Category: Class 175

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Colour Coradias and adorned Adelantes!

Revolution Trains has received decorated samples of its forthcoming OO gauge class 175 Coradia and class 180 Adelante units for assessment.

These will be checked and assessed and any modifications or amendments sent to the factory. With this in mind we have set a pre-order deadline of 31 January 2026 for these models – once orders close they will go into production and delivery is expected in Q3 2026.

Class 175

The Class 175 units are being offered in Arriva Trains Wales an Transport for Wales liveries, as they operated for two decades around Wales and north west England, until withdrawal at the end of 2023. The fleet is currently being prepared for introduction by GWR on its trains in Devon and Cornwall with the fleet expected to be in full service by the end of 2026.

Revolution is offering 175008 (2-car) and 175103 (3-car) in Arriva livery, and 175003 (2-car)and 175107 (3-car) in Transport for Wales colours.

Prices are:

2-car trains: DC/DCC ready £225.00 (post-production MSRP £274.95); DCC Sound: £320 (post-production MSRP £369.95)

3-car trains: DC/DCC ready £270.00 (post-production MSRP £339.95); DCC Sound: £365 (post-production MSRP £434.95)

All models come with speaker pre-fitted, inter-car power couplers and working headlights, tail lights and interior and door lock lighting. One decoder is needed per unit and is easy to install in a 21-pin MTC socket.

Class 180

The Class 180 was designed for high speed inter-city services operated by First Great Western from London to the west country; however unreliability issues plagued their early years. They did eventually settle down into service, and operated in the stylish dynamic lines colours with First Great Western and with Hull Trains.

Since 2009 the trains have progressively entered service with Grand Central on its East Coast routes, and four former Hull Trains units have also operated with East Midlands Railway.

Revolution is offering complete five car trains in the following liveries:

First ‘Dynamic Lines’ – 180102 First Great Western, 180109 Hull Trains.

Grand Central: 180107 Hart of the North (replaces 180108 William Shakespeare), 180112 James Herriott (with green stripe on one driving car).

180107 Hart of the North (changed from 180108 William Shakespeare): bright orange stripe, Grand Central branding, no blue disabled access door stickers or orange bike stickers (as ran from approximately 2010 to 2018)

180112 James Herriott: later duller orange/old gold stripe (except for green stripe on one driving car), Grand Central by arriva branding, blue disabled access door stickers and orange bike stickers (as ran from 2019)

Prices are:

5-car trains: DC/DCC ready £350.00 (post-production MSRP £449.95); DCC Sound: £445 (post production MSRP £544.95)

EMR – Rails of Sheffield exclusive

Two units: 180109 and 180113 have been commissioned by Rails of Sheffield in the attractive East Midlands Railway scheme and can be pre-ordered direct from Rails. Please note the N gauge sample is shown below.

All the models will be going into production after Chinese New Year in 2026 and are expected to ship in Q3 2026.

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Class 175 and 180 in OO/4mm available to pre-order now!

Our much-anticipated Class 175s and 180s are now available to pre-order in OO gauge/4mm scale. If you order before the end of July 2023 you will benefit from our discounted early-bird prices!

The Class 175s are £215 (increasing to £225 after 31 July 2023) for 2-car units or £255 (increasing to £270 after 31 July) for 3-car units.

The 5-car Class 180s are £330 at early-bird prices (increasing to £350 after 31 July 2023).

As well as our low prices you can also take advantage of our deposit option (pay half now and half on delivery) if you would like to spread the cost. All units are DCC ready, but DCC sound versions are available of all versions.

We are offering a selection of liveries:

Class 175 in Arriva Train Wales and Transport for Wales liveries (both offered in 2 or 3 car sets):

Class 180 in Grand Central and First Dynamic Lines (choice of Hull Trains or First Great Western (First Great Western not shown.)

Missing liveries

Some of you may have noticed some missing liveries. We would really like to offer these to 4mm modellers but sales in N gauge have not been great, so we are asking for expressions of interest in these versions. If we get sufficient expressions of interest in any of these liveries we will put them on sale. Please submit expressions of interest as soon as possible but no later than 31 August 2023. Please note this is not a commitment to purchase and so there is no benefit in waiting until the deadline – the sooner we know that there’s interest the better!

Class 175 First North Western

Class 180 First Barbie (Great Western or Northern) and EMR

If you would like to express interest in any of these liveries please complete the short form here before 31 August 2023.

Purchase OO gauge Class 175 or 180 DMUs
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Revolution goes ahead – with Adelante and Coradia!

Revolution Trains is offering the Class 180 ‘Adelante’ and Class 175 ‘Coradia’ units as its next multiple unit models in both 00 and N.

Grand Central Class 180 ‘Adelante’ – photo courtesy Hugh Llewelyn under Creative Commons
Arriva Trains Class 175 ‘Coradia’

Both families of units were buit by Alstom in Birmingham and share numerous similarities in design, meaning that many parts can be shared between the models to make them both viable.

CAD work on the N gauge models is almost complete; the 00 version will follow soon afterwards.

Class 180 with lower fairing cover removed
Class 175/0 two car unit

Prototype history

The Class 175 and Class 180 are both members of the Alstom Coradia family of units and share many common features and parts.

27 Class 175 units, in a mix of two and three car configurations, were ordered by First North Western in 1997 with the first delivered in 1999. They were used on services between Birmingham, Holyhead, Llandudno, Manchester and Barrow.

175006 passes Anglesey Aluminium while 60020 waits with a train of IWA vans. The vans are the type recently produced by Revolution in 00 and N and available from selected retailers. Photo courtesy Ken Minffordd.

Later they transferred to Arriva Trains Wales and were introduced on the Welsh Marches line to Cardiff, reaching Fishguard and the Pembroke Coast. Since 2018 they have been in the service of Transport for Wales and are now seen from south west Wales and Holyhead across to Stockport, Manchester Piccadilly and Birmingham International.

175002 in Transport for Wales livery at Abergavenny. Photo by Jeremy Segrott used under creative commons.

The Class 180 units are a 5-car 125mph high-speed express member Coradia family. 14 sets were ordered by First Great Western and given the brand name ‘Adelante’, which means ‘go ahead’ in Spanish and explains our terrible headline pun above. Intended for high speed express services to sout Wales, they were plagued by technical problems and later used for fast commuter trains from Oxford, Gloucester and Exeter to London.

180106 at Reading. Photo by Hugh Llewelyn used under creative commons.

Between 2008 and 2020 Hull Trains used four Class 180s, though these units have recently been transferred to East Midlands railway and are now in use between London St Pancras, Nottingham, Derby and Sheffield.

180108 at Harringay. Photo by Hugh Llewelyn, used under creative commons.

In 2009 Grand Central introduced two units for its services between London Kings Cross, Sunderland and Bradford, and now has ten in operation in its striking black and orange livery.

Like the prototype, the Revolution Class 175 and 180 will share many common features, including full interiors, working and switchable headlights, tail lights and interior saloon lights as standard and kinematic power couplers allowing the entire train to be controlled by a single DCC decoder.

Class 175/1 three-car unit.

The models will be fitted with a low-profile chassis, allowing interiors to be depicted on all cars, and Next-18 (N) or Plux-22 (00) decoders. The decoder will accessed via an underfloor panel to make fitting or changing simple. In addition all models will be have factory-fitted speakers for simple sound upgrades.

DCC decoder socket and lighting control switches below the floor for easy access.

The Class 180s will have a similar specification to the 175s.

Revolution plans to offer a selection of versions, though the exact line up has not yet been confirmed.

175 – First North Western
175 – Arriva Trains Wales
175 – Transport for Wales
Class 180 – First Great Western launch livery.
Class 180 – Grand Central livery.
Class 180 – First Group ‘dynamic lines’ livery.
Class 180 – EMR ‘Intercity’ livery.

The order book will be opening very shortly in both scales, and as ever we will be offering a low EarlyBird price to reward those who step up and pre-order.

Revolution Trains would like to thank Alsom, Transport for Wales and Grand Central for their assistance in producing this model.