most of you coming to this site would know what graham farish is about, UK model train manufaturer, does N gauge, all of that, and id like to go through its history with its chassis models, detailing all of what ive found throughout my collecting
I would like to mention that most photos will not be mine, I am a random Mexican kid from Southern California, it is very hard to get produced n gauge models, let alone graham farish, so only some will include photos from me
to start off, we will only be going through its N gauge line, i do not own any of their OO models and do not plan to as of writing this in january 2026. i will also not be going through their chinese manufactured models, as those use unique chassis models for each engines, i will be only focusing in their Poole manufacutred models from thr UK
to start, and for one that i own in person, but, only extremely disfiguered, is their 1971 GWR 94xx pannier tank. this was a odd model to say something, it used a seperated motor, like ones youd see in a trackmaster toy, but smaller,with a normal toothed gear that then went to a worm gear that is parrallel to the motor that is directly below it, it would then connect to a small gear right in front to the main driver gear on the center axle, which had another gear leading to the rear axle, the front axle had no gears leading to it,it had a odd siderod design, since the "joint" in the middle axle,not the actual crankpin joint, the thing right next to it, was flush with the real crank pin. in 1975, was the introduction of the Holden Tank, utilizing what i can suspect to be a similar layout, but with no pin in the center to attach the side rod to the wheels,the 1975 hall 49xx class had the same layout as the 94xx, alongside having plastic wheels on its front bogie and tender,this design would eventually get scrapped
in 1977 graham farish would go on to release their first engines with a trailing truck,the Southern railway merchant navy, west country/battle of Britain, and the 5101/61xx class engines. this would introduce the Bulleid Firth Brown wheel variant of the large wheel.
1978 was a dry year in releases, they released the black 5,it would also introduce the medium sized wheel thats it really, except for the fact that this introduced the exposed core chassis,marking the end of the end of the old chassis, introducing the new exposed core version of the 0-6-0,its motor core would go on to be the standard for all future Poole Era steam engines. it utilized only 2 gears, a worm gear directly on the motor shaft, and a single gear on one of the axles, the siderods transfered the torque to the other axles
1979 was also a dry year in terms of ammount of new, but is important. the british rail class 08 was introduced, introducing for the first time a new chassis, the short 0-6-0, utilizing the same motor core and top magnet.
1981 would introduce the Co-Co diesel chassis with the BR class 37 (YEAH!!!!) and the BR class 47, and the single bogie Bo chassis with the BR class 43 HST
1982 would introduce the LMS Princess coronation 8P class and castle class, which uses the standard 0-6-0 motor, it also introduced the BR class 101, using the single bogie chassis from the class 43, the BR class 20 was also introduced,bringing with it the the bo-bo chasssis