BR Standard Class 4MT 4-6-0 to undergo major upgrade
Date: 23 July 2007
Source: Bachmann
Bachmann Europe Plc today announced at its Annual Trade Open Day that it is to upgrade its OO gauge BR Standard 75xxx 4MT 4-6-0 over the next year by introducing new body tooling and a new chassis to accommodate DCC sockets. This model was one of the first to be introduced thirty years ago by the former Mainline Railways and was produced for them by Bachmanns parent company, Kader Industrial. When production of Bachmann commenced in 1989, the BR Standard 4MT was reintroduced in 1990. It was last produced by Bachmann in 2002.
Graham Hubbard, Managing Director said the 75xxx is the next locomotive to benefit from our on-going upgrade programme. It was one of the first locomotives we introduced after starting the company and we reached a point where the tooling had become life expired. The model is still in constant demand and we feel the time is right to bring it back, albeit in a very different form. Out goes the old split chassis and in its place will be a new DCC Ready chassis. We will also retool the bodyshell resulting in a brand new locomotive.
British Railways built 80 locomotives between May 1951 and June 1957. The first was withdrawn in December 1964 and the last in August 1968 with the end of steam traction on the national standard gauge network.
Work on the upgrade has now begun with the drawing work underway and the new models will be introduced into the range in 18 months time.
Further details regarding these models will be released at the London Toy Fair in January 2008.
BE 2007-38
