Model railway company Dapol has issued an update on the development of its latest Churchward toplight corridor coach models.

The company announced last month that it was considering making these models.

It now reports that initial EOI results have been encouraging, that it began accepting pre-orders from its stockist network three weeks ago, and that pre-order levels are at 23% of the sales volume that it requires to reach in order to proceed.

The company states that it has been “genuinely encouraged” by the response to this project, and reports “strong interest from modellers across the hobby”. It has confirmed that the project is now progressing into its next phase.

The company is encouraging enthusiasts who have registered their interest in the model to place a pre-order with their preferred Dapol stockist. It will only start tooling once it has secured enough confirmed demand.

Dapol’s plans for the GWR Churchward top-light corridor coaches come after similar plans for N Gauge models of London Midland & Scottish Railway (LMS) Period III 57ft non-lavatory suburban coaches and O Gauge models of the London & South Western Railway (LSWR) four-wheel coaches.

Prototypes of the Churchward toplight corridor coaches were built between 1914 and 1920. They were constructed with steel body sides which did not have panelling but did have bolection mouldings around the windows and frosted glass top light windows. The coaches sat on Churchward 9’-0” bogies.

The coaches were designed to run as a set, which comprised left-hand and right-hand Brake Thirds, 1 or 2-Thirds and left-hand and right-hand Composites. This enabled all corridor windows to be displayed on the same side, and was often used for cross-country and main line working between cities.

The model coaches will be available in various liveries. Full details and specifications of the model are available here.

This is a project built on real interest, and one that reflects what can be achieved when the hobby pulls together. We are excited to be taking it forward and look forward to sharing further updates in the coming weeks.

Dapol