Dapol/lionheart BR Mk 1 coach

◆ GAUGE ‘O’ ◆ MODEL Lionheart 7P-001-009/010 BR Mk 1 Corridor Brake Second coach (BSK) ◆ PRICE £199 (£234 Dcc-fitted) ◆ AVAILABILITY Dapol stockists

Lionheart Trains established its name and reputation almost instantly with its

‘O’ gauge ‘64XX’ pannier tank and GWR autocoach. Since then it has become a brand within the Dapol organisation where the expertise of its founder Richard Webster, combined with Dapol’s manufacturing experience, continues to bring ‘O’ gauge modellers some top-notch models.

Appearing now under the Lionheart label is a range of BR Mk 1 coaches which follow in that tradition. Received for review are two examples of a Mk 1 corridor brake second (BSK) in Rail blue and grey livery but a wide range of types and liveries are either available or on their way. I found them to be a tight fit in their expanded polystyrene packaging and it is essential to push them out using the finger holes in the packaging, and the film wrapping around the coach. It is packaging designed to protect the model from damage, but it can actually cause damage if not treated correctly.

FINER DETAILS

Dapol points out that the models have been designed using original drawings, and it shows. Here we have a Mk 1 that looks spot-on in every respect, including the curved ‘C1’ profile and flat glazing. The windows have the distinctive Beclawat sliding ventilators with their external aerofoil to prevent draughts, and even the two little spring-loaded catches on the inside of the sliders are there to be seen. The ‘frosted’ finish on the toilet window is the best I’ve seen on a model.

Door handles are moulded on but picked out in colour and separate grab rails and guard’s door handrails are fitted. The roof carries very fine ribbing detail, correct-style ventilators and the separate water feed pipes to the toilet water tank. These have to be unclipped to remove the roof, which can then be simply pulled off, taking care not to stress the wiring for the lights, which is plugged into a PCB hidden in the toilet compartment.

INTERNAL DETAILS

I can’t recall access to the interior being this easy, even on unlit ‘OO’ coaches, but the only reason you are likely to need interior access is to add passengers. Everything else, by way of detail, is already there!

Starting with the internal walls and bulkheads, the side corridor partition is fully glazed. The corridor side carries detail of the sliding compartment doors, with their handles picked out in colour and the partition itself finished in brown on the corridor side, grey on the compartment side. The individual compartment

bulkheads carry separately fitted mesh luggage racks and have the distinctive individual white hooded reading lights. Dapol has – not surprisingly – stopped short of making these lights work, but the compartments and corridor are lit by LEDS mounted in the roof. Four micro-switches under the floor enable analogue users to switch corridor, compartment and guard’s van lights separately, while DCC users can do this remotely on the Dcc-fitted version.

The seats – three per side in the original Mk 1 configuration – are ‘upholstered’ in a blue chequer pattern that looks very convincing when viewed through the windows. The guard’s compartment features his desk and ‘very 1960s’ tub chair, plus the separately fitted handbrake standard and wheel. In the luggage compartment there are blackened wire security bars behind the windows.

A pale grey etched metal mesh grille separates the luggage section from the corridor and this has overlays carrying the door detail, with even the recessed handles depicted.

The Rail blue and grey livery is correctly separated by a fine white line and the positioning of the grey area is spot-on, too.

MECHANICALS

Now, to the ‘mechanicals’. Firstly, these coaches employ a standard working buckeye coupler mounted to a cam arrangement above the bogie, which allows it to open out on curves. On the brake vehicles there is a scale screw coupling at the outer end with a spare buckeye supplied for use if necessary. Sprung, blackened metal buffers are fitted.

The other aspect of coupling

Mk 1 coaches is the gangway. Here, Dapol has devised a flexible arrangement assembled from plastic mouldings which allows adjoining gangways to link, while at the same time being flexible enough to operate around second radius curves. I took the model to Dave Lowery’s ‘O’ gauge layout for some test-running and, although Dave doesn’t have anything as tight as second radius, his layout does involve almost continuous curves of various radii down to 5ft. We coupled the two sample coaches together behind a Heljan ‘Western’ and they ran faultlessly, the gangways working as intended.

The lighting looks good, too, with just the right degree of brightness and no show-through on the plastic body, which had been an issue with the earlier Dapol GWR suburban coaches. Weighing in at 830g for the Brake Second, a rake of five or six should present no problems for the average

‘O’ gauge locomotive.

Dapol has brought ‘O’ gauge modellers some top-notch ready-to-run Mk 1 coaches at an affordable price – a rake of five will cost you no more than a couple of locomotives. After some of their products ended up in a stranded container in Suez, it is to be hoped that the Mk 1s will bring Dapol a bit of good fortune. It certainly deserves it. (CJL)

Dapol points out that the models have been designed using original drawings, and it shows