Rapido BR Class 44 ‘Peak’
♦ GAUGE ‘N’
♦ MODEL Rapido 948001 BR Class 44 D1 Scafell Pike BR green
♦ PRICE £144.95 (DCC-ready), £249.95 (DCC sound)
♦ AVAILABILITY Rapido stockists Webwww.rapidotrains.co.uk
Rapido has an ambitious programme of ‘Peak’ diesel-electric locomotive releases planned in 2mm scale, covering classes 44, 45 and 46. A total of 28 different versions are scheduled over the coming months, ranging in livery from all-over green through to Corporate Blue and beyond; there’s even the Railway Technical Centre’s 97 403 Ixion in its distinctive blue and red livery.
However, Rapido has fittingly kicked things off with the pioneering Class 44, just as BR itself did in 1959 with ten Type 4 1Co-Co1 diesels under its Pilot Scheme appraisal process. It was these machines that would eventually form the Class 44 class.
Our review sample is the first of the class, D1 Scafell Pike, finished in the all-over BR green livery it debuted with, before the application of yellow nose warning panels. It is notable that the range extends to seven of its siblings (there are two variations of D7/44007 Ingleborough in green and blue); only D9/44009 and D10/44010 have escaped Rapido’s attention, the latter two requiring a different body tooling to reflect the alternative grille arrangement.