At the London Festival of Railway Modelling, Bachmann Europe displayed the first EP samples for the forthcoming Graham Farish N Gauge Class 158 DMU.
First announced in 2018, the Class 158 is now making excellent progress, and the model is a completely new tooling replacing the decades old original Farish model.
The new model is already showing impressive levels of detail in EP form, with the underframe being a particularly impressive feature, quite possibly one of the best we have seen yet in N Gauge.
A low profile chassis design incorporating a coreless motor, pre-fitted speaker and space for a DCC chip allows for an unobstructed saloon in both coaches, with seat and table detail clearly present in both coaches.
The destinctive shape of the Class 158 cab has been excellently caputured, and rectifies one of the worst features of the old model. Working couplings are fitted at the outer ends to allow multiple working, whilst a conductive coupling between the coaches provides for all wheel pickup and means only one decoder is required for DCC users.
The tooling includes variations for original and later air-conditioning types, Perkins and Cummins engines and front valance variations.
Currently two liveries have been announced for the Class 158 at launch:
371-850 Class 158 2-Car DMU 158849 BR Regional Railways
371-851 Class 158 2-Car DMU 158711 ScotRail Saltire
N Gauge News would like to express our thanks to Bachmann Europe for allowing us to photograph the sample shown above.
