Graham Farish to introduce Voyager, Meridian and Pioneer units
Date: 24 January 2007
Source: Graham Farish
Bachmann Europe today (24th January) announced that they are to produce Class 220 Voyager, Class 222 Meridian and Class 222 Pioneer diesel multiple units. These units were all built and developed by Bombardier Transportation over the past six years. The announcement of the Voyager will be seen by many as duplication as another manufacturer introduced it at the Warley National Model Railway Exhibition in December. Graham Hubbard, Managing Director of Bachmann Europe said today I am sorry if this angers N gauge modellers but we did announce our intention to duplicate successful models from our OO range in our N gauge Graham Farish range. I made this announcement at the AGM of the N Gauge Society a couple of years ago and we have been working on this project for some considerable time and we were already cutting metal in the tool room when Dapol announced their model. We gave way to Hornby on the OO gauge Grange a few years back and threw the work away. Last year Dapol announced the Ivatt tank and we changed direction to the BR Standard 3MT and again threw a lot of work away. I am not prepared to do it a third time and there are plenty of subjects available for companies to produce to avoid such duplication. When we announce models in advance we get pilloried for the long lead times by dealers and customers but it avoids wasting over a hundred thousand pounds on research, development and tooling. Thirty four Class 220 Voyagers were built for Virgin Trains during 2000 and 2001. Although non tilt versions they have the same body style as the forty four Class 221 Super Voyager tilting units which were built by Bombardier Transportation between 2001 and 2002. Bachmann introduced a OO gauge version of the Class 220 in 2002 and it has been available ever since. Bombardier Transportation secured an order for Midland Main Line for 16 x 4 car units. This was followed by a further order for 7 x 9 car units. The Meridians, although a development of the earlier Voyager units, differ considerably internally and are built to the standard loading gauge, rather than the tilt one. A further order was secured for Hull Trains, whose 4 x 4 car Class 222 units are known as Pioneers. These operate between London Kings Cross and Hull Paragon 7 times every weekday in each direction. They differ slightly from the Midland Main Line Meridians internally. The four car unit will be available from Graham Farish as a Virgin Trains Voyager (371-675), Midland Main Line Meridian (371-676) and Hull Trains Pioneer (371-677). The recommended retail price of each unit will be £109.95).
GF 2007-008
