Peco FR ‘Small Birminghams’
◆ GAUGE ‘OO9’ ◆ MODEL Peco GR-551 ‘Small Birmingham’ First, FR green ◆ PRICE £27.50 ◆ AVAILABILITY Kernow Model Rail Centre Tel 01209 714099 Web www.kernowmodelrailcentre.com
The Ffestiniog Railway has some of most recognisable locomotives around.
It is, therefore, easy to overlook the fact that some of its coaches are just as distinctive… and interesting. It’s often forgotten, for example, that the first bogie coaches in Britain to enter revenue-earning service were those of the FR.
The news that Peco has joined forces with Kato to produce both the England 0-4-0STTS and the ‘Double Fairlies’ will, no doubt, have delighted narrow gauge enthusiasts. It has, arguably, also overshadowed the fact that Peco has planned an extensive range of FR coaches.
The first of that range to arrive is one of the most recognisable – the famous four-wheel ‘Bug Boxes’. It is believed that record-breaking Eastern Region driver and long-time FR volunteer Bill Hoole gave these wonderfully idiosyncratic vehicles their nickname but they’re more correctly known as ‘Birminghams’ or ‘Small Birminghams’.
It’s easy to see where the ‘bug box’ sobriquet came from. They’re just 10ft long and 6ft 3in wide and the fact that the floor is just 8in above the rail only adds to their tiny, box-like nature. The wheels and underframe were tucked up inside the frames and the passengers sat back-to-back on a knifeboard seat.
Peco has done a good job to recreate the ‘Bug Box’s’ distinctive shape. The wheels tuck neatly up inside the body and those bowed ends are well moulded (the coach sides were 9in shorter than the overall length!).
The six ‘Small Birminghams’ were delivered by Brown, Marshall & Co. in 1864 and comprised two closed Firsts and four closed Thirds. Our review sample depicts a closed First. Both Firsts, Nos. 1 and 2, were rebuilt as open observation cars. No. 1 was scrapped but No. 2 was restored to First Class standard in the 1990s.
James I.C. Boyd describes the Firsts as having two windows flanking a central door, whereas No. 2, after its preservation rebuild, has a pair of windows each side of the door. This is how Peco has modelled the coach, although our sample is finished in the 1950s livery of green and Author of The Festiniog Railway
Vol. 2 (Oakwood Press) ivory with red ends, when the real No. 2 was still an observation car.
The paint finish on this ‘Bug Box’ is good and the Ffestiniog emblem looks OK from normal view distances but doesn’t stand up to close scrutiny.
The bogies on Peco’s Lynton & Barnstaple coaches (MR189) are also tucked under the body and can be a bit tricky to put on the track. However, despite having an even more exaggerated ‘tuck’, this ‘Bug Box’ was easy to place on the rails. Despite its featherweight, it ran well and also coped well with Peco’s ‘OO9’ ‘Crazy Track’ and Electrofrog points.
Anyone familiar with Peco’s narrow gauge stock will know what you get for your money. These are well moulded but simple models with a modicum of moulded detail and a decent paint finish, but they’re not the all-singing, all-dancing products you get from China.
That said, the mouldings are clear and crisp and the overall effect is convincing. And that’s one isolated coach sat on a desk. Just imagine a rake of them bumping along behind a ‘Double Fairlie’ on a 4mm:1ft scale take of one of Wales’ most spectacular narrow gauge railways. (RF)