A first look at the 24.5t HOP24/HUO hopper wagon

Today is the day that the clock ticks down to 00:00 and Accurascale, as a model railway manufacturing company, goes ‘live’.

Of course, things don’t always go to plan, and the launch of the HUO is no exception. But these things happen!

Now, let’s have a first look at our HUO ‘in the plastic’.

OK, we’ll level with you. Tooling was going quite nicely until we noticed a flaw. We want our model to be as perfect as manufacturing will allow, so we have decided to alter the tooling to correct the issue. This has delayed the sample by about two weeks, but we are confident that the bridge between sample and production is very small, so it should not affect delivery time. Indeed, our factory is now preparing test parts as you can see below.

Thankfully, help was at hand and a quick phone call to a leading UK-based 3D printing firm secured this sample. Please bare this in mind when analysing photos, and there are some parts missing which will be on the production model. As soon as the factory production sample arrives, we will share pics with you. However, this print is seriously impressive and was turned around in double-quick time. You can see its limitations in areas like the buffer heads, but overall, wow!

British Railway Modelling and RMWeb’s main man Andy York has also given his verdict on the HUO CAD, looking at the fidelity and provisions made for fine scale modellers. It’s well worth a watch.

The book is now open on pre-orders. As stated previously, it’s £59.95 for a pack of three and we are doing a rake deal of all five packs of pre-TOPS wagons for £275, including free two-day shipping to the UK and Ireland! We will offer similar deals on TOPS variants when we start taking pre-orders.

As you have probably read many times at this stage, we believe that the devil is in the detail, and the HUO will be no different. Below is a parts diagram showing just how many separate parts go into one of our wagons. We want to give you the highest possible detail for your buck. Anyone fancy counting?

Below are livery details and numbers for the first five packs of HUOs in pre-TOPS condition. Pre-ordering is now open!

Pack A

B333635              Self-contained buffers    HOP 24 1/2 marking        [route info blanked out]

B335009              Spindle buffers                 COAL HOP marking          [route info blanked out]

B335539N           Spindle buffers                 HOP 24 1/2 marking        [route info blanked out]

Pack B

B333897              Self-contained buffers    HOP 24 marking              LOAD ONLY TO STELLA NORTH OR SOUTH DUNSTON OR BLYTH POWER  STATIONS

B334155              Self-contained buffers    HOP 24 marking               LOAD ONLY TO STELLA NORTH OR SOUTH DUNSTON OR BLYTH POWER STATIONS

B334160              Self-contained buffers    HOP 24 marking               LOAD ONLY TO STELLA NORTH OR SOUTH DUNSTON OR BLYTH POWER STATIONS

Pack C

B334429              Self-contained buffers    24 1/2T marking               LOAD ONLY TO KINCARDINE POWER STATION SC REGION

B334438              Self-contained buffers    HOP marking                     [route info blanked out]

B334548              Self-contained buffers    24 1/2T marking               LOAD ONLY TO KINCARDINE POWER STATION SC REGION

Pack D

B334949              Spindle buffers                 HOP marking      [route info blanked out]

B335039              Spindle buffers                 HOP marking      [route info blanked out]

B335703              Self-contained buffers    HOP marking      [route info blanked out]

Pack E

B336817              Self-contained buffers    24 1/2T marking               LOAD ONLY TO THORPE MARSH POWER STATION (YORKS) N.E.R.

B336937              Self-contained buffers    24 1/2T marking               LOAD ONLY TO THORPE MARSH POWER STATION (YORKS) N.E.R.

B337128N           Self-contained buffers    HOP marking                     LOAD ONLY TO THORPE MARSH POWER STATION (YORKS) N.E.R.