◆GAUGE ‘OO’ ◆MODEL Accurascale ACC2632 Class 66 66171 EWS red/gold ◆PRICE £169.99 (DCC-ready), £259.99 (DCC sound)

◆AVAILABILITY Accurascale stockists Web www.accurascale.com

The Hattons Class 66, released to wide acclaim in 2020, offered a significant uplift in detail and technical specification compared to existing models.

Before news of the Merseyside retailer’s difficulties became public, Accurascale announced that it had acquired the ‘66’ tooling, with a view to making various improvements, addressing some of the idiosyncrasies and enhancing the electronics.

Ten new versions arrived with Accurascale stockists in late May, spanning the colourful 25 ‐year (and counting) career of the ‘66s’.

I’d pre-ordered EWS 66171 for myself, which landed in advance of another two versions (which arrived too late for comprehensive photography – see page 9), with the trio providing a useful overview of the various detail differences observed throughout the range.

My choice of 66171 was dictated by seeing the real locomotive repeatedly when I lived beside the

Hope Valley line. Along with 66089, it seemed to be a daily fixture on my dog walks, so I was delighted to see it being offered in this initial batch – it would save me a re-numbering job!

FIRST CLASS UPGRADE

Hattons’ model was a ‘cracker’ in many ways, and I enjoyed reviewing one of the first releases for the February 2020 issue of Model Rail. Ostensibly, there’s little change to the overall profile, which is spot on, and all key dimensions are very close to scale.