Several years ago Dapol dusted off the LMS suburban tooling after many years of being out of use. The resulting coaches produced were so popular in both ready to run and kit form that we ended up producing thousands and thousands of them prior to discontinuing the range again in 2018.

We have blown the (slightly less) dust off the tooling again and made some modifications in our in-house tool shop here at Chirk and are please to be able to announce the relaunch of these models and tell you about what improvements we have made. we are delighted to show you some decorated samples below with detail changes being picked out.

Prototype

These coaches were designed by William Stanier in the 1930s as flush sided metal clad versions of the previous LMS suburban coaches. The prototype managed to last in service as late as the mid 1960s, in BR use.  The prototypes that Dapol's tooling is based on numbered 25 composites and 32 brake end coaches. The coaches appeared in three liveries throughout their service life; LMS lined maroon, BR Carmine and BR lined maroon.

Specification / Improvements

The tooling was originally purchased by Dapol from Airfix back in the 1980's, there are some compromises on detail and accuracy due to the condition of tooling that is now fifty+ years old. We have however made some improvements to these models which are listed below.

• New separately fitted underframe details
• Dynamo added
• Vacuum cylinders upgraded as separately fitted parts
• Extra framing added
• Brake shafts added
• Upgraded bogie pivot fixing
• New UK produced metal wheels
• New adaptor clips to for NEM pockets 
• Re-polished glazing

We have highlighted the major changes to the underframe detail in the image below

In House tooling modification & production

We thought you might like to know a little more about the tooling modification that we have carried out, so in the words of the project manager.........

"The initial process started with looking at where we wanted to focus the upgrade. Many modelers have taken these coaches and upgraded them so our inspiration for the upgrades were based around these. The underframe details while good for the time were not holding up well due to the lack of depth in the details. It was decided to remove the representations of the vacuum cylinders, dynamo and brake shaft hangers and replace them. The old large D couplings whilst reliable detracted from the look of the coaches so an adapter clip has been made so that it now forms a NEM pocket that couplings can use. 

The old slides were removed from the chassis mould, the details to be removed were welded up and the surface ground smooth. New pins were added that would form the location holes for the new separately added parts. The slides with the new parts were then put into an existing chassis tool that we had but no longer used as it had an older form of non-standard coupling. The old cavities were plugged off so that if they were ever needed they could be reopened and the new parts fitted around the existing cavities. This saved us scrapping a tool and saved on the cost of the upgrade by not having to buy a new tool bolster. 

This sounds simple on paper but as this was the first major upgrade we have done it has taken a little while and some head scratching at points but we kept going and have learnt a lot from doing this project. 

We have also done away with the plastic wheels that these coaches used to come with which would easily get dirty and changed them for new metal wheels which we produce in house on our C&C Sliding lathe"

Below are a couple of images that show some of the modifications that have been made to the tooling.

Proposed Liveries

The initial livery to be produced will be in BR Carmine, LMS & BR lined maroon versions will be announced in future production runs.

Initial Release

• 4P-010-051  57ft Stanier Non-Corridor Composite M16640 BR Unlined Carmine
• 4P-010-052 57ft Stanier Non-Corridor Composite M16662 BR Unlined Carmine
• 4P-010-201  57ft Stanier Non-Corridor Brake M20547 BR Unlined Carmine
• 4P-010-202  57ft Stanier Non-Corridor Brake M20565 BR Unlined Carmine

Future Planned Releases

• 4P-010-101  57ft Stanier Non-Corridor Composite 19180 LMS Lined Maroon
• 4P-010-102 57ft Stanier Non-Corridor Composite 19175 LMS Lined Maroon
• 4P-010-151  57ft Stanier Non-Corridor Composite M19192M BR Lined Maroon
• 4P-010-152  57ft Stanier Non-Corridor Composite M19183M BR Lined Maroon
• 4P-010-251  57ft Stanier Non-Corridor Brake 25260 LMS Lined Maroon
  
• 4P-010-252  57ft Stanier Non-Corridor Brake 25256 LMS Lined Maroon
  
• 4P-010-301  57ft Stanier Non-Corridor Brake M25250M BR Lined Maroon
  
• 4P-010-302  57ft Stanier Non-Corridor Brake M25270M BR Lined Maroon
  

Recommended Retail Price

Project Update

We are making some final fitting adjustments before we start moulding, decorating and assembling these models here in Chirk. With these models about to go into production the design team is now turning its attention to upgrading the Stanier corridor variant of this coach and seeing what can be done to improve this range. We look forward to being able to bring you news on this development as it happens. Expected in shops Q2 2025.

Pre-order today with your preferred Dapol Stockist to secure your models