory "Father Ted" reference:

“July 19th - On this day:
Galway liberated from Indians
Marathon becomes Snickers
Ah ha Ted, Ice Age ends
DB Cargo names 66 091 ‘accurascale’”

Like Ted, Dougal, and Jack, we took a wee holiday on July 19th to the Midland Railway Centre as guests of the railway and DB Cargo UK as part of their Rail 200 event. At the event, our friend Pete Waterman unveiled the nameplate in the pouring rain after our Marketing Director accidentally kicked the microphone out of his hand as he was about to address the crowd — who had assembled diligently despite the poor weather. It replicated another great comedy moment, this time from Laurel and Hardy.

Still, not even Fran’s clumsiness could take away from this milestone in our young history — something we are immensely proud of.

Look out for a model announcement of 66 091 (along with more 66s) and a competition based around it in 2026. All we will say is: photographers, get your cameras ready!

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Two New Additions to the 'A' Team

We were delighted to grow our Accurascale family by two new members this year, both familiar faces in the model railway scene.

Stuart Brown joined us from the National Railway Museum and is now part of our Customer Service and Experience team. Stuart’s in-depth knowledge of model railways, as well as the history of real railways, is a huge benefit as we grow our support team and explore new projects.

Also joining us is James Makin as our Customer Experience and Online Marketing Manager. You may know James from his numerous weathering tutorials for our "Let's Get Involved" series on our website, as well as from exhibiting his layout "Wells Green TMD" and his active involvement in his local model railway club.

Both James and Stuart have already made a big impact, and we will be looking to expand our team even further in 2026 — so look out for opportunities being advertised in the new year!

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We've Won a Few Awards

Once again, your support has seen us perform well in the annual awards run by Model Rail, British Railway Modelling, and Hornby Magazines in 2025. You voted for the following models to win these prizes:

Class 31

• Model Rail Diesel/Electric Locomotive of the Year (OO Gauge)
• BRMA Diesel/Electric Locomotive of the Year (OO Gauge)

Class 60

• Hornby Magazine Locomotive of the Year (OO Gauge)

SR Banana Vans

• BRMA 00 Gauge Wagon of the Year

Innovation of the Year

• Accurascale Lifetime Warranty (BRMA)

On top of that, we won OO Gauge Manufacturer of the Year across all three awards, as well as overall Manufacturer of the Year.

A sincere thank you from all of us at Accurascale to everyone who voted for us. These awards are a reflection that you value what we do, how we do it, and at the right price! We hope to be in your thoughts again in 2026.

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Accurascale On Tour

We covered many a show, both large and small, across the UK and Ireland throughout 2025. From Glasgow to Dublin and Birmingham twice, to NIOG and Stafford and everyone was nice!

There are too many to mention really, but thank you to everyone who came to see us, and here are some photos from our trips on the circuit!

Look out for us again in 2026 at Model Rail Scotland, Model World Live, GETS and other shows which we will advertise in due course!

We also may have a little event ourselves, something a little bit different. So, keep an eye out for that too... 

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In Memoriam

While 2025 was a brilliant year for us with so many new model deliveries, it was also our saddest year to date, as we lost two brilliant people who helped us from the very beginning.

Andy York

March 2025 brought the devastating news that Andy York, creator of RMWeb, BRM Maestro, and former Accurascale product photographer, passed away after a short illness.

Andy created one of the strongest communities in the hobby through RMWeb. He championed the hobby and supported all the younger manufacturers like us and allowed our voices be heard. RMWeb was an invaluable platform for us early on, and Andy gave us fair hearing, publicity, advice, and support.

A great hole has been left in the hobby since Andy’s passing. We plan to introduce a model as a tribute to him in the future, perhaps in late 2026 or 2027. Personally, it’s still hard to visit RMWeb some days, but we will endeavour to be more active there in 2026 to help customers once again.

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Mike Romans

In mid-December, we lost another dear friend to Accurascale — Mike Romans, who also supported many of our projects. Known to us as "One Take Mike", he was instrumental in our GWR/BR 78xx Manor locomotives and assisted with other GWR subjects like the new Pannier Tanks and Siphon Gs.

Why "One Take Mike"?

When launching the Manor, Mike secured us full access to Cookham at Didcot. Despite us being relatively unknown at the time, he backed us to ensure we were supported. During a launch video for Hornby Magazine, Fran lacked the detailed subject knowledge to speak confidently on camera, so Mike stepped in — and delivered the entire segment flawlessly in one take. Ever since, we’ve referred to him as "One Take Mike".

Mike will also be attributed to using our models in the future. News on that will be forthcoming, but our thoughts remain with the York and Romans families. May they both rest in peace.

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Looking Ahead to 2026

We’ve reached the end of an action-packed review of 2025, which has been our biggest year yet. We would like to thank all our customers, supporters, and team for a fantastic year, and wish you all a very happy New Year.

What will 2026 bring? Along with all-new wagons and coaches promised, and following a relatively quiet year for new tooling announcements in 2025, 2026 could be a bumper 12 months of announcements. We could see as many as half a dozen newly tooled powered announcements — perhaps even more. That does not include new runs of your favourite Accurascale models!

This is on top of deliveries of Class 31s, 37s, NIR Hunslets, 800s, ICRs, Hunslet Austerity Tanks, Class 50s, 60s, 92s, Manors and more!

So start speculating, start saving, start salivating — and we will see you in the new year!

Want something now? Click on the link below to browse our range of in stock locomotives, wagons and accessories!

Browse The In Stock Range Here!

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[Mol_PMB]

An excellent write-up of an excellent year. Well done and thank you!

I look forward to the forthcoming Irish model deliveries and the new announcements. And I'll get my Palvan order placed .

Plenty of exciting hints about new tooling, hopefully some of it Irish. 

42 minutes ago, Warbonnet said:

Every range should have a shunter

So will it be a D, E or G class, or even a variety of J?

 

All the best for 2026!