APRIL 2022 - POST London Festival of Railway Modelling at Alexadra Palace UPDATE
Our second show of 2022 saw us attend the London Festival of Railway Modelling at Alexandra Palace. This was our first time attending this show and what a great venue it was.
The weekend appeared to be very well attended and we would like to thank everyone that took the time to visit our stand. We thoroughly enjoyed meeting visitors over the weekend and talking about our products.
Project updates following the show can be found below.
TEA Project
Photo courtesy Paul Braybrook
The arrival of our TEA bogie tank wagons is edging ever closer.
Built in the late 1980s for Total, by The Standard Railway Wagon Company, these wagons will be a great addition whether you are modelling the late 1980s/early 1990s or the current scene.
This design of bogie tank wagon has not been released previously in OO scale and will also compliment other designs of this type of wagon currently offered by other manufacturers.
Still in service today, working from the Lindsey oil refinery in North Lincolnshire, these wagons, with a continuous solebar, are sure to be popular for modellers recreating petroleum working on their layouts.
Production is now complete and, following a slight delay at the port due to Covid, we are delighted to announce that the models are now on their way to the U.K.
Further updates will be provided as and when we have more information.
We are extremely grateful to Mick Bryan, and his team, for allowing us to give our TEA wagons a run on the superb layout, Deadman’s Lane. Three TEA models were given some mileage running around the layout, at the show.
To view the TEA wagons running on Deadman’s Lane, please click on the link below to Jack Taylor’s video on YouTube:
HAA Project
Another of our wagon projects which is almost ready for departure from the factory is our HAA project.
Unfortunately, the Covid situation in China has caused a slight delay to this project.
We are not alone with being affected by the pandemic, companies across all industries have been affected, however, the first batch of our HAA wagons are being readied at the factory to ship to the U.K. We are excited to see another highly detailed model coming to fruition.
Photo courtesy Andy Baldwin
Class 56 project
Photo courtesy Tony Worsley
The tooling stage of the process for our Class 56 project is approaching completion with the first Engineering Prototype sample due later this month.
After spending years researching the prototype and planning for our Class 56 locomotive, to be nearing the point of seeing our first locomotive in the flesh is causing high levels of excitement at Cavalex Models.
For those that have seen the 3D printed Class 56 model, you will have seen a very good indication of the high levels of detail that can be expected on our production models. If you haven’t, then don’t worry, as the first sample will be here soon and available to view at several shows later in the year.
As and when we have more updates from the factory, updates will be posted on our website and social media pages.
Latest update from the factory, the moulds are currently being tested and this process should be completed in the next couple of weeks.
BBA project
Photo courtesy Douglas Johnson
The second run of our BBA and BLA wagons arrived in the U.K. in December and to continue the evolution of this project the design of three new decks have been completed.
3D printed examples were on display at the show for visitors to see.
The three new decks are very different; the first example keeps all the features from the original deck release but with the end plates removed and the addition of cradles. Converted in the mid-to late 1980s, this version has six cradles fitted for the transportation of stainless slab cast as well as rolled steel coils.
Photo courtesy Tony Worsley
The second version sees the removal of the original deck with I beam sections fitted to allow the movement of heavy steel slabs. These wagons were converted by Railfreight Metals in the early 1990s and can still be seen in use between Scunthorpe and Lakenby carrying steel slabs.
Photo courtesy Alex Ayre
The final new deck for release, is the BWA/BXA covered steel coil carrier. The first wagon was converted in 1997 for EWS, primarily for the movement of steel coil from Lincolnshire and the Northeast to various locations in the Midlands.
Photo courtesy James Skoyles
Below are a few photos of the BXA/BWA wagons for prototype inspiration:
Our thanks to Mike Buick, for allowing us to give some of our BBAs and BLAs a run on Oak Road at the London Festival of Railway Modelling at Alexandra Palace.
To view the video of the models running on Oak Road, please click the link below:
N Gauge Projects
We are very excited that our first N gauge project is closing in on the final stage of the process; production.
The pre-production samples are currently being made by the factory for our review, ahead of production starting. This is a milestone in our history and hope that this will be the first of many N gauge projects in the future.
From day one, our intention has been to release all our OO gauge products in N gauge, to offer 2mm modellers the same models, subject to there being the demand for these projects. This is still very much the case, as a company we are committed to releasing N gauge products and we hope that the N gauge community can get behind us and support our projects.
In order for us to expand our 2mm range, we need the support of the N gauge community. We understand that we are a relatively new name in the market, especially for 2mm modellers, however, we do feel that following the successful release of several highly detailed wagons in OO gauge that potential customers can see the standards they can expect to see in N gauge.
Over the past few months, we have been contacted weekly regarding our Project 225 in N gauge. This is something that we are still committed to releasing but feel it is prudent to release the PGA before pushing forward with the Class 91 and Mk4 coaches. We want the N gauge community to get fully behind not only our first N gauge project, the PGA hopper wagon, but all our projects.
If the support and demand for Cavalex N gauge products is there, rest assured we will supply them.
We very much hope that this update gives potential customers more information about our approach and explains what we are trying to achieve.