Graham Farish - 371-137TL - Locomotive, Diesel, Class 31/4 - Mainline Freight - 31407

Specific Item Information: As part of our Winter 2022 British Railway Announcements we are delighted to present this Sales Area Exclusive N scale Class 31 Diesel Locomotive. This model, which will be available from retailers in the South of England, depicts Refurbished Class 31/4 No. 31407 in Mainline Freight livery.

Depicting a Class 31/4 which was fitted with Electric Train Heating, this model also sports all the hallmarks of a refurbished machine with its bufferbeam cowling and bodyside band removed, headcode boxes plated over and radio pods present above each cab. The vibrant blue livery is expertly applied and is only accented by the orange cantrail stripe and the silver insignia and running number. Fitted with high intensity headlights at each end, which of course are functional, the model also features working tail and marker lights and is supplied with a pre-fitted speaker, making it easy to add sound to your model by fitting a sound decoder via the Next18 DCC decoder socket. Alternatively, why not opt for a SOUND FITTED model with pre-fitted sound decoder and bring your layout to life with sound straight out of the box.

Road Name History: Mainline Freight was a trainload rail freight operator based in Islington, London, England with operations extending to Yorkshire in the north and Somerset in the west. It was formed from part of British Rail's Trainload Freight division as part of the privatisation of British Rail.

Mainline Freight, Loadhaul and Transrail were purchased by a consortium led by Wisconsin Central in 1996 and amalgamated into a new company, English Welsh & Scottish.

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.