Niu Models - NER - LNER Independent Snowplough

[NiuModels]

Niu Models has announced the production of an OO Gauge ready-to-run model of an NER - LNER Independent Snowplough scheduled for release Summer 2020 Spring 2021 (delayed due to Covid-19 impact)

 

 

 

Edited July 27, 2021 by NiuModels
Revised release date.

[NiuModels]

The model will be available in three liveries; North Eastern Indian Red, LNER Engineering Blue, and British Rail Black.

 

It will be produced in a limited run of 135 models across the three liveries with an expected release date of Summer 2020....

The retail price will be confirmed when the pre-order scheme is opened in early 2020.

 

To register your interest in the Snowplough and be kept up to date with developments of this and other Niu Models locomotives, please email us at Niumodels@gmail.com

 

 

Snowploughs Nos 18, 19 & 20 were built in 1909 by York Carriage & Wagon Works for the North Eastern Railway. Ploughs No.18 & 20 were assigned to Shildon, near Darlington, while Plough No. 19 assigned to Tweedsmouth at Berwick.

 

While under BR ownership, Plough 18, at that time in BR Livery and carrying the number 900572, featured in the 1955 BTF Film 'Snowdrift at Bleath Gill' where it can be seen in conjunction with Plough 23 (BR Number 900577), rescuing BR Standard Class 2 No. 78018 from a snowdrift.

 

Plough 19 remained at Tweedmouth until 1957 when it was withdrawn from service and scrapped. Plough 18 & 20 were reassigned to Gatehead in 1964 were they saw out the remainder until 1973 when they were retired and both were bought privately for preservation. Plough 18 now resides at the North Yorkshire Moors Railway, while Plough 20 is housed at the Beamish Museum.

 

Niumodels@gmail.com

Edited November 2, 2019 by NiuModels

[micklner]

email address supplied bounces for me at least.

 

edit

message now sent via facebook (for peoples info)

Edited November 1, 2019 by micklner

[MarkC]

2 hours ago, micklner said:

email address supplied bounces for me at least.

 

edit

message now sent via facebook (for peoples info)

Hi Mick

 

I think that the email should have read

 

Niumodels@gmail.com 

 

(Obviously a silent 'g' :p )

 

Mark

[NiuModels]

6 hours ago, MarkC said:

Hi Mick

 

I think that the email should have read

 

Niumodels@gmail.com 

 

(Obviously a silent 'g' :p )

 

Mark

 

Thanks. corrected now.

[NiuModels]

Having overcome the initial email address problems, we like to thank everyone how emailed us and expressed an interest in the NER snowplough model. All names are recorded on our mailing list and we will issue out update emails on the plough and other models we have in development as thing progress. 

 

If all goes to plan we expect to open the pre-order scheme in early spring next year, with an anticipated release date in the summer.

 

Thanks.  

[BMacdermott]

Hello NiuModels

 

Congratulations on this model - we hope it will be a success for you.

 

The item was added as a 'new entry' to this year's 00 Wishlist Poll 2019.

 

It came in with 187 votes...which places it not very far outside the overall Top 50. Sadly we can't remove it from any future Poll as you are only producing a limited run. We will, however, send a posting to our thread Results - The 00 Wishlist Poll 2019  shortly.

 

Brian (on behalf of The 00 Poll Team)

[Daddyman]

Very interesting. What material is it going to be made in? 

[NiuModels]

I was up at Pickering, on the North Yorkshire Moors Railway this week with the real plough 18. 

 

A very enjoyable few hours taking photos and checking dimensions against our model.

 

It was a pleasure to meet Bryan Blundell, who owns plough. We had a good chat about the plough history and reminisced about our shared railway past. A big thanks to Bryan for allowing access. 

 

I also managed access to the Gresley engineering coach to get a colour match on the blue paint. 

 

 

[Al.]

Progress news on the Snowplough.

 

The CAD model is finally complete and we should have sample models available in all 3 liveries by the time the Ally Pally shows rolls around.

Liveried renders will be available in a few days.

 

 

[Daddyman]

OK, but you haven't answered my earlier question as to what medium the model will be made in - 3D print, resin, or injection-moulded plastic?

 

[Al.]

1 hour ago, Daddyman said:

OK, but you haven't answered my earlier question as to what medium the model will be made in - 3D print, resin, or injection-moulded plastic?

 

 

Apologies for that.

 

We'd originally interned to go with finecast resin, but following some quite promising conversations with injection moulding companies, we are now looking at going down this road. However this largely depend on tooling costs feed back on potential order volumes. The test models with be 3D printed.

[Daddyman]

11 hours ago, Al. said:

 

Apologies for that.

 

We'd originally interned to go with finecast resin, but following some quite promising conversations with injection moulding companies, we are now looking at going down this road. However this largely depend on tooling costs feed back on potential order volumes. The test models with be 3D printed.

Thanks - that changes things. I'm more open to splashing out on an injection moulded plastic model. 

[NiuModels]

 

Update on the plough.

 

Back in November we had the pleasure to meet Brian Blundell, the owner of plough 18, at the North Yorkshire Moors Railway, and was allowed access to the preserved plough to photograph and take measurements. These were fed back to our CAD designer and this weekend we received the completed CAD files for the model. Attached are several screen shots for you to view. Renders of each plough in the three liveries will be completed and will be posted up on our Facebook page shortly.

 

With this being our first venture into RTR models, we’d initially intended to dip our toe into the market with a limited run of 135 models. However, the response from the Expression of Interest has been incredible with more than twice this number of emails received. We are therefore looking at increasing the production run to meet this demand.

 

The model will be released in North Eastern Indian Red, LNER Engineering Blue, and British Rail black liveries. With all three ploughs represented in each livery.

 

We will release the pre-order scheme in the spring once we’ve firmed up manufacturing costs and confirmed the price. At present we anticipate it will be in the region of £45 per model, with a release date in late summer.

 

To register your interest in the Snowplough and be kept up to date with developments of this and other models, please email us at Niumodels@gmail.com

 

Edited January 28, 2020 by NiuModels

[Enterprisingwestern]

 

Please don't use Faceache to the exception of all else to issue updates, some of us have absolutely no need or interest in it but would like a snowplough and would still like to be kept abreast of developments.

It's one of the reasons I'm holding off placing an order.

 

Mike.

[micklner]

4 hours ago, Enterprisingwestern said:

 

Please don't use Faceache to the exception of all else to issue updates, some of us have absolutely no need or interest in it but would like a snowplough and would still like to be kept abreast of developments.

It's one of the reasons I'm holding off placing an order.

 

Mike.

Just email them, I got a update yesterday via email. Including a unnamed Loco on way .

[Mark Hamlin]

Any news on the snowplow?

 

looking forward to this one

[NiuModels]

I hope you are well and you are surviving the current Covid-19 crisis.

 

Here we’ve been very busy, but unfortunately not with Niu Models. Both the wife and I work in the railway industry and our day jobs have both been extremely busy these past few months as we play our part in keeping the railway running.

 

This, combined with has impact on our suppliers, has meant the release date for the Snowplough model has been put back to spring 2021 at the earliest.

 

If you have register your interested in the Snowplough model, we'll issue out a newsletter in the next few weeks with more details.

[Steve Taylor]

Just stumbled across this thread. I am certainly interested, but are they capable of being regauged to P4? 

Edited June 19, 2020 by Steve Taylor
predictive text struck.... again.

[NiuModels]

13 hours ago, Steve Taylor said:

Just stumbled across this thread. I am certainly interested, but are they capable of being regaled to P4? 

 

Hi Steve. We've had a few enquires regarding conversion to EM & P4 wheel sets. The plough chassis is designed for OO Gauge wheel sets, however there is potential to modify the it to accept the wider back to back distance.

[SweenyTod1]

I'm really looking forward to this model coming out. I've sent an email as requested, so hopefully I'm on their list to get at least one in the LNER livery. One of the photos shown, there are two locos tender to tender with a plough at each end, but I won't be greedy as it will be a limited run issue, one on its own will be fine. I did think about scratch building one a few years ago, but that's as far as I got. I'm sure the model won't disappoint.

 

Tod

[NiuModels]

7 hours ago, SweenyTod1 said:

I'm really looking forward to this model coming out. I've sent an email as requested, so hopefully I'm on their list to get at least one in the LNER livery. One of the photos shown, there are two locos tender to tender with a plough at each end, but I won't be greedy as it will be a limited run issue, one on its own will be fine. I did think about scratch building one a few years ago, but that's as far as I got. I'm sure the model won't disappoint.

 

Tod

 

Tod.

 

We received your email, thanks. 

 

The ploughs operated as a pair. They were attached to either end of two of three locomotives.

 

Plough 18 can be seen  in the film 'Snowdrift at Bleath Gill'

 

 

 

[Bishdurham]

Any news on this project?

[NiuModels]

On 25/05/2021 at 19:03, Bishdurham said:

Any news on this project?

 

Hi. We're still working on it, but Covid has impacted it quiet a bit.

[NiuModels]

LNER Snowplough News.

 

Establishing a manufacturing and assembly supply chain for a new model is difficult. Established larger model companies struggle with this in normal times, as we’ve seen with release dates of models regularly being pushed back as they deal with supply and quality issues.

 

Niu Models is a small company with limited resources, and while we are up for the challenge to bring a RTR Snowplough model to the market, setting up an overseas manufacturing facility and supply chain with all the current uncertainty and restrictions has proved very difficult.

 

We have reluctantly taken the decision to place the RTR LNER Snowplough model on hold for the foreseeable future. We are not abandoning the project. Once circumstances improves we will return to it.

 

In the meantime we will continue to develop an alternative LNER and a LMS ‘Settle and Carlisle’ plough models and look at alternative ways to bring these to you.

 

We apologise for any dashed expectations and thank you for your support.

 

Best wishes, Julia & Al.