Introduction
This page is dedicated to the Clark Railworks OO Gauge Quad Art coaches. Below you’ll find information on liveries, coach types and running formations, together with project updates and a short history of the prototype.
We’re always on hand to help, so if you need any more details or advice – or to pre-order your own set of Quad Arts – please call or email us by visiting the contact page of this website.
A Short History of the Quad Arts
Nigel Gresley had experimented with articulation as early as 1907, when he repurposed a selection of the Great Northern Railway’s tired six- and eight-wheel coaches by mounting two coaches on a shared bogie. As well as giving the new vehicles a new lease of life, this resulted in cost and weight benefits together with increased passenger capacity for a given length of train.
Short platforms on the Metropolitan ‘Widened Lines’ used by Great Northern suburban services made articulated trains particularly attractive for the huge numbers of commuters travelling daily into the city by the 1920s. With a seating capacity of over 600 for an eight-car ‘twin’ set, the 1923 Quad Arts depicted by our models were the ultimate evolution of loco-hauled articulated coaches, and over 97 sets were produced over a two-year period.
Quad Arts were used on stopping trains between London and Hertfordshire as well as on semi-fast services as far north as Cambridge. A healthy lifespan of over 40 years saw them decorated in teak, crimson and maroon liveries, with motive power provided by everything from N1s, N2s and N7s to Class 20s and 31s as the diesel age dawned. The weight saved through use of articulation facilitated greater acceleration and thus faster schedules when compared with conventional stock.
Compartments were spartan and rather ‘intimate’ for commuters of the period – but the wood panelling, wall prints and wired luggage racks are all features that are faithfully represented on our ‘Quads’.
Quad Art set no. 85 became a minor celebrity following overhaul in 1954, when it was often used on the 17:58 London Kings Cross – Welwyn Garden City ‘Pottersbarbarian’ service and became something of a mascot for commuters and railwaymen. This set has been fully restored by the M&GN Society and can be enjoyed by 21st-century passengers today amid the pastoral landscape of the North Norfolk Railway.
Key Info
(Pre-order with no upfront payments)
Release Date
Q1 2025
Specification
Bogies
• Finely detailed including wheel, brake rigging and underframe details
• Brass bearings
• Separate bogie variations for centre and end bogies
• Sprung centre bogie fixing so coaches run prototypically close
• Insert for end bogies if the coupling is removed
• Electrical pickups for lighting
Chassis
• Fully detailed diecast chassis
• Detailed fittings and pipework under chassis
• Sprung centre connectors for radius 2 curves and points
• Unclippable NEM pocket
• Sprung buffers on brake end coach
• Accurate and detailed paint and printing detail
• Separately fitted vacuum and battery box details
• EM/P4 on axle
• Spare brake sets for EM/P4
• Detailed bodies with separate door grab rails
• Highly detailed coach ends with lit destination boards on brake ends
• Fully “low glow” interior lighting with hidden circuit boards
• Fully detailed interior with etched luggage racks and correct height seats
• Fully detailed roofs with separately fitted vents and magnetic and push fit roofs
• Magnetic switched lighting in each carriage
• Accurate and detailed paint and printing detail
Liveries
• LNER Teak
• BR Crimson
• BR Maroon
Quad Art Sets
Below is a chart with the full range of Ellis Clark Quad Art sets available
