Rapido Trains UK is proud to announce that we will be adding a diverse collection of pre-grouping coaches to our range, with the new OO Gauge 48’ ‘Evolution’ Bogie Coaches. With numerous locos and a boatload of era-appropriate wagons under our belt, the pre-grouping era has become a quintessentially ‘Rapido’ thing, so we thought it was about time we produced some more suitable coaches. There is such a variety of coaching prototypes in the pre-grouping era that it has been impossible for our industry to make 100% accurate models for all of them. We are filling this gap with a selection of generic 48’ bogie coaches, each detailed with an array of key features that modellers associate with their railway of choice. We have dubbed this exciting new coach project ‘Evolution’. So, what tooling does this entail? The coaches’ roofs were one of the most iconic features of the era, so we have included arc, elliptical, and clerestory designs across the range, and made the roofs easily removable so that you can fit figures into your coaches should you wish. We have added some rather nice interior detailing too, such as luggage racks, picture frames on compartment dividers, and a fully detailed guard's van/luggage compartment in the brake third variant. There is also a multitude of separately-fitted parts to bring the coaches to life, including door and grab handles, and passenger emergency alarm “butterflies” at one end. All Evolution coaches will include fitted internal working lighting controlled by our magnetic magic wand, making it much easier to see these lovely details. To complete the appearance of different gas and electric lighting fittings, the relevant models will feature separately fitted parts for battery and regulator boxes, a dynamo, roof-mounted gas lamps, plumbing, and gas tanks on the underframes. Battery boxes and gas tanks aren’t the only external details below the frame. Each Evolution coach will feature Fox pattern bogies fitted with electrical pickups. Some versions will feature extra footboards on the bogies and there are also additional central lower footboards on some designs too. Finally, each coach is fitted with NEM pockets and has optional close coupling bars (modelled on vacuum pipes) included.