New Announcement: 37/6 and As Built Type 3!
Syphon? Growler? Tractor? EE Type 3? Plain old Class 37? What do you call these iconic workhorses of the British railway network? Well, we call them 'our next project', and 'our most ambitious model announcement to date'. Welcome everyone, to the Accurascale Class 37!
Whoa! Okay, we can hear the howls of 'They've been done before to death! Why are you duplicating an existing model!?!' So let us explain...
Yes, the 37 has been done before, but existing models just don't do it for us and not all variants have been covered. It's evident too that modellers crave a whole new generation of Class 37s, with the latest technology, intricate detail differences, and the distinctive shape of these perfectly captured. We received a large amount of calls in our own customer poll and noted the demand in the recent 'Wishlist' poll for a 37 done 'The Accurascale Way', so here it is!
To kick off them we've decided to plug some of those gaps, the biggest being the Class 37/6. Amazingly these distinctive machines have never been done correctly as ready to run models before. Now they will be.
Acquired in three batches from Eurostar, the DRS Class 37/6s Nos. 37601-37612 are the missing link in the range of privatisation era diesels available to 4mm scale modellers with an outward appearance quite unlike a non-rebuilt locomotive.
We will be filling this huge gap with a first run comprised of seven different models, all with WIPAC light clusters and top headlight, that will set a new standard for unique detail configurations.
Featuring number-specific body, roof and nose tooling with a wide range of different separately-added plastic and etched metal parts, these authentic replicas also sport correct Class 50-style cast bogies, two styles of buffer, single or double nose multiple working sockets, a range of fuel tank, kick plate, body side window, step and nose grille combinations and optional miniature snowploughs.
We are doing a total of six different Class 37/6 locomotives in our first run, comprising of the various DRS liveries they have carried, as well as the distinctive Europhoenix livery with Rail Operations Group branding. All feature the specific details of the real locomotives each model is based on.
Of course, we couldn't just let the current scene have all the fun, so we thought about how we could offer new and different Class 37s to fans of other eras. We have a few identified, which we unveil throughout 2020. However, for now, we decided to bookend the career of these icons, and look at the very first EE Type 3s built way back in 1960.
The ‘early’ Class 37/0 represents D6700-6704, the first five locomotives delivered from English Electric’s famous Vulcan Foundry at Newton-le-Willows between December 1960 and January 1961. Distinctive compared to the other 114 split headcode machines due to their characteristic riveted multi-part cantrail grilles, our model perfectly represents this and a range of other as built features. Once again, these have not been previously done in this condition in OO gauge, so they offer a nice detail alternative to your fleet for your 1960s and 70s BR era layouts.
These include four-character headcode display, frost grille, double-riveted roof, bufferbeam cowling with large round Oleo buffers, body side water filler access door and steps, accurate early bufferbeam configuration with vacuum/steam/control piping only. There are also optional nose corner grabs, boiler exhaust panel (open or plated) and boiler water tank sight glass depending on locomotive number.
A definitive model of the English Electric Class 37 has been a long time coming. We're proud to bring this stalwart of over six decades of service to 4mm scale modellers in a multitude of different builder, era and locomotive-specific options. This is the first project from our Senior Project Manager, Gareth Bayer, and is the culmination of many years work. We are delighted to help Gareth bring this work to fruition! He seems pretty happy with it anyway, and who are we to argue?
We are taking our experience and technology from our other locomotive projects such as the Class 55 Delitc, the Class 92 Electric and sister brand IRM’s Irish Outline ‘A Class’ locomotive and applying the same top standards to produce the ultimate class 37. This includes; all-wheel drive, helical gearing, full and accurate lighting packages as per prototypes, stay-alive power pack to provide excellent performance over dirty track, large 5 pole centrally mounted can motor with twin flywheels and a heavy metal chassis with heavy metal thrash provided by ESU Loksound 5 and twin speaker arrangements in sound variants. Capping it all off is an accurate body shape capturing the character of these amazing locomotives and exhaustive attention to detail variants between individual locos.
CAD is largely complete with some tiny corrections required (those horn grills are in the wrong place in these renders. They will be corrected!) and a 3D print demonstrating the progress of the Class 37/6 to date will be available to view on the Accurascale stand at the Warley Show this weekend. Prices are £169.99 for DCC ready, and £259.99 for the DCC sound fitted versions.
These locomotives will also be available through our approved stockists as well as direct with us. If buying direct, a £30 deposit will be required to secure your order. Delivery is slated for Q4 2020. Orders can be placed here: https://accurascale.co.uk/collections/class-37