Rapido OO Gauge Future Releases

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Models under development

As the turn of the last century approached, the Midland Railway wanted to improve services and modernise, whilst remaining competitive and comfortable for passengers. With a variety of routes between London and the North, it was important for them to be mindful of this fierce competition.However, with profits in mind, and the ever-growing weight and size of express locos being rolled out by their competitors, the Midland Railway wanted a way to achieve this goal without the costly expenditure of replacing or upgrading bridges that imposed restrictions on loco weights.Thankfully, this conveniently coincided with the Midland experimenting with loco wheel arrangements throughout the late 1800s, led by designer Samuel W. Johnson. By 1900 the 4-4-0 arrangement had won the arms race, beating the iconic ‘Singles’, as such, a multitude of 4-4-0 locos were built, these were designated as Class 2’s.With further developments in boiler designs and the advent of superheaters, loco technology had moved on quite a bit through the early 1900s, and with the aforementioned profits on the minds of the Midland Railways leadership it was decided that the Class 2s would receive an upgrade in the way of a ‘rebuild’.Utilising a variety of parts from the existing Class 2s, the ‘rebuilds’ received new frames, new larger driving wheels, new cylinders, and the newly developed ‘Belpaire’ G7S boiler, which were also fitted with Schmidt’s superheaters. These rebuilds were assigned the class number 483. Though with that many new parts, it would be fair to say that the term rebuild could justifiably be put in inverted commas.

Midland Railway 483 class 4-4-0

As the turn of the last century appr...

Rapido Trains UK is evolving pre-grouping passenger stock in an exciting new way! They are proud to announce that we will be adding a diverse collection of pre-grouping carriages to our OO Gauge range, with the new 48ft Evolution bogie coaches.With numerous locos and a boatload of era-appropriate wagons under their belt, the pre-grouping era has become a quintessentially ‘Rapido’ thing, so they thought it was about time they produced some more suitable coaches.Although some have already been seen in ready-to-run versions, it seemed unlikely that all of the well-known pre-1923 companies would receive a wide selection of accurate bogie coaching prototypes in OO gauge. With a selection of generic 48ft bogie coaches, each detailed with an array of key features that modellers associate with their railway of choice. They have dubbed this exciting new coach project ‘Evolution’.

Evolution Coaches

Rapido Trains UK is evolving pre-gro...

Constructed between the early-1920s and mid-1930s the LMS produced numerous iron ore hoppers using a variety of diagram numbers, however for the most part they looked identical. Built by several contractors, diagrams 1893, 1894, 1941 and 1942 only differed with the steel that was used to construct them and a handful of buffer varieties.

LMS Iron Ore Hopper

Constructed between the early-1920s ...

Designed and built by the Great Northern Railway, the 8-Ton van was conceived as a multi-purpose express covered goods vehicle and was subsequently constructed in numerous variants to accommodate more specialised traffic.

Designed and built by the Great Nort...

Rapido Trains OO gauge GWR Open C long open tube wagon diagram O19 GWR and BR liveries

OO GWR Open C Tube Wagon

A very useful timber and steel wagon...

Rapido Trains models of the BR diagram 1/801 insulated express fish vans in blue spot, ice blue and express parcels liveries

BR Insulated Fish Vans

BR diagram 1/801 express fish and pa...

Rapido Trains UK OO gauge models of the Caledonian Railway doagram 67 10-ton ventilated box van finished in Caledonian, LMS, BR and industrial liveries including Cabdurys

Rapido OO Caledonian Railway Box Van

Caledonian Railway ventilated box va...

As the railways established themselves as a reliable method to transport goods one problem came to the forefront – Fire.Steam locos fundamentally need a heat source created from some form of fire to turn water into steam. However, this fire, alongside sparks emitted from the chimney, caused great concern in environments where munitions, fuel or other flammable materials were being moved or stored. What was needed was a locomotive that didn't have a naked flame on board.As these locations usually had a stationary steam boiler, often supplying steam at high pressure to provide heat for processing materials and run factory machinery one simple solution was to use this steam supply to run the a locomotive by charging the 'boiler' from the factory steam supply. Such a locomotive would be able to run for a period of time without needing a fire to generate steam and was known as a fireless locomotive. It quickly became obvious that, not needing water tanks, a much larger 'boiler' could be carried and accommodate extra lagging to reduce heat loss, thus extending the time between steam charges. As no actual heating of the water was done on the locomotive this large boiler-like vessel is called a steam reservoir.At the start of a shift this reservoir would be charged at the best possible pressure, preferably several hundred lbs psi, resulting in a mix of water and steam in the reservoir. Work would then commence, normally using steam at a much reduced pressure, often 60-100 lbs psi, with larger cylinders being fitted to produce a tractive effort similar to a small conventional locomotive.As the pressure in the reservoir begins to fall the water in the reservoir turns to steam and often these fireless locomotives would be able to work over 4 hours between charges, usually being recharged as they crew took their break.In its' refined form the result is a design that appears to have a very large boiler, but lacks other features which people associate with traditional steam locomotives, such as a firebox, smokebox and chimney. The lack of the fire and chimney also allows the cylinders to be mounted at the rear, which improves efficiency as steam pipes are much shorter with the drivers controls, clylinders and steam exhaust at the rear of the cab all grouped closely together and offers a better weight distribution between the driven axles.Almost all the British locomotive builders built or were able to offer a fireless locomotive design but the most prolific builder of the type was Andrew Barclay & Co. Ltd of Kilmarnock. An impressive 114 were built between 1913 and 1961 to a number of standard basic designs, often customised for customer requirements. Rapido Trains have selected one of the most numerous of the Barclay designs, the 'Caledonia'. This was a 'stock' design, Barclay's keeping a semi-completed locomotive or parts ready for assembly on hand, allowing an order for a base locomotive or with standard factory options only to be supplied very quickly.In service the fireless locomotive was as robust as a conventional steam locomotive but suffered much less from wear and needed much less maintenance. Even the steam reservoir is a much less complex pressure vessel than a steam boiler and, with the 'fuel' on an industrial site with high-pressure steam readily available being effectively free, a fireless was often more economical than a diesel shunter. While coal fired locomotives had generally been replaced by the early 1970s many petro-chemical plants retained their fireless steam locomotives with several examples still hard at work in the 1980s. While a number of fireless engines have been preserved it is unusual to see one in operation as heritage railways generally do not have a suitable steam source available and the locomotives' low power precluding revenue-earning passenger train haulage. At least one has been run however, charged with steam from another

Rapido OO Andrew Barclay Fireless 0-4-0

Andrew Barclay Caledonia class 0-4-0...

Rapido Train UK 1:76 OO scale models

SECR O1 Class 0-6-0 OO

Elegant Victorian era goods engines ...

These started life on the GNR, where they were classified as J13 and based on the Stirling-designed J14 (which featured a domeless boiler). Of course, you can’t trust domeless engines, so Henry Ivatt refined this design with a more efficient and domed boiler variant. They would be fitted with a boiler the same length as the one on the J14, but had an increased diameter. The first J13s rolled off the factory floor in 1897 to work alongside their domeless counterparts on shunting duties.Between then and 1909, a total of 85 of the class were produced, some at the GNR’s works at Doncaster, and others at a variety of contractors, such as R. Stephenson & Co. The updated design proved effective and as locos moved into LNER ownership many of the J14s were rebuilt as J13s.Under the LNER the J13s that were domed from the day they were built were reclassified as the J52/2. The class became a common sight in North London, covering the North London Line, Kings Cross, and numerous marshalling yards up and down the country.Plans were put into motion to scrap the J52s in the mid-1930s, however, this cull ceased when the war broke out in 1939, as any functional locomotive was pressed into service. With the introduction of numerous diesel shunters under the modernisation plan, the withdrawal of the J52s sadly continued.In 1959 and only a couple of years before the entire class were scrapped, Captain Bill Smith stepped in and saved loco No. 68846 from its inevitable fate. He became the owner of the World’s very first privately owned BR steam locomotive, and the J52/2 earned itself a permanent place in the annals of railway preservation history. The aptly and affectionately named Old Lady would live on. Once in his possession, she was repainted into her beautiful pre-grouping guise and renumbered to the iconic 1247.With a gorgeous livery, long service history and historical claim to fame, 1247 will always have a fond place in the hearts of travelling enthusiasts and preservation modellers alike. The Captain's decisive action showed that preservation was possible, and sparked a wave of like-minded enthusiasts to follow suit.The J52/2 model has been designed using works drawings to ensure its accuracy and features a variety of liveries covering the loco's history, such as the bold pre-grouping colours of the GNR, through to various black liveries it sported in its final years. Modellers can look forward to a smooth-running mechanism a factory-installed speaker and a warming firebox glow.The model is currently in the last design stage of development and will enter tooling shortly.

GNR J13 LNER J52 0-6-0ST OO

Distinctive GNR saddle tank engines,...

Rapido Trains OO gauge models of Port of Par Bagnall locomotives Judy and Alfred in lined green, plain green and yelow ochre. DC and DCC sound.

Port of Par Bagnall 0-4-0ST OO

Low-height Bagnalls Judy & Alfred ar...

Rapido Trains OO gauge Manning Wardle L class 0-6-0ST contractors & industrial shunting engines

OO Manning Wardle L Class 0-6-0ST

Industrial shunting engines built 18...

Raipdo Trains model of the USATC S160 2-8-0 locomotives brought over from the USA during WW2 support the liberation of Europe

USATC S160 2-8-0 OO Gauge

Liveries announced! American Army 2-...

New projects being developed by Rapido Trains, full details to follow. Metropolitan No.1 BR Drewry class 04 shunters GWR small prairies

Rapido Trains OO GWR Small Prairies

Starting with the 44xx class. This c...

Rapido Trains OO gauge models of the GWR diagram E140 brake composite coaches built to form two-coach B set trains. Sold as a pair.

Rapido Trains OO GWR B Sets

Order book closes 15th April. Pairs ...

Rapido Trains OO gauge models of the Hunslet 16in size 0-6-0 saddle tank industrial, shunting locomotives.

OO Hunslet 16in 0-6-0ST Batch 2

Industrial Shunting Engine. The 16in...

Rapido Trains UK OO gauge models of LNWR D88 design covered vans in LNWR, LMS, BR, Army & Chatham dockyard liveries

OO LNWR D88 Covered Vans

Vans from Britains largest pre-group...

Rapido Trains OO gauge models of the Highland Railway Jones goods 4-6-0 locomotives

OO Highland Rly Jones Goods

Britains first 4-6-0 locomotives bui...

Rapido Trains oo gauge models of the LBSCR E1 class 0-6-0 tank engines used by the LBSC, SR, Isle of Wight and BR

Rapido OO LBSCR E1

Order book closes 15th April. LB&SCR...

Rapido Trains OO gauge models of mineral and coal wagons RCH 1907 design many colourful private owners

RCH 1907 Private Owner Wagons OO

A new model of the RCH 1907 design w...

Rapido Trains GWR wagons. Loriot well wagon Toad goods train brake van

GWR Wagons OO Gauge

Open wagons and vans from C1900 to t...