Graham Farish - 371-679 - Passenger, Diesel-Electric, Class 220 - Arriva - DEMU 220009

Specific Item Information: The Class 220 Voyager is a class of diesel-electric high-speed multiple-unit trains built in Belgium by Bombardier Transportation in 2000 and 2001. They were introduced in 2001 to replace the 20-year-old InterCity 125 and 30-year-old Class 47-hauled Mark 2 fleets operating on the Cross Country Route, initially for Virgin CrossCountry and since 2007 by CrossCountry, within the Arriva group (now owned by DB). The Class 220s operate in four-coach sets with a top speed of 125 mph (200 km/h) and a maximum range of approximately 1,350 miles between refuelling and servicing.

Because CrossCountry's network has such a wide geographic reach, Class 220 Voyagers can be seen from Aberdeen to Penzance, Manchester to Bournemouth and Newcastle to Reading. They are most common at Birmingham New Street, which is the hub of the CrossCountry network.

Road Name History: Arriva is a multinational public transport company headquartered in Sunderland, England. It was established in 1938 as T Cowie and through a number of mergers and acquisitions was rebranded Arriva in 1997 and became a subsidiary of Deutsche Bahn in 2010. Arriva operates bus, coach, train, tram and waterbus services in 14 countries across Europe. As of September 2018, it employed 61,845 people and operated 2.4 billion passenger journeys annually. It operates as three divisions: UK Bus, UK Rail and Mainland Europe.

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.