Airfix Railway System

The 'Ready to Run' range was introduced at the Harrogate and Brighton Toy Fair in January 1976.

The Original Airfix Sets were released for Christmas 1976.  

The Wild West Adventure Train Set made use of an existing H0 model of a Central Pacific Rail Road 4-4-0 'Jupiter' from Bachmann together with matching coaches and lineside features.

There was also an Airfix/Bachmann Wild West Freight Train Set which included a Union Pacific 4-4-0 No.119 with two box cars and a caboose.  

Airfix designed an adventure set of their own. This was called the Dr. X Adventure Train Set and contained a Class 31 diesel locomotive, a Mk2 Inter-City coach, a ventilated van and a Lowmac with a container lorry. For accessories it included an articulated road van, a pickup crane truck and a level crossing. There was also an action tunnel that contained a radar scanner and a rocket launcher.  

In 1977 the first Airfix Locomotive released was the Class 31 of the Dr.X set, and was available in both BR green and blue liveries. There were also Mk2 1st open and brake 2nd open coaches produced in Inter-City blue and grey. A Class 61XX Prairie tank was also shown in the 1st edition catalogue which was to be available both in GWR green livery and BR lined black. To go with the tank there was a GWR suburban B brake and a Toad brake van. The Lowmac wagon with a crate and the ventilated van were also shown as being available separately.

In 1978 three new steam locomotives, three more coaches and an additional four wagon types were introduced in a range of liveries. The new locomotives were the 14XX GWR 0-4-2 in GWR green and BR lined green, the 4F 0-6-0 in both LMS and BR plain black and a rebuilt Royal Scot which was in either LMS lined post-war black as 'Royal Scots Fusilier' or in BR green as 'Royal Scot'. New coaches were a push-pull autocoach for the 0-4-2 tank and Stanier corridor composite and brake end for the Royal Scot. Coaches were offered in both pre-Nationalisation and BR liveries. The new wagons were a 5-plank, a 7-plank, a Conflat with container and the Lowmac with a 20' Sea Land Container.

In 1979 the Castle Class model was introduced, to go with the loco there was a pair of GWR Centenary coaches. 1979 also saw the arrival of the GWR steel mineral wagon, the 20 ton tanker and the SR box van.

Airfix GMR

This change happened in 1979, the name of the product was altered to GMR, which stood for 'Great Model Railways', to help distinguish it from the Airfix kits. The earlier Airfix Railway System packaging had been light blue but it was now  changed to brown with orange decoration and carried the new GMR logo.

The design of coupling was also changed. The original Airfix couplings were of a very good design being small and inconspicuous.

Standard tension-lock couplings were designed with a system so that either could be fitted.

Airfix GMR (the end)

In 1981 with the parent company failing, the Railway System was sold to Palitoy who produced the "Mainline" range of models.  The GMR range, including items which were due for launch, was absorbed into the product range and continued under Mainline and subsequently Dapol and finally Hornby.