It’s that time of year again, when thoughts turn to Christmas, mince pies and the promise of what the new year may bring. However, it’s also a time of reflection, looking back on another year of ups and downs.
In model railway terms, 2023 has been an incredibly busy year, with a healthy number of new products hitting the market. Indeed, it has been difficult to shoehorn our usual in-depth reviews into each issue of Model Rail.
Our Model of the Year competition has been running for 18 years now, and the results are taken seriously by manufacturers and retailers, so your votes really do matter. Last year you voted in your thousands, and while many of the individual winners wouldn’t have raised many eyebrows, there were also a few welcome surprises too.
Voting is free and open to everyone, with each nominee taking the form of new, ready-to-run models appearing during the calendar year. This includes new or revised toolings (including upgraded chassis), but omits new livery or numbering options.
Categories are spread across each of the popular scales, featuring locomotives (and multiple units), carriages and freight stock. After consideration, we decided to omit ‘TT:120’ from this year’s awards, as the small number of RTR releases from a single manufacturer meant that choice was limited. It’s obviously early days for this ‘new’ scale, so we’ll look to revise this next year. Another slight tweak to this year’s format has been to consolidate some of the manufacturers’ brand names, which was beginning to get a little confusing. Accordingly, Bachmann Branchline, Graham Farish and EFE Rail now come under Bachmann Europe, while Dapol and Lionheart Trains are treated as a single entity. Talking of which, we have added Lionheart’s recent ‘On16.5’narrow gauge Lynton & Barnstaple locomotives and carriages into the regular ‘O’ gauge categories.
Having proved a popular addition last year, we have retained the option to vote for your favourite model retailer, with two categories to help differentiate larger concerns from smaller, local businesses. We’ve also been squirrelling away an amazing array of goodies for our bumper prize draw, worth well over £2,400, with free entry for everyone who votes in Model Rail’s Model of the Year 2023 awards.
This is YOUR chance to recognise the hard work, dedication and innovation of those at the heart of our wonderful hobby… so cast your votes today!
WIN! MODEL OF THE YEAR MEGA PRIZE DRAW
Every reader who casts a vote in the Model Rail Model of the Year 2023 awards will be automatically entered into our bumper prize draw, with a huge range of locomotives, carriages and wagons up for grabs, in ‘N’, ‘OO9’, ‘OO’ and ‘O’ gauge, courtesy of Accurascale, Bachmann, Dapol, Hornby, Peco and Rapido Trains UK.
Here is a full list of the prizes:
‘OO’ gauge
Accurascale Mk 5 Caledonian Sleeper coach set
EFE Rail LSWR 3-car Cross Country set
Rapido Hunslet 16in 0-6-0ST Nassington green
Rapido GWR Iron Mink
Rapido GWR Iron Mink
Hornby ScotRail Class 153
Rapido Lion
Rapido SECR brake van
Rapido Iron Mink, CR Gunpowder Van
Accurascale GWR Siphon G, GWR brown
Accurascale GWR Siphon G, BR maroon
Hornby LMS Turbomotive
Hornby RailRoad Class 67 Colas Railfreight
Hornby RailRoad Plus Class 20, BR blue Loram
Hornby BR 50t Breakdown Crane, One
EFE Rail LSWR 10t covered van
‘N’ gauge
Rapido Trains UK BR/Metro Vick Class 28 ‘Co-Bo’
Rapido Trains UK BR Conflat P
Rapido Trains UK BR Conflat P
EFE Rail PBA china clay bogie hopper
Farish Mk2F Virgin Trains
Sonic Models LNER J50 0-6-0
EFE Rail J94 0-6-0ST NCB green Amazon
Peco 7 plank open wagon
‘OO9’ gauge
Peco FR Bug Box coach, 3rd Class
Peco FR Bug Box coach, Zoo car, red
Peco FR Bug Box coach, Zoo car, green
‘O’ gauge
Dapol GWR Mogo van
Dapol SR Parto van
Winners will be drawn at random after the voting closes on February 15 2024.
Entry into the prize draw is via the Model of the Year voting website only and we reserve the right to allocate prizes at our discretion.
Simply click here to cast your vote!