Review - Graham Farish N Gauge GWR Modified Hall
- Tom Everitt
- 4 hours ago
- 8 min read
The GWR Hall has featured in the Graham Farish range since the original model was introduced back in 1975. A model very much of it's time, with a strange mix of features from both the original and modified Hall variants, it was the N Gauge modellers only option until Dapol came along with a new version in 2011 and whilst this model served the N Gauge GWR fans well, it too is now a model fixed firmly in it's era.
Hot on the heels of the exquisite LNER V2, Graham Farish have now come back to the GWR table with brand new tooling for both the original 49xx Hall and 69xx Modified Hall, the later being the subject of this review.
The Prototype
When Fredrick Hawksworth assumed the role of Chief Mechanical Engineer at the Great Western Railway in 1941 on the retirement of Charles Collett, there had been a period of stagnation at Swindon with the GWR falling behind it's contemporaries in terms of innovation. Hawksworth set to restoring Swindon's reputation and immediately started work on an improved version of the versatile Hall class.
The modified halls were a radical departure from established Swindon practice, with the plate frames being a departure from established Churchward practice of part plate and part bar frame construction. Another key change was the fitting of a 3-row superheater with 21 flues to the standard number 1 boiler. This was intended to improve the speed and performance of the type, along with further boiler and firebox changes as a result of poorer quality coal being supplied to the railway. Improvements were subsequently made to the draughting on some of the class, whilst some gained hopper ashpans.
The adoption of the plate frame from drag box to buffer beam resulted in major changes to the fabrication and assembly of the cylinders and valves. The cylinders, which still drove Stephenson valve motion, were now cast as two separate units and bolted to the outer faces of the frames. A new cross stretcher was placed between the frames and extended upwards to provide a support and mounting for the smokebox. The modified Halls also now featured mechanical lubricators mounted on the running boards just ahead of the leading coupled wheels, replacing the previously used hydrostatic lubrication method which consisted of the driver counting the number of drops (15 drops every 2 minutes) of oil passing through a sight glass on the footplate. The original Churchward bar framed bogie was also replaced by a plate frame structure with individual springing. The first 14 of the modified Hall class were provided with standard Collett 4,000 gallon tenders, but from locomotive 6974 onwards the simpler flat sided Hawksworth tender was provided. Another step taken by Hawksworth to simplify construction and reduce operational and maintenance costs.
Twelve locomotives formed the initial batch of Modified Halls, with all being delivered between March & September 1944 in unlined war time black and numbered 6959-6970. 59 more were ordered between 1947 and 1950 with the newly formed British Railways continuing construction until 71 of the Class were in service.
Popular with footplate crews and shed staff, the Modified Halls steamed well and ran freely, helping to restore Swindon's reputation and serving right through until the end of Steam on the Great Western with 6998 hauling the last British Rail Western Region steam-hauled scheduled passenger service on January 3, 1965. Six of the class have survived in preservation, with five having returned to steam and two returning to the mainline at various times up until 1996 when 6998 was withdrawn for overhaul. Currently, 6989 'Wightwick Hall' and 6990 'Witherslack Hall' are in steam.
The Model
Following up the superb, recently released LNER V2 was always going to be a difficult task for Graham Farish, but the Modified Hall more than holds it's own and will no doubt prove extremely popular with GWR modellers. This is the first time the Modified Hall has been accurately represented in N Gauge so brings a new Class to the scale.
Construction of the model follows what is now standard Farish practice, with a finely detailed plastic smokebox, boiler and firebox sitting atop a cast metal running & foot plate. The rivet detail around the smoke box and along the top of the running plates is particularly fine. The running plate lamp irons are part of the casting but are reasonably fine in appearance. Washout plugs are all present along the side of the firebox, and it's brilliant to see a model with a separately fitted chimney that doesn't have an excessive join line for once! It may seem like a small thing, but it makes a big difference to the overall appearance of the model. The only niggle with the boiler fittings, and it really is a minor niggle, is the ejector exhaust pipe that runs from cab to smokebox being moulded rather than separately fitted. This has resulted in a large flat section on top of the pipe where it meets the boiler casing. When viewed from above it's fairly obvious, less so when viewed from lower angles, and the handrail that is fitted to the pipe helps to distract from it further. The cab is a separate moulding to the rest of the model and again features a host of finely moulded rivet detail and wire handrails along with flush glazing for the cab side and forward windows. Backhead detail is all present and beautifully picked out in the correct colours and the larger gauges even have some very fine printed details complete with visible markings on some (in N Gauge!!)
Bachmann have captured the shape of the locomotive to a tee, including the standard number one boiler, and there is no mistaking the model as anything other than a Modified Hall thanks to the visible frame sections above the running plate. The safety valve cover and chimney look accurately shaped and the vertical steam pipes, which are separate parts, complete the appearance. Other separately fitted details include reversing lever, vacuum pipes, and fine wire handrails. Supplied for the user to fit is a hook and screw link coupling for the front buffer beam when the forward coupling is removed.
The Hawksworth plate framed pony truck comes with a separately fitted front plate to replicate that of the prototype at the expense of the front coupling. Out of necessity it's narrower than the real thing, however it still significantly improves the face of the model when fitted. There is representation of the frames about the pony truck which do a decent job of reducing the amount of visible daylight. It's certainly an improvement in this area over many previous models.
The motion is particularly fine for RTR N Gauge correctly featuring plain coupling and fluted connecting rods, however the hex bolts used to secure the rods in place do appear a little clumsy in appearance given the overall finesse of the rest of the model and are one of the few things that give away that this is an N Gauge model. The vacuum pump is correctly present on the underside of the running plate on the right hand side of the loco. Springs and brake blocks are moulded as part of the keeper plate and separately fitted sand pipes and mechanical speedometer complete the detail below footplate level.
The outside cylinder blocks are a good representation of the prototype and are of prototypical width, which means there shouldn't be any clearance issues through platforms etc. A small amount of the lower rear is cut away to give clearance for the front pony truck to swing, however this isn't particularly noticeable. Neatly moulded drain cocks are pre-fitted, saving the modeller a fiddly job!
The Collett 4000 gallon tender is the same tooling as the previously released Castle, and features some fine rivet detail that doesn't look overscale along with various tool boxes, brake handles and separately fitted rear handrails. Whilst moulded coal never really captures the appearance of the real thing, this is one of the better representations we've seen in N Gauge. The load is a sperate metal casting which can be removed if you wish to replace it with real coal, however the casting also includes the tool slot and tool boxes, so it's not quite as straightforward as removing one and replacing with the other.
The tender chassis appears to have had some slight tweaks to the way in the which the pickups are fitted over the original, now being secured in place by four small screws and the speaker repositioned to the centre of the chassis vs the original angled position at the rear of the tender, but the external details remain unchanged. The only addition the modeller needs to make to the tender is to add the separately supplied coupling hook which can be done without any interference with the standard rapido coupler. The loco - tender gap is set to allow the model to negotiate curves down to second radius so is a little on the wide side but by no means the worst we've seen. It's perhaps exaggerated slightly by the lack of cab doors as per the prototype. There isn't a shorter drawbar supplied however, so modellers wanting a shorter gap will need to fabricate their own.
Bachmann have also tooled the flat sided 4000 gallon Hawksworth tender, however none of the models in the first batch released include it. Hopefully there won't be a long wait before this version makes an appearance, particularly as half of the persevered Modified Halls are currently paired with that type of tender.
Mechanism
The Modified Hall follows the now standard pattern for Graham Farish N Gauge models, with a loco fitted coreless motor and DCC socket located in the tender along with the factory fitted speaker. Electrical connection between locomotive and tender is via two fine wires.
Driving wheels feature brass bearings of the same type found in other recent steam outline models like the V2 and 8f with the centre axle being the driven axle. Wiper pickups fitted to the keeper plate deilver power from all driving wheels. The rear drivers are fitted with traction tyres, and ten Farish Mk.1 coaches were hauled with absolutely no problem. Not being a fan of traction tyres, personally, it is a shame that there are no replacement driving wheels supplied without them as there were with the recent V2.
The model is fitted with a Next-18 DCC socket, easily accessible by simply pulling the tender body upward gently which makes fitting a suitable chip a doddle. There is a fair amount of spare room in the tender, so fitting stay alive should also be relatively straight forward for those who wish to do so, however the with the model picking up from all driving and tender wheels, there was no sign of stalling at all whilst being test run on DC power.
Performance was impeccable straight from the box with no hint of any wobble or tight spots and exhibiting smooth performance right down to a crawl from a very reasonable top speed.
Finish
It's very difficult not to keep using the usual superlatives when it comes to the standard of finish on Graham Farish models, and the Modified Hall is no exception. It's just superb!
The base GWR green is evenly applied with no blemishes, and the orange & black lining is some of the finest seen on a N Gauge model to date. The safety valve cover has a lovely brass finish to it whilst the chimney has the ubiquitous 'copper cap'. The lining and gold edging to the splashers and cab are particularly nicely done whilst number & name plates are all perfectly aligned with all lettering and logos being pin sharp and no sign of any fuzziness. The small CFTH lettering present on each side of the running plate means the model represents 6960 in preservation during it's time at Carnforth Steamtown between 1975 & 1977.
Summary
The Modified Hall represents yet another superb additional to the Graham Farish N Gauge range and fills another significant gap for Western Region modellers, making an excellent companion for the previously released Farish Castle and 64xx, alongside other recent releases from Sonic Models and forthcoming releases from Dapol. It may not quite knock the V2 from the top spot, but it's a very close contender. With excellent performance, easy DCC fitting and superb finish there really is no reason not to add one to your collection!
Availability
Two versions of the Modified Hall are planned for release, with 'Raveningham Hall' available in stores now:
372-450/372-450SF 6960 'Raveningham Hall' GWR lined green
372-451/372-451SF 7904 'Fountains Hall' BR lined black (early emblem)
The RRP is £189.95 for DC versions and £299.95 for DCC sound fitted versions.
The model in this review was purchased by the review from Rails of Sheffield for £161.45
