EFE Zone News
March 2007
 February 2007 News Archive Index April 2007 
Use the links below to view the further details related to the News items.

If anyone can supply reliable news stories about EFE or Gilbow models,
then please feel free to drop me an email.
 

Saturday 31th March
Recent LT Museum Releases

        With thanks to Andy Kent I'm now able to provide photgraphs of the lastest commissioned models released by the LT Museum earlier this week. A limited quantity of the gold RT models were indeed available from the Museum at the public openeing on the 30th March.
Supplies of the green RML meanwhile are said to be plentiful at present.

10131C Gold RT for LT Museum Shop reopening
10131C - AEC RT Bus - London Transport Museum's New Shop

31904 Green AEC Routemaster RML route 409
31904 - Long Routemaster RML bus - London Transport route 409

Thursday 29th March
Confirmed Model Releases

        The following models have now been released by EFE and should be available from all the normal outlets.
32601  AEC Mark V 4 Axle Oval Tanker Truck - Milk Marketing Board
26320  Guy Arab II Utility Double Deck Bus - Southdown Motor Services (route 13B)
15806  Leyland Titan PD1 Lowbridge - Western SMT
32203  Bristol RELH Coach - Crosville (traditional coach livery)

LT Museum Releases

        The following models have been released by the LT Museum and were available at a private shop re-opening function. The green RML will be available at the public re-opening of the shop on Friday 30th March. It's not clear at present whether any of the Gold RTs will be made available to the public however.
10131C  AEC RT Double Deck Bus - London Transport Museum - Gold - Route 1
31904     AEC RML Double Deck Bus (Re-tooled) - London Transport - Green - Route 409


Friday 16th March
Next Model Releases

        The following models are due for release during the week ending 31 March. The tanker is the first release of the new AEC mark V cab.
32601  AEC Mark V 4 Axle Oval Tanker Truck - Milk Marketing Board
26320  Guy Arab II Utility Double Deck Bus - Southdown Motor Services (route 13B)
15806  Leyland Titan PD1 Lowbridge - Western SMT
32203  Bristol RELH Coach - Crosville (traditional coach livery)

Source : Jim's Diecast Buses


Wednesday 7th March
Victoria Coach Station 75th Anniversary

This coming weekend will see a special event held at London's Victoria Coach Station to mark the 75th Anniversary of its opening. A selection of some of the classic coach types which have used the location over the past years will be passing through the Station on the 10th & 11th March. Additionally its believed a number of sales stands are to be present in and around the building.
London's Transport Museum has commissioned some special merchandise which will be available at the event, today the Museum has confirmed to me that this will include two specially re-worked EFE models.

99701 - Standerwick Leyland Atlantean Coach
99703 - United Bristol REMH Plaxton Panorama Elite
Both models have London destinations and new fleet numbers & registrations and appear to be re-worked versions of 16523 and 29502.
Its believed the unusual 997xx catalogue numbers may be the result of an aborted plan to originally release these models in sleeved sets.

The models will be available at the event for £24.99 each, if any stock remains after the weekend this will be available from the new shop in the main Covent Garden Museum building from the 30th March.
Thanks are extended to the LT Museum & Robert, who originally alerted me to these models, for their help in compiling this news item.
Further details about what's being planned for the event can be found on Classic Buses Website.


Saturday 3rd March
Latest EFE Newsletter Round Up

Another New London Bus Casting Announced
        EFE have announced they are working on a new model of a pre-war London Transport STD. 100 Leyland TD4 double deck buses of this type were delivered to London Transport in 1937 and carried bodies similar in style to those fitted to the existing EFE STL model.
Most of the buses spent the majority of their working lives operating routes out of Hendon depot although later in life some were transferred to other depots including Enfield & Victoria.

Some very early concept versions of the STD model were shown by EFE today at the Acton Depot Open Day. All the models displayed were based on what appered to be pre-production STL models but with the addition of a new Leyland radiators.
A further selection of larger pictures of the STD & re-tooled RT's can be found HERE.

STD - Very early thoughts -Mock up shown at Acton Open Day
A very early concept model of the STD was shown by EFE at the Acton Depot Open Day.
Picture courtesy of http://www.worldwidemodelbuses.com

New Casting Update
        EFE has given details of the proposed order in which it's various new and re-tooled models will be released during 2007. The first half of the year will see the release of the remaining new truck cabs, the Ford Thames Trader & AEC Mark V, these will be followed by a new short Bedford TK tipper truck.
The first of the new bus models, the re-tooled RT and the new pre-war RT2 variant, will follow the above trucks and will be joined by the new RLH casting later in the year.
Early Pre-production version of the new Pre-war RT2
Early pre-production version of the RT2
Picture courtesy of http://www.worldwidemodelbuses.com

Articulated tanker trailers which can be used with all the existing truck cabs are also to be produced.

New Model Announced
Just brief details of this new model were given in the newsletter.
17307 Long Mark I Single Door Leyland National - Brighton Buses

LT Museum Commissioned Models
        The model for this weekends Acton Depot Open weekend, red RML2410 on route 5C to Bloomsbury, has been confirmed as release number 31901B by EFE. The museum has indicated that this model is a more limited run than normal and has decided to restrict it to one per visitor at the event.

        Two further models for the Museum are planned and the first, green RML2306 of route 409 to Forest Row (31904), is due to be released to the public when the Museum Shop relocates from it's tamporary premises back to the newly renovated museum.
A special gold RT model has also been produced for use at the museum's official re-opening ceremony later this year although there's no further information as to whether this will be made available to the public.

        A second version of the green RML2306 model is also due to be produced by EFE for a rally at the Sinsheim Museum in Germany on 27-29 April. The real preserved RML2306 won a competition at last years Showbus rally and as a result will attend the event. The model will be a replica of this bus which will carry special advertising and route blinds for it's trip to Germany. Further details can be found on the Showbus site.

 February 2007 News Archive Index April 2007