We Take On Some Hattons Originals Favourites - Warwells, P and Andrew Barclay Tanks
Our hobby has been rocked by the news that Hattons Model Railways, a stalwart in the industry since the 1940s, has decided to close their doors for the last time. The familiar parcels wrapped in twine that many of us remember for many years have gone, along with one of the absolute pioneers of British retail with mail order, online sales and an eye for a shrewd deal along the way.
We may only be around for 6 years now, so we only had the pleasure of working for Hattons in their very final years. But, what a pleasure that has been, and a relationship that has educated us as well as helped us to preach the gospel that is Accurascale to even more modellers. From top to bottom, they have been fantastic to deal with and we hope that their staff and management go on to have great success in new roles and careers.
But, some of Hattons will live on, and we are delighted and privileged to be able to play a small role in securing their legacy.
As you may already know, acquired the tooling of the Hattons Originals Class 66 locomotives and announced a whole new run with some added Accurascale ingredients at Model Rail Scotland 2023. The production is now almost complete on those locomotives and they ship in mid February.
Utilising that existing relationship with Hattons, we have also been able to secure the future of other "Hattons Originals" toolings, beginning with the OO gauge Warwell wagons, The P Class 0-6-0 tank engine and the Andrew Barclay 0-4-0 tank locomotive. These three models will now join the Accurascale range forevermore! All three models are currently in different stages of production, with Hattons taken pre-orders on all three projects before they closed.
We will update you on each project separately in future, but for now the current status of each project is below;
OO Warwells
The Warwells are complete and will leave the factory in China just after Chinese New Year in late February, landing in stock with us in April 2024. The price of these will be maintained the same as the Hattons price of £25 each. Free UK Postage and Packaging and 3% cashback (When in our Free Rewards Club) on all orders applies. Our new "Accuracare" lifetime warranty will apply to these wagons too!
Trains4u will receive their special limited edition commission as planned. Please contact them for further details on those.
Andrew Barclay 0-4-0 ST
We're delighted to report that these locomotives are at decoration stage which we will reveal in the coming weeks. Production is slated to begin after the Chinese New Year break and delivery will be in Q4 2024.
Unfortunately, with rising costs, the original price of £85 was impossible to maintain, so these locomotives are now priced at £99.95 each. However, with free postage and packaging and 3% cashback on all orders we can still soften the increase with some added value. They will also be covered by our new lifetime "Accuracare" warranty.
P Class
These locomotives are also at the decoration stage which we will also reveal very soon. Production is also slated to begin post Chinese New Year with delivery also in Q4 of 2024. These are likely to arrive after the Andrew Barclay tanks.
As per the Andrew Barclay tanks, the P will also see an increase in price to £99.95, but with free postage and packaging and 3% cashback on all orders we can still soften that increase, along with covering them with our new lifetime "Accuracare" warranty.
Your Hattons Pre-Orders
So, if you have pre-ordered Warwells, P or Andrew Barclay, what happens next?
Hattons will contact you asking if you have any objections with them moving your pre-orders to us. If you do not, then we will need you to register an account on our website and log your payment details for your pre-order. This is so we can safeguard your pre-order so you do not miss out.
If you do not register after 2 weeks, we will consider your pre-order cancelled and we will offer the model for sale to other customers.
Next Steps And Placing Pre-Orders
As we are so deep into the production process on the P Class and the Andrew Barclay tank locos we cannot add any further locomotives to the production run, or make any further changes such as offering DCC Sound Fitted options. The specification will remain the same as Hattons originally specified when they first announced this new production run of locomotives. These models will be for sale exclusively on our website only in order to protect historic pre-orders and keep prices as low as we can in line with Hattons.
As mentioned earlier, the commission of Warwells by Trains4u will remain in place and will be delivered to Trains4u in April as planned. Please see them for more information about those models.
And finally, the question many of you may be asking; what other Hattons Originals models have joined our line up? Well, you will have to keep an eye on us for future announcements later this year and beyond to find out!
Pre-Order Your OO Gauge Warwell Here: https://www.accurascale.com/collections/50t-kwa-warwell
Pre-Order Your Andrew Barclay Tank Here: https://www.accurascale.com/collections/andrew-barclay-14-16-0-4-0st-industrial
Pre-Order Your P Class Tank Here: https://www.accurascale.com/collections/secr-p-class-locomotive