Tin Cars in the Can for the Bachmann Narrow Gauge Range

For the second successive year, Bachmann Europe Plc has selected the popular Bygones Weekend at the Ffestiniog Railway to make new product announcements for its Bachmann Narrow Gauge OO9 Scale range. The first models announced at the 2024 event are the railway’s ‘Tin Car’ coaches, with models depicting coach Nos. 119 and 120 launched at the event and are available to purchase now directly from the Ffestiniog Railway.

The Ffestiniog Railway (FR), located in the Slate Landscape of North Wales – a Unesco World Heritage Site – has operated between Porthmadog and Blaenau Ffestiniog for almost 200 years. The world’s oldest Narrow Gauge railway and arguably the most famous too, since 1955 the line has operated purely for enthusiasts and tourists and is today one of the top tourist attractions in Wales.

Whilst the FR has preserved many of the vehicles used in the pre-preservation era, it has also been a prominent builder of new stock and from the late-1970s ‘Tin Car’ coaches were built to provide contemporary rolling stock for passenger trains. Originally known as ‘Domeliners’ owing to their domed roofs, the coaches were built using second-hand underframes which originated from the Isle of Man Railway (IoMR), having been constructed for the IoMR between 1909 and 1926 by the Metropolitan Amalgamated Railway Carriage & Wagon Company. Sold for scrap and subsequently purchased by the Ffestiniog Railway, the company built its own coach bodies on top of the frames, creating a total of six passenger vehicles.

The Tin Cars were employed principally on the Ffestiniog Railway, but also saw occasional use on the restored Welsh Highland Railway, however by 2018 all had been withdrawn from service with the company favouring the ‘Barn’ coaches and the more recently built ‘Super Barns’ which are now the mainstay of regular services on both the Ffestiniog Railway and the Welsh Highland Railway.

With the exception of one vehicle, which had its bodywork scrapped in 2005 before its underframe was recycled once again for use under a Barn coach, the Tin Cars remain extant – four have been sold, two each to the Golden Valley Light Railway and the Moseley Railway Trust, and the last, an observation vehicle, has been retained by the FR for Departmental use.

The Ffestiniog Railway has inspired many of the models found in the Bachmann Narrow Gauge and Scenecraft OO9 scale ranges, and now the Tin Cars join this lineup forming the perfect complement to locomotives like the Double Fairlies and Mainline Hunslets that are already made by Bachmann Narrow Gauge.

The new Bachmann Narrow Gauge OO9 Scale models are constructed using finely-detailed, injection-molded bodyshells with an integral roof, complete with roof panel ribs and toilet ventilator where applicable, and an integral solebar which boasts rivet detailing and footsteps. The body is adorned with ventilator grilles above each droplight window and at the toilet compartment end, whilst each door sports a doorknob along with the adjacent grab handle and carriage reservation board clips. Separate flush glazing is found on both sides and at each end, where separate corridor connections and inter-vehicle cables have been employed.

Inside the vehicle is a decorated interior, complete with tables, chairs and even a toilet and basin in the toilet cubicle (where applicable). The underframe of the model, whilst relatively simple, replicates the metal frames of the prototype and boasts a separately fitted brake cylinder and linkage. The bogies are true to prototype as well, with separate brake shoes and fitted with profiled metal wheelsets. Attached to each bogie is a NEM coupling pocket fitted with a standard OO9 scale coupling.

The livery application brings these models to life, employing authentic Ffestiniog Railway colours, logos, and typefaces – extending even to the no smoking signs printed onto each of the large, panoramic windows. On some models, these replicate the FR’s unique no smoking signs, in the shape of a Double Fairlie locomotive, whilst others have the more common no smoking triangles, however, these are reproduced in both English and Welsh language replicating those applied to the real vehicles.

The initial models offered by Bachmann Narrow Gauge depict Tin Cars Nos. 119 and 120, with each coach available in the original Maroon livery and the later Crimson and Cream colour scheme. Both vehicles were built as third class saloons with a toilet compartment, however, No. 120 had its toilet removed as part of an overhaul in 2010. The model of No. 120 in Crimson & Cream livery is therefore fitted with an interior that sports four additional seats in place of the toilet compartment and is without the roof-mounted toilet ventilator.

The four models are all in stock now, and initially, these can be purchased exclusively from the Ffestiniog Railway, with every sale contributing to the continued operation of the world-famous narrow gauge line that provides so much inspiration to both modellers and the Bachmann range. Each model is priced at £64.95 and all are available to purchase now, either in person from the FR shops at Porthmadog Harbour Station and Caernarfon Station, or online at www.festrail.co.uk/shop.