Model News

Peco joins forces with Kato, new nuclear flask wagon announced and Class 800 in ‘N’.

Peco has joined forces with Japanese manufacturer Kato to produce two classic Ffestiniog Railway locomotives in ‘OO9’. The collaboration will start with the ‘Small England’ 0-4-0STTS before focusing on the double Fairlie 0-4-4-0Ts.

George England supplied four 0-4-0TTS to the FR in 1863, the world’s first steam locomotives built for a narrow gauge railway. They were gradually rebuilt with saddle tanks from the 1880s onwards in the form in which they are most familiar today.

Three of the four survive – No. 1 Princess, No. 2 Prince and No. 4 Palmerston, although there are myriad detail differences between them.

The Peco/kato collaboration has announced that it plans to produce Prince in a green livery and Princess in maroon and that the models are expected in early 2021. Further details have yet to be announced, as has a price, but the RRP is expected to be in the region of £150.

The FR is best known for its distinctive double Fairlies 0-4-4-0Ts. The first, Little Wonder, was built by George England in 1869. Avonside supplied the second in 1872 and a further four have been built at the railway’s Boston Lodge works in 1879, 1886, 1979 and 1992, with a seventh, James Spooner, currently under construction. As with the England 0-4-0STTS, all the double Fairlies are subtly different to each other. Guises, prices and specifications have yet to be confirmed.