In response to (overwhelming!) customer demand, Revolution Trains is making its poseable Brecknell Wills high-speed pantographs available as spares.
Small and hard to photograph! (Two shown in different poses but sold as singles)
The pantographs will be priced at £6.95. They are made of injection-moulded plastic with photo-etched metal heads and painted base insulator pots. As supplied these are intended as cosmetic accessories, they are unable to collect current, and are un-sprung but poseable.
Revolution Trains Class 92 locomotive fitted with Brecknell Willis high speed pantographs. Photo courtesy George Dent/Model Rail.
They include full instructions to assist with fitting, and are available to order immediataly.
Revolution Trains is offering N gauge enthusiasts yet another load for their intermodal flat wagons in the form of two types of 20′ gypsum container.
A and B type containers on PFA flats. Wagons and gypsum containers being sold separately.
Gypsum is a vital constituent in plaster and plasterboard as well as cosmetics, toiletries and fertilizers. It can be mined, but is also a by-product from power stations, and gypsum traffic has been a lucrative source of revenue for the railways for many years.
It can be carried in open box wagons, but in the late 1980s various batches of 20′ containers, to several similar designs, were introduced and these remain in service. Gypsum trains run across the network; notable flows are between British Gypsum at Mountfield, near Hastings in East Sussex, and Newbiggin in Cumbria and power stations in Nottinghamshire, Yorkshire, and Cheshire among others.
60041 with gypsum containers on PFA wagons
Originally carried on 4-wheel PFA wagons, nowadays they are conveyed on standard 60′ intermodals such as KFAs (as previously manufactured by Revolution), FEA-Bs, FCAs and IFA Megafrets. When introduced they were painted white, with the blue British Gypsum logo of the time on a placard, however by the late 1990s they were being repainted blue and a revised logo was introduced.
Nowadays, many have had the logo, and even the placard on some containers, removed, and they tend to be fairly heavily weathered.
Gypsum containers as offered by Revolution on Tiphook KFA 93330. Photo courtesy Dan Adkins.
Gypsum containers currently in use are 20′ long with various arrangements of bodyside ribs, owner placards and end doors and Revolution is offering two types: one with full height bodyside ribs and one with a top rail.
Type A gypsum container
Type B gypsum container
The models are being manufactured for Revolution by Accurascale, based on their well-received 00 versions, and will be offered in two triple packs, priced at £17.95 each, less than £6 per container.
Pack 1 – British Gypsum original white livery. Please note contents may vary slightly from those shown.
Pack 2 – British Gypsum revised blue livery. Please note contents may vary slightly from those shown.
These models are expected to be produced alongside our forthcoming PFA container flats, and we hope to have them by Summer 2021.
Gypsum containers on Revolution Trains KFA container flat
Update 02/12/2020: we underestimated the demand for our NEM screwlink couplers and the initial batch sold out in less than 12 hours! We’ll be able to source a few more packs, but we will investigate placing a much larger order.
Since offering our IPA car carriers (and before that the IZA Cargowaggons) we’ve lost count of the number of times we’ve been asked to supply the realistic, fixed couplers supplied with the models as accessories.
So we’ve listened – and here they are!
The couplers are designed to represent the screwlinks used by nearly all British freight rolling stock, and some passenger vehicles. They are being offered in two lengths – short (14mm length overall) and medium (19mm length overall) and have NEM tongues at either end.
19mm coupler (left) and 14mm coupler
They are one-piece mouldings and cannot be coupled and uncoupled; they are designed to offer a more realistic and discreet appearance than the traditional N gauge coupler on fixed rakes of wagons.
Medium couplers on Revolution Trains TEA tankers
The shorter couplers are those supplied with the IZAs and IPAs and are suitable for vehicles with no buffers, or where kinematic coupler mounts allow vehicles to “open up” on tight, trainset curves of less than around 381mm (15″) radius. The longer ones are intended for vehicles with buffers, or without kinematic coupler mounts.
Medium couplers fitted to Dapol HIA hoppers.
Although Revolution’s fixed couplers are designed to fit any model with NEM coupler pockets, we have not been able to test them on every model available and due to huge variations in coupler position, buffer lengths, wheelbase, and whether the sockets are kinematic, body or bogie mounted some trial and error may be required.
The couplers are being offered in packs of 10 priced at £4.95 and three variants s are on offer: 10 x short, 10 x medium, and a mixed bag of 5 of each short and medium.
