Hattons Originals announce Irish CIE liveried Genesis 6-wheel coaches

[Hattons Dave]

Hi all,

 

We are pleased to announce we will now be offering Irish outline 6-wheel vehicles as part of our range of Hattons Originals OO gauge Genesis 4 & 6 Wheel coaches.

 

Livery options will include CIE dark green, CIE light green and CIE black and tan. These are due for release between Late 2023 and Early 2024 as part of our 2nd batch of Genesis coaches.

 

Check out the full announcement HERE

 

You can take part in the full Genesis RMWeb discussion thread HERE

 

Cheers,

Dave

Edited November 14, 2022 by Hattons Dave
Updated text

[murphaph]

Being a 21mm modeller I can't justify the whole set but I will certainly be taking a few for the display case. Great to see Irish railways featuring ever more prominently. 

[jhb171achil]

This is quite simply the best news for a very long time in the Irish railway modelling world.

 

With IRM having brought out silver and green "A" class locos, and 00 Works the ubiquitous J15 0.6.0, models of this era are crying out for appropriate passenger stock to haul. The likes of Provincial Wagons and several others already have the wagon end of things well catered for, but passenger stock, beyond a repaint of an old Hornby coach or a Park Royal, is sadly lacking.

 

The Hattons Genesis "generic" design is a very fortunate and opportune model. Irish carriage design pre-1970 was almost wholly unlike anything British - especially for companies like the GNR, MGWR, DSER, BCDR and BNCR. However, by good fortune, these "generic" coaches bear a striking similarity to some GSWR designs of the mid 1880s to mid 90s. Unlike Britain, where six-wheelers were largely gone by 1930, they were commonplace - indeed, the norm on some lines - in Ireland up to the time the last were withdrawn in Cork in 1963.

 

While MGWR designs were by then as common as GSWR ones, these Hattons coaches fit the bill perfectly for the latter design.

 

The attention to detail is exquisite, down to the double footboard - British six-wheelers tended to have only one footboard, whereas Irish ones always had lower steps as well due to lower platforms. I see that for most coach types, more than one number option is supplied. Both the 1945-55 and 1955-63 green liveries are correctly represented, with such details as the re-branding of "3rd" as "2nd" around the same time as the livery change faithfully reproduced; a dark green third which was given a repaint in, say, 1956, would re-appear with a "2" on the door instead of a "s". The coach numbers chosen are deliberately of vehicles OF that particular type, and not only that, but the longtest lasting examples of the type.

 

When the last of the six-wheelers were being withdrawn in 1963, the new black'n'tan livery was just appearing - thus, no passenger-carrying six-wheeled vehicles ever carried it. However, some half a dozen full passenger BRAKE vans did indeed survive after that, of which three (1077, 69 & 79) certainly got the new livery. Therefore, while not passenger-carrying coaches, this trio were nonetheless the only six-wheeled passenger stock ever to carry the black'n'tan (other than the "tin vans" built in 1964/5).

 

The colours have been reproduced exactly - always worth remembering for modellers that nothing CIE ever had grey or white roofs - always black, until the "supertrain" Mk 2s in 1972! I am aware that Hattons have gone to great lengths to ensure that colours are correct. Prototypically, the "flying snail" logo is always carried on the dark green livery, but not the light green - with this latter livery, only some bogie stock (but not all) received it - not six-wheelers.

 

Overall, a truly excellent expansion of the Irish railway modelling scene back into the 1950s and even late 1940s. I've ordered mine as I understand that this is a limited edition.

 

Well done, Hattons!

[murphaph]

Did 6 wheelers ever run behind diesel traction in GB I wonder? 

[jhb171achil]

1 minute ago, murphaph said:

Did 6 wheelers ever run behind diesel traction in GB I wonder? 

I would be no expert but other than non-passenger-carrying vans I would doubt it.

[JohnR]

14 hours ago, murphaph said:

Did 6 wheelers ever run behind diesel traction in GB I wonder? 

 

There was a Blue/Grey liveried generator van (also produced by Hattons) that would have done so. But thats possibly the only one.