From Miniature to BIG

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How does that shared bogie for the coaches not smash each other when they are doing curves as they are so close together?

Hornby have a very clever design that simply works, they have been doing coaches with this shared bogie arrangement since the 80's (or was it the 90's - I don't remember) when it was introduced in the Eurostar trains they modelled.  The big difference here is that they have supplied the accessories to make a connecting corridor etc... between coaches as well.  These have been long in the design/planning stage so I would be surprised if they have messed up the connectors now.  Having said that, they are probably restricted to the wider arc curves rather than the smaller/sharper curves that are available, but this is not unusual as often some of the bigger pacific locomotives are limited to the larger radius curves anyway.  As the normal locomotive for these coaches is the big coronation class pacific that is almost a certainty.

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Oh...so the shared bogies are only found on these model trains and not found on the real thing?

I find these to be a rather nice product, and thought I'd love to own a set that would be extremely expensive, now that is not to say that the value is bad, sure definitely not as good as on the upcoming Rapido Evolution coaches but for non generic coaches, way Way better than the Elis Clark quad art sets and ESPECIALLY the bachmann 50' arc roof coaches.

Now that Hornby have already invested into this technology, I think it would be smart to use it again...
The LNER had a few articulated coaches used with other rakes such as: Some gresley suburban pairs or my personal favourite the articulated sleeping coaches which could be an excellent opportunity to bring back the first class sleeping coach and the very posh triple restaurant sets. These were made up of a restaurant first a full kitchen car and a restaurant third, they weren't actually that uncommon to see on express services especially when you consider how unusual they were and they'd make a fantastic alternative the the regular gresley unclassed restaurant buffet car!

Oh...so the shared bogies are only found on these model trains and not found on the real thing?

No they did exist on the real train, I suspect this is one of the reasons that its taken so long for the models to go from concept to delivery.

I have to agree with Donald, the cost is not minimal, each pair of articulated coaches are around £90 or at least were when I pre-ordered them.  But they are a unique type of coach and likely to be highly sought after in the future.  The other thing to take into consideration is that while £90 for a pair of coaches is not exactly what I consider cheap, if you compare it to the cost of some of the new coach releases due from other makers they are a positive bargain as many of the other new 'high detail' models coming are asking that or more for a single coach...

The LNER articulated bogie coaches were designed by Nigel Gresley, the first sets appearing on Great Northern Railway suburban trains in about 1907. If you want to know more about them, search for 'LNER Quadarts'.  For example:

https://www.keymodelworld.com/article/gr...es-history



Fast forward a century and more for the Transport for Wales 231 class, which entered service at the beginning of 2023:

In fact before the Gresley articulated sets, Howlden designed the double, triple, quadruple and quintuple flat roof sets which were a wide variety of different sets all individual coaches being derived mainly from his 6 wheel flat roof stock but also some from his 8 wheel flat roof stock

On a totally random and non related topic, here's some pictures of random trains that I took when I was in Italy back in June.  I had intended to get more but well you know what its like when you're travelling with suitcases etc... between towns on your schedule.  The reason I looked them out was because I did travel on a train that looks pretty much similar to the one Chris posted a picture of.  Except of course it was far more colourful in livery terms, the reason I mentioned it and went looking for pictures of it (unfortunately I have none) is because it had the same centre motor unit and it was a 'hybrid', diesel/electric/battery train...

I did travel on a train that looks pretty much similar to the one Chris posted a picture of.  Except of course it was far more colourful in livery terms, the reason I mentioned it and went looking for pictures of it (unfortunately I have none) is because it had the same centre motor unit and it was a 'hybrid', diesel/electric/battery train...

As it happens, Transport for Wales introduced the 756 class into service just one week ago. This is a tri-mode (diesel/electric/battery) train based on the same Stadler FLIRT platform with the central power unit. Looks almost identical to the 231 class above, but with pantographs.  All grounded at the moment unfortunately due to storm Bert floods. There are at least six TOCs in Italy operating FLIRT variants.



And to bring this thread right back onto track, Hornby have just released a Greater Anglia Class 755/4 FLIRT:

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Whats the squashed middle car for...Battery's?