Rapido Trains UK expands 009 range with Peckett Cranmore Class locomotive

Rapido Trains UK has given 009 modellers a locomotive built for tight industrial scenes, short trains and small-space authenticity. The new Peckett & Sons Cranmore Class 0-4-0ST brings the sort of quarry and tramway personality that turns a cramped narrow-gauge plank into a working railway, and it does so with a prototype story deep enough to keep even history-minded builders interested.

The model is based on Works No. 1030, built in 1904 for the Mendip Granite and Asphalt Company as a 2ft-gauge 0-4-0 with 7x10-inch cylinders and a saddle tank. It began life as Cranmore, then changed before delivery, gaining an enclosed cab, brass nameplates and Peckett Standard Green livery before being renamed Gamecock. That sequence gives the locomotive a very specific identity, not just another anonymous quarry shunter, and it ties directly into Cranmore near Shepton Mallet, where the name still carries weight with railway fans.

That local connection matters. The East Somerset Railway opened in 1858 under an 1856 Act of Parliament, was later converted from broad gauge to standard gauge in 1874, and reopened as a heritage railway on 1 August 1974. Today it runs as a 5-mile, charity-run steam railway at Cranmore, near Shepton Mallet, and its history includes a narrow-gauge line from Waterlip to Cranmore with a rock-crushing plant beside the main line. For 009 layouts, that is the kind of real industrial pattern that makes a model feel anchored in place rather than borrowed from a generic quarry setting.

Rapido is backing the prototype with a release plan aimed squarely at practical layout use. The Cranmore Class will arrive in nine versions at launch, with two additional exclusive variants through Fourdees Limited, and the range will include body and cab combinations such as fully enclosed and half-back cab versions, plus early and late dome covers. Rapido is also offering DCC-ready and DCC-fitted, non-sound versions, with a 6-pin socket, six wiper pickups, a small coreless motor with flywheel and a removable body secured by four accessible screws. That is the sort of specification that matters when the locomotive has to crawl reliably through tight-radius 009 work.

The backstory adds another layer of appeal. Rapido says Peckett used Gamecock in advertising literature, including an image of the locomotive on a wagon hauled by a traction engine, which is exactly the kind of period detail that helps a model stand out on a shelf or a layout. A retailer source has also suggested Gamecock may have worked alongside a W.G. Bagnall 0-4-0 Terrier for a short time until that engine was sold in 1907, hinting at a small but lively industrial roster. Rapido’s move follows earlier interest in the same general Peckett theme, including Accucraft UK Ltd’s previous Cranmore model, but this 009 release pushes the subject into a more layout-friendly scale with far more operational flexibility.