Accurascale Mk 5 Sleeper stock

◆ GAUGE ‘OO’ ◆ MODEL Accurascale ACC2223IN2 Caledonian Sleeper CAF Mk 5 coach set, ‘Highlander’ four-pack ◆ PRICE £179.99 ◆ AVAILABILITY Accurascale stockists Web: www.accurascale.co.uk

When the current Caledonian Sleeper franchise was awarded to Serco in 2015, part of the commitment involved the provision of new trains to replace aging BR Mk 2 and Mk 3 stock. Seventy-five Mk 5 coaches were duly ordered from CAF, with deliveries beginning in 2018. Teething problems delayed the full implementation of the new services, with Mk 2s and Mk 3s finally being withdrawn in late 2019.

The new Sleeper fleet consists of four different vehicle types: Seated cars (Nos. 15001-11), Club cars (Nos. 15101-10), accessible Sleeper cars (Nos. 15201-14), and regular Sleeper cars

(Nos. 15301-40). Usually operating in eight-coach ‘half-sets’ (1x Seated car, 1x Club, 6x Sleepers), northbound services run from London to Scotland in 16-car formations before splitting into varying portions and heading for their ultimate destinations.

Operations include ‘Lowlander’ trains from London Euston to Glasgow/edinburgh, along with the ‘Highlander’ services to Fort William, Aberdeen and Inverness. Specially modified GBRF Class 92s take care of the long-haul work, giving way to rebuilt Class 73/9 locomotives to work north of Glasgow and Edinburgh. Owing to reliability issues with the ‘73/9s’, these are often piloted by a Class 66 or, more recently, a ‘67’ (the ‘73/9s’ are still required as coupling translators and a source of power for the Mk 5’s onboard systems).

Accurascale announced its intention to recreate both the Mk 5 Sleeper stock and the Transpennine Express Mk 5a ‘Nova’ sets in 2019 (the latter will be reviewed next month), with both proving extremely popular.

Received for review is an Accurascale Exclusive pack (offered only via the manufacturer’s website), depicting a four-car ‘Highlander’ set. The pack includes two Sleeper cars (one regular and one with accessible berths), plus a Club car and a Seated car. Indeed, most of the coach packs in this first production run are presented in four-car sets.

MEETING EXPECTATIONS?

The Mk 5s have been one of the most hotly anticipated coach models of recent years, so expectations have been high. Presented in a beautifully designed box, the models possess a real ‘wow’ factor. Part of that is down to the stylish livery but, upon closer inspection, it’s easy to discern an impressive level of detail and finesse in the tooling and detail fixtures.

Like many modern trains, the outward appearance is sleek and utilitarian. But there’s quite a lot going on, from a visual perspective, under the floor. One would have thought that enclosed equipment modules and streamlined valances were the norm these days, following on from the Mk 3s and Mk 4s. However, the Mk 5s present something of a retro appearance, with boxes, tanks and cylinders dotted around the underframe, some in dark grey and others painted bright silver.

The models’ designers have clearly gone to great lengths to capture as much of this underframe detail as possible, even down to the provision of finely etched metal grilles to the air conditioning units. A couple of these grilles were loose on some of the sample coaches and, after removing them, a pair of filter cartridges have been included – picked out in blue. These are only just visible through the mesh and I’m not sure I would’ve been aware of their presence if the grilles had been fixed properly!

Similarly, etched fans and grilles are rendered on the base of the ‘air con’ pod, despite only being visible when the model is examined away from the layout. Again though, one

of these grilles had come adrift in the packaging, as had one of the plastic gangway connectors.

The coach ends feature sets of stowed jumper cables and corresponding orange sockets, plus pairs of red tail lights, which can be activated using the magnetic ‘wand’ supplied, thus allowing the end coach in a rake to obey operating regulations.

Carriage interiors are also illuminated, using strips of fine LEDS, revealing the interior mouldings that accurately replicate the fixtures and fittings of each prototype vehicle. On DC and DCC control, the lighting is activated from the track supply and controlled with the aforementioned wand. Wave it over the centre of the roof to toggle the interior lights on or off, doing the same at the ends of the car to control the tail lights.

For DC users in particular, performance is aided by a powerful ‘Stay Alive’ capacitor unit in each car, allowing the lights to remain lit while the train is stationary for short periods.

The method of power collection is interesting. Each axle rotates within a pair of small metal bearings, as well as a larger metal sleeve, which mimics the twin inboard brake discs. A brass wiper contact bears against the exterior of this sleeve, conducting power to the inside of the coach via twin sprung contacts within the bogie’s bolster.

This, in theory, should greatly reduce friction on the axles, yet a differing degree of drag could be felt across a few of our samples. A tiny drop of light oil into the metal bearing sleeves greatly improved matters, in most cases at least. Alas, a couple of wheelsets were found to be fractionally out of gauge, with back-to-backs of up to 14.7mm. I prefer back-to-back measurements of around 14.4mm for my Peco Code 75 track and it was easy to squeeze the wheels together against a suitable gauge to remedy the issue. This task also cured the one axle with nonconcentric wheels, which caused the coach to wobble excessively. The axles can be unclipped from the bogies to make the job easier, but beware that the axle covers may be dislodged in the process – they can be glued back into position afterwards.

CLOSE-COUPLED

Magnetic Dellner-style NEM couplers are pre-installed, in sprung, pivoting close-coupler units. These allow the gap between cars to be kept to a minimum, even on second radius curves. The couplers are simple to operate, even when shunting on the layout (although only when coupling up – the ‘hand of God’ is still needed to uncouple cars). A set of tension locks is also provided, which will be needed when coupling up to a locomotive.

I did wonder whether the magnets would be strong enough to cope with a long rake, but managed to test a total of eight

Mk 5 cars without any problems. Using a tension lock coupler, I also added a handful of Hornby Mk 3s on the tail end and the extra weight still didn’t pose any problems.

In terms of finish, the paintwork is virtually flawless, with the

Caledonian Sleeper logos, stylised antler motifs and information panels all perfectly rendered. The shade of teal looks spot on too and is, vitally, slightly different to that employed on Accurascale’s recent Class 92 – just like the real things!

Aside from the issue with some of the wheels and a few loose parts, these coaches are superb. Little wonder that they’ve been selling like hot cakes. All we need now is a decent model of the Class 73/9s! (GD)

Like many modern trains, the outward appearance is sleek and utilitarian. But there’s quite a lot going on, from a visual perspective, under the floor