Many of the B17 locomotive class were named after football clubs and invariably held a special place in the hearts of local communities associated with a football club of the same name. On many occasions local football supporters were conveyed to the ‘away’ match by their namesake engine, usually cleaned and polished to pristine condition for the day’s outing. This set is representative of just such a typical East Coast Express train and would have been a familiar sight on the Eastern Region of British Railways during the mid to late 1950s.

The track circuit in this set can be extended to fully complete the included MidiMat layout by using additional track and accessory packs, creating an exciting and fully functioning model railway. 

CONTENTS
BR Class B17 'West Ham United'
BR MK1 Corridor 2nd Class Coach
BR MK1 Corridor Composite Coach BR MK1 Brake 2nd Class Coach

Track:
3rd Radius Starter Oval with Track Pack A (with point and buffer stop)
Train Controller (R8250)
Wall Plug Transformer (P9000W)
Power Connecting Track (R8206) Hornby MidiMat (1600 x 1180mm)

Locomotive suitable for 2nd radius curves or greater.

Eurostar's first use of the Class 373 for an external agency marketing campaign took place in September 1999, when the surviving Beatles; Sir Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr and George Harrison, along with the Apple Corporation, transformed Sets 3005/3006 with a vinyl wrap that recreated scenes from The Beatles' film, 'Yellow Submarine'. Just one of the promotional events that marked the release of the remixed song track CD that Autumn, along with the remastered version of the film that was released in cinemas and on video, at the time the film had been unavailable for over a decade and the relaunched version included scenes that were edited out of the original, while the album featured new mixes of songs, such as 'With A Little Help From My Friends' and 'Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds', the first such time a Beatles album had ever been remixed.

Costing in excess of £100,000, the artwork was the result of four months intensive work by Apple Corporation's Art Director, Fiona Andreanelli, with the finished vinyl artwork taking two weeks to print and a further six days to apply to the train. At over 400 metres in length, each carriage portrayed a different design, telling a different part of the Yellow Submarine story. On Wednesday 8 September, accompanied by a Jazz band playing 'Yellow Submarine', Sets 3005/3006 departed Waterloo on the official launch, much to the surprise of passengers booked on the service, which was a normal departure rather than a dedicated press charter.

The train retained the graphics for the next three months, operating between London, Paris and Brussels but fate was not kind to Sets 3005/3006 as, despite featuring the first advertising livery to be featured on Eurostar, the Sets were the first of the Class 373 trains to be scrapped, being sent to European Metal Recycling (EMR) at Kingsbury on 27 October 2016. Note: The designs featured on this model are a representation of the graphics that were applied to the eighteen passenger cars of Sets 3005/3006 and are not intended to accurately portray the livery in service.

© 2020 Apple Corps Ltd. All rights reserved. A BeatlesTM product licensed by Apple Corps Ltd. “Beatles” is a trademark of Apple Corps Ltd. “Apple” and the Apple logo are exclusively licensed to Apple Corps Ltd.

For the many small communities that relied on the transportation of aggregates, ore, slate and coal to and from the coast, the rural railways of the West Country and Wales were the only reliable link to the outside world. Many of these freight lines, originally built by private subscription, were later used for passenger traffic, using older coaching stock that was handed down from the busier lines. Many of the station stops were little more than wayside halts, lacking goods yards with a suitable crane to offload material and so a small railway crane would often be attached to the train for this purpose.

This set includes an 0-6-0 Pannier Tank locomotive with a selection of rolling stock that was typical for the period, running on a track circuit and siding that can be extended to fully complete an engaging layout on the included 1600mm x 1180mm TrakMat.