REALTRACK models announce Class 143 and Class 144

[charliepetty]

EMUs?? 303 303 303 303 303 303 303 PLEASE!!!!!!!!!!!

dont make me come begging you at model rail scotland

 

Don't have to beg, we are not doing one! Charlie.

[surfsup]

SEATING. We are trying not to complicate matters with the Chinese, we are already asking them for Additional roof pods & BSI couplings!

Good suggestion though but no promises! Charlie P

 

Ok No probs, Looking foward to the 143 and mystery unit anyway

[charliepetty]

Wessex Trains Class 143 Liveries!

 

Looking for information on these please, we need to know:

 

Who made the real decals on the full size trains with the 'Visit Bristol' liveries. Charlie P

[The Black Hat]

Good news everyone! With Bachmann and Hornby making no models I want Im free to buy even more Pacers! Lifes great isnt it!!!!

 

[charliepetty]

Work progresses on the motor & drive system, all the motor & low profile gearboxes on the unit are far below window level so passengers can ride on the 'Cuddly Train' in comfort (Legs to be amputated though!) Bachmann style split axle system is being adopted as an efficient and more reliable way of getting electrical pickup from the track, the rear car will have the electronics & DCC fittings. Or that is the plan! Charlie P

[dave_long]

all the motor & low profile gearboxes on the unit are far below window level so passengers can ride on the 'Cuddly Train' in comfort  

 

I thought you were making them realistic I dont ever remember them being comfy!

[NickL2008]

I think ive been caught out with this! I start a 144 model, and someone is gonna release one in RTR form all that sanding and cutting gone to waste shall look forward to seeing progress on this model though! given me the kick up the backside to do finnish mine now!

 

NL

[JZjr]

I have recently started a 143 in FGW livery, I think I will finish it and use it until this comes out then it will be packaged up somewhere seeing little use!

[arran]

HI All

 

Some of the latest cad images, including an inside view.

 

Regards Arran

[chris_irl]

looking good

[James90012]

I note in the RailExpress modeller section that the price these expected to retail at is £89.99, which I think is reasonable with the specs mentioned. Are these likely to be available in all major model stores or just DC Kits suppliers?

[The Black Hat]

I notice theres a tension lock coupling on the model - is this interchangable with a dummy coupler for the unit. I'd expect so given it isnt hard to remove them, but then I can run two together! Means I need even more now!

[charliepetty]

I note in the RailExpress modeller section that the price these expected to retail at is £89.99, which I think is reasonable with the specs mentioned. Are these likely to be available in all major model stores or just DC Kits suppliers?

 

Class 144 Availability.

 

Selected stockists have been picked, we have them in Cornwall ,Oxford, London & Essex, Edinburgh, Newcastle & Darlington, Manchester, Peterborough,

Leicester, Bradford.

 

At shows DC Kits will have them, REALTRACK models will attend in person at NEC 2010, Glasgow, BRM 'Ali Pali', DEMU Bretby.

 

Online sales from www.realtrackmodels.co.uk & www.dckits-devideos.co.uk.

 

PROGRESS:

 

DESIGN. Bodyshell finished, Bi-Directional lighting finalised, Drive train and low profile gearboxes finished, internal DC Constant lighting finished, Underfloor super detailing in progress, Drivers Cab detailing finished.

 

Design work for the 143 Underfloor is underway to utilise the 144 chassis with modifications.

 

Tooling work for the bodyshell is underway and test samples are planned for Autumn.

 

We are putting a lot of effort into getting this right, so delays in samples are expected, it takes time to correct little errors so we are not rushing this, we know Bachmann are good at DMU's and that is what we are aiming high to achieve a quality product at a fair price.

 

The retail will be around £90 ish, please bear in mind we are not getting large quantities done so our costs are far higher than the big boys, what we are doing is making a quality product at a fair price, not a so-so product at £125.00.

 

Arran & Charlie

[magic_monkey09]

I was going to be a good boy and not buy much RTR this year....

 

they're not out until 2011 at the earliest mate so no need to worry about money just yet

 

i'm glad that a manufacturer has finally decided to produce a FGW local lines liveried unit... rumour has it that manufacturers have stayed clear of this livery for some reason

 

However, it will definately be an Arriva one for me living in Caerphilly after all

[richierich]

Looking forward to the 144, so common on the York-Harrogate-Leeds. Plus 143s where once on the Esk Valley too!

 

A new 142 to the same standards would be excellent!

 

A 141 would be brilliant, open the possibility to model a station on York-Harrogate line :-)

 

A real money spinner for Realtrack would be to develop a 1:76 scale working coupling that looks like a BSI coupling (a 1:76 scale Tomix Scheffenberg coupling as found on the Dapol 156 & 153), which would be available to retrofit to Hornby 142/153/156 and Bachmann 150/158/159/166/170 would be excellent!!!!

[charliepetty]

Looking forward to the 144, so common on the York-Harrogate-Leeds. Plus 143s where once on the Esk Valley too!

 

A new 142 to the same standards would be excellent!

 

A 141 would be brilliant, open the possibility to model a station on York-Harrogate line :-)

 

A real money spinner for Realtrack would be to develop a 1:76 scale working coupling that looks like a BSI coupling (a 1:76 scale Tomix Scheffenberg coupling as found on the Dapol 156 & 153), which would be available to retrofit to Hornby 142/153/156 and Bachmann 150/158/159/166/170 would be excellent!!!!

 

Let us walk before we can run! We currently have the 1st Batch of the FLA Wagons iminent (Late October), on arrival a second batch will be ordered with different running numbers & liveried Hi-Cubes. After that a second ALL NEW freight vehicle is slowly progressing. The 144 (2 Liveries) is at least 12 months away, (we are not promising unrealistic deliveries we cannot keep). Then we progress onto the 143 with a modified chassis/underframe and different seating layout & buffer beam, so at the moment we are fully commited to all our projects for two years.

After this lot we plan another DMU & Wagon. After these we are open to suggestions! Arran & Charlie

[The Black Hat]

I know the model is looking fantastic and that theres a lot of hard work gone into it - but can I ask one question about the lighting for the unit. Can the unit have independant tail lights. Often these units are seen standing in a station with both ends displaying a red set of tail lights at the same time, denoting that they are not going anywhere. It would mean that these would need to be seperate from the Headlights used on the units but in model form this would be invaluable, especially when running two units fixed together, as when coupled the inner lights dont run. It would mean the leading unit has its headlights working, tail lights disabled and the rear unit would just have its own tail lights running at the rear. This I feel would give the unit that extra sense of realism, especially for opperation, while personally Id love to have the unit sitting there with sound too, just idelling away with both reds on, and the carriage lights on too. I think the model is brilliant, but wonder if this extra detail could be included.

[charliepetty]

I know the model is looking fantastic and that theres a lot of hard work gone into it - but can I ask one question about the lighting for the unit. Can the unit have independant tail lights. Often these units are seen standing in a station with both ends displaying a red set of tail lights at the same time, denoting that they are not going anywhere. It would mean that these would need to be seperate from the Headlights used on the units but in model form this would be invaluable, especially when running two units fixed together, as when coupled the inner lights dont run. It would mean the leading unit has its headlights working, tail lights disabled and the rear unit would just have its own tail lights running at the rear. This I feel would give the unit that extra sense of realism, especially for opperation, while personally Id love to have the unit sitting there with sound too, just idelling away with both reds on, and the carriage lights on too. I think the model is brilliant, but wonder if this extra detail could be included.

 

Too complicated sorry: Currently the Headlights & Tailights are as standard, red to rear & and white to front when running, the change when direction changes. The units will have constant internal lighting for non DCC people, this is switchable thus can be on when stationery or moving.

If you DCC the unit with a 2 function decoder then you can have the heaD & tail lights doing what you want with a little rewiring.

 

The more we complicate it the dearer the model becomes, we are trying to make the unit reasonably priced for the small runs we are planning, Hornby etc can do runs of 10,000, sadly we are not! Charlie

[YesTor]

We currently have the 1st Batch of the FLA Wagons iminent (Late October), on arrival a second batch will be ordered with different running numbers & liveried Hi-Cubes.

I can't wait, I have four sets on order

 

Have you any idea yet which containers you will produce for the second set? How about 'K-Line' or 'Evergreen'?

[The Black Hat]

Shame about the lighting set up but its completly understandable. It would be quite tricky to get it all to work, even more so, when if you keep going down the DCC sound and light route, theres orange lights that come on with the door sounds and off with the closing doors and beep! Going to be costly getting these excellent new models and then getting them refitted further, but sure to be worth it in the end.

 

So, without wanting to enquire too much, are you making another annoucement for a DMU, later this year, or are you waiting for a while first, now that the 143 is going to happen too?

[magic_monkey09]

whilst we're on the topic of lighting will the Headlights be White/yellow rather than the unprototypical Audi LED blue ?

[charliepetty]

I can't wait, I have four sets on order

 

Have you any idea yet which containers you will produce for the second set? How about 'K-Line' or 'Evergreen'?

 

Evergreen will be issued with the second batch of FLA Flats, April is the plan! Just hope the Chinese remember what date we discussed!!!!!

 

Charlie

[charliepetty]

Shame about the lighting set up but its completly understandable. It would be quite tricky to get it all to work, even more so, when if you keep going down the DCC sound and light route, theres orange lights that come on with the door sounds and off with the closing doors and beep! Going to be costly getting these excellent new models and then getting them refitted further, but sure to be worth it in the end.

 

So, without wanting to enquire too much, are you making another annoucement for a DMU, later this year, or are you waiting for a while first, now that the 143 is going to happen too?

 

Unlike some! We have no intention of listing ALL our projects and then guessing deliveries. All this does is build up expectations which then get let down again when those deliveries are missed. We have four wagon projects and three DMU projects over and above what we have announced.

 

Our shedule is:

1/ The 144 with New Lights in Northern & Silver/Red 'Waves Livery' of W.Yorkshire PTE with Northern Branding. (Reason is they both ran together)

This is sheduled for 3rd Quarter 2011.

2/ The 143 in Arriva Trains Wales (Old Lights) and First GW 'Local Lines'(New Lights). (Again they run together, in Wales, Gloucestershire area)

 

3/ The 144 in W.Yorkshire PTE Red & Cream & Regional Railways (Old Lights & No Roofpod)

 

4/ The 143 in Valley Lines & Regional Railways (Old lights & No Roofpod)

 

5/ If interest is shown we will do a Class 144 in the 3 car version in both WYPTE Red & Cream & Northern Liveries.

 

6/ If Interest is shown we will do the 143 in Tyne & Wear PTE Yellow & White.

 

We have just recieved for evaluation the 'PACER' sounds on DCC, when completed these will be fitted to a DCC Sound 144 & 143, these will be the

aptly named 144 Penistone Line Partnership & 143 Sir Tom Jones, we are very greatfull for the help in creating this from the team at Newton Heath, Mick Bryant & especially Rob Bishop.

 

After the second batch of 144's have been ordered, all the work should be complete on DMU No 2, this will be announced when we are six months away from delivery, the liveries will be based on feed back from various sources (Including this thread/ RM Web) The new DMU has a far wider area of operation than the 143's and 144's. So that is all your going to know at the moment!

 

Arran & Charlie

[charliepetty]

whilst we're on the topic of lighting will the Headlights be White/yellow rather than the unprototypical Audi LED blue ?

 

Not had test samples yet, so cannot answer that one! Arran & Charlie

[pacer lover]

cwl

cant wait to get

The 143 in Arriva Trains Wales First GW 'Local Lines, Valley Lines and Regional Railways as know they all well

are u planing to the black bristol one ?

 

rob