The Park Royal D.177 Snack Car No. 2425 is, in itself, a beautifully produced and highly distinctive model. The black and orange livery is extremely well applied, the printed details are crisp, and the glazing and interior are particularly impressive. The roof, bogies and underframe are also finished to Accurascale’s usual high standard.
Unfortunately, my example arrived without several important pieces of its protective packaging. There was no black sponge above the model, no black foam on either side of the plastic coach housing, and none of the polystyrene protection supplied with the other coaches in the same order.
The incomplete packaging made this look very much like a customer return that had been placed back into stock without being properly checked or repackaged. Although I have not identified any obvious damage to the coach itself, this is simply not the condition in which an item sold as brand new should arrive.
It is a five-star model, but the apparent lack of inspection and quality control has seriously affected the overall purchase experience. It felt like a second hand product off eBay. Regrettably, I can therefore only award it two stars.
