Graham Farish - 372-261SF - Locomotive, Diesel, Class 47/7 - Colas Rail - Rebecca - 47727

Specific Item Information: The popular BR Class 47 Diesel Locomotive returns to the Graham Farish range with models of the ‘Crewe-Cut’ locomotives available for the first time thanks to the development of new tooling that further expands the range of Class 47s that can be modelled in N scale. Many Class 47s had the cowling around their bufferbeams removed in later life, changing the appearance of the lower front end and with this work usually being undertaken at Crewe Works, the resultant locomotives were commonly termed ‘Crewe-Cut’ machines. No. 47727 is one such machine, originally built as D1629, in 1981 it was fitted with Electric Train Heating (ETH) and became 47569 and later still was renumbered to 47727 in 1994 following the fitting of extended range fuel tanks. Whilst in Colas Rail ownership, in 2007 the locomotive was named ‘Rebecca’; today this Class 47 is operated by GBRf and has subsequently been re-named as ‘Edinburgh Castle/Caisteal Dhun Eideann’.

Further developments to the Graham Farish Class 47 come in the form of technical advancements, with an upgraded specification which now boasts a Next18 DCC decoder interface, pre-fitted speaker, cab lighting (when used on DCC) and independent control of the directional lights at each end. With the Next18 interface and pre-fitted speaker, SOUND FITTED models can now be offered for the first time.

Road Name History: Colas Rail is a French civil works company, a subsidiary of the Bouygues Group, specializing in railway construction works. Colas Rail is the result of the merger of Seco Rail and Spie Rail as of January 31, 2008, following the acquisition of Spie Rail by Colas in May 2007.
Colas Rail is also a railway operator, that operates freight trains in France (mainly aggregates and cereals) but also in the UK.

Read more (in French) on Wikipedia.

Brand/Importer Information: Graham Farish is a British brand of N gauge model trains, that belongs to Bachmann Europe.
The company entered the model train business in the early 1950s, focusing on British OO gauge rolling stock, track and accessories.
In the 1970s, it started to produce N gauge models under the GRAFAR label. After the withdrawal of Lima and Minitrix from the UK market in the late 1980s, Graham Farish was the only major supplier of British outline models in N gauge, soon withdrawing from the OO scale market.
In 2001, Graham Farish was purchased by Kader Industries of Hong Kong, and absorbed by its subsidiary Bachmann Industries. Bachmann immediately closed the British manufacturing facility and moved production to China.
Bachmann have since increased the size of the Farish range, by duplicating models introduced to the Bachmann OO range; often, an OO scale Bachmann Branchline model is followed between 6 months to a year later by an N gauge Graham Farish model.

Manufacturer Information: Bachmann, a US company founded in 1835, was purchased by Kader Industries in 1987. Kader formed Bachmann Industries Europe in 1989 with their main UK headquarters in Moat Way, Barwell, Leicestershire, UK (former Palitoy location) and the following year launched the Bachmann Branchline range for the British market with the moulds that had previously been used for the Palitoy Mainline and Replica Railways model railway products. From this starting point Bachmann has developed the range further and now produce a large range of models.
In 2001 Bachmann Branchline bought Graham Farish, an N gauge manufacturer, and since then many of their models have been made available in both gauges.
Bachmann Europe portfolio also comprises other model trains brands such as Liliput.