Class 395 Blue Rapier coach confusion

[John-817867]

Can anyone help me with Class 395 Blue Rapier Railroad series coaches. I bought some extra coaches for this set and ended up with coaches with an intercity EXPRESS logo instead of a southern highspeed logo. They seem to carry the same Hornby R4438 number as well as the coach running numbers 39212 & 39213. I am confused.

[Going Spare]

Were the coaches bought new or secondhand? If secondhand, I suspect the previous owner has changed their identity for some reason. (I am assuming the coaches are correct for the unit in design and blue livery with just the logo being different.)

[RDS]

@John

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[96RAF]

Intercity Express logo was applied to the Class 395 Javelin set which had the same toy train hook coupling as the Blue Rapier (southern highspeed) and London 2012 Olympics sets (bespoke logo), but different livery. These had darkened windows, no interior detail and no DCC socket.

The later DCC-Ready Class 395s had interior detail visible through clear windows, a high level Cyclops light on the end cars and the more complex couplings.

[M. Matthews]

I think the ones with “intercity express” are the below railroad standard coaches and the ones with “southeastern” are a bit more detailed.

There were different versions of the class 395 produced to very different standards.

[John-817867]

Intercity Express logo was applied to the Class 395 Javelin set which had the same toy train hook coupling as the Blue Rapier and London 2012 Olympics sets.

 

 

Didn't the Olympic set have a different livery?

[John-817867]

Were the coaches bought new or secondhand?

 

 

They were bought secondhand but not at the same time. The logo seems to have been Tampo printed by the manufacturer. Yes, the coaches are identical in every other way.

[Going Spare]

I have not come across this before and am also intrigued by 96RAF's post. Hopefully someone can identify the R-number and post illustrations of the set/pack for which your coaches were add-ons.

[96RAF]

I meant the Javelin, BlueRapier and 2012 Olympic models were more basic and shared the same toy train couplings but obviously had different liveries.

The later models such as Sir Chris Hoy, Sir Steve Redgrave and others had interior detail, etc as described.

There are lots of variants in 3 and 4 car sets, plus extra coaches. E.g.

R2972, R1153, R2821, R3813, R3815, R1139, R4999, R4382, R4383, R4452, R4453, R1207, R2961, etc.

[new lad on block]

Hi John, did you buy the extra coaches loose or in a original Hornby box. If bought in a box what was the R number on the box?

If loose, It maybe these coaches were split from the Argos special set, R1207 Intercity Express.

The set and spare coaches from the set can be found on Ebay if you search Hornby R1207.

Will check my sets and compare tomorrow.

Regards

[Going Spare]

@96RAF

From their introduction, the true Javelin models had plug & socket couplings rather than the pin & loop arrangement of the much more basic Blue Rapier version and had interiors.

@New Lad

Thank you for that info. If the only appearance of Intercity Express branding occurred in a set commissioned by Argos, I doubt whether Hornby would have produced add-on coaches so my guess is that the OP's coaches have been split-away from the set and, if bought boxed, the boxes are misleading. The only add-on coach I have been able to unearth for the Blue Rapier is R4438, coach 39012, in standard blue SouthEastern High Speed livery.

[new lad on block]

Hi GS, Hornby also made another special Hitachi 395 set for Argos, in a red livery, R1239. That set can also be viewed on EBay.

Regards

[new lad on block]

Photos of R1139, Blue Rapier Set.

R1207.

R1139 Coaches.

R1207 Coaches.

[new lad on block]

More photos to compare, note all plastic wheels on the R1139 set.

[96RAF]

I swapped out all my Blue Rapier plastic wheels for metal wheeled bogies, readily available from the usual sources at the time.

[John-817867]

Thanks for all your inputs. It does appear that Hornby did indeed released a Class 395 set as an Intercity Express, the only difference from the southern HISPEED being the branding. My only dilemma now is what to do with the surplus intercity Express coaches, back on to E-Bay I suppose.

[ellocoloco]

I would expect that the bodywork is self coloured plastic and the branding would come off reasonably easily with IPA or similar.

This would allow a longer train using alternate branded and unbranded coaches.