ASSEMBLING A RAKE OF MK1 COACHES HELP PLEASE Options

[upnick]

Hi all,
I am getting together my british layout set in the mid sixties and would like some advice as to making up a rake of coaches and what i would need, i cannot tell the difference between 1st /2nd/ corridor / composite / brake / and dining coaches.
With this is mind could anyone give me the details of what i need along with the farish numbers i am looking at possibly using the cream and brown ones, any other suggestions for the livery to suit my era would be welcome.


upnick.

[nnich]

Hi upnick

There are many others more expert than I on this forum, but since you haven't had an answer yet, let me try and kick off some help for you.

By the mid sixties MK1 stock would mostly be in either maroon or green with a small number of vehicles in Chocolate/Cream. What happened was this. Most MK1 vehicles built pre 1956 or so were delivered new in Crimson and Cream. After 1956/57 BR granted the regions some automony in what colors to use with the result that the Southern Region reverted to green. The Eastern, and the Midland regions pretty much stuck with Maroon, and the Western region painted some of it's coaching stock back into chocolate and cream. As far as I know they didn't paint all of their coaches - just ones - mostly rakes - used in premier expresses

Thus to answer your question in detail we'd need to know what BR region you are leaning towards. If you favour the Western Region you'd be Ok to run your expresses in mostly chocolate and cream with Maroon for some of the vehicles and for secondary passenger trains. For Eastern and Midland stick with mostly maroon and for the Southern - mostly green

Of course these are not hard and fast rules, Coaches tended to stray so there is modellers license to be had if you wish. Also by the mid 60's the colours used to that point were just starting to give way to blue/gray for corridor coaches with blue for non-corridor

As to what sorts of coaches to mix together to make a set - I'll leave that to the experts except to say that you can't go too far wrong with a Brake 3rd or Brake composite at either end with other vehicles making up a mix of first and second class seats - mostly second of course. Dining cars are a minefield to themselves as some dining vechicles actually have no kitchen and must be paired with a kitchen car. Your safest bet is probably a 'RMB' which is a buffet car

Hope this helps At least we'll probably get some of the folks far more expert than I providing better details. Perhaps someone can post ISBN numbers of helpful books etc... I know Model Rail Magazine in particular has carried a recent series about train fromations

It sounds from your question as though you're operating 'N' guage - correct..?

Norm

[upnick]

Norm,
Thank you for your infomation, i am going to run a class 52 in maroon for the loco (when i find a chassis) so the midland region seems a good option.
I would also like to run a BR green class 37 to haul the coaches as an option, yes i am running N gauge on a dc layout.

upnick.

[nnich]

Norm,
Thank you for your infomation, i am going to run a class 52 in maroon for the loco (when i find a chassis) so the midland region seems a good option.
I would also like to run a BR green class 37 to haul the coaches as an option, yes i am running N gauge on a dc layout.

upnick.

You're welcome. Now at this point I'm getting out of my depth because I pretty much lost interest in trains after the diesels took over However I do know that class 52 was a Western region loco pretty much all it's life and that the WR also operated some 37's (which would would have been in green at this period)

So, I think you can have the best of all worlds - you can have 52's and 37's hauling rakes of choc/cream or maroon coaches - or mixed rakes and be quite prototypical for your chosen period.

One other small point to watch - and you might not even care about this - but when buying coaches, especially in maroon, you'll see they carry running numbers such as E12345 or M12345 or W12345. That first letter refers to Eastern, Midland or Western region allocated stock. As I said, it may not bother you, or you can buy decals to change running numbers ro a W prefix

Regards Norm

[bernardTPM]

A 'typical' make up could be as follows: BCK - FK - CK - RU - SO - SK - SK - BSK, giving you an 8-car rake with Restaurant car. Most of these are available in the Farish range in both chocolate & cream 077 - 152 - 252 - 117 - 002 - 052 - 052 - 177 or maroon 078 - 153 - 253 - 116 - n/a - 053 - 053 - 178 (all with 374- prefix). Note the SO is not listed in maroon. The Cl.52 Westerns in maroon were introduced in 1962 (early ones with yellow bufferbeams instead of a warning panel) while repaints into choc/cream ceased in 1961, though they didn't disappear overnight, of course. For named expresses more choc/cream, for lesser ones more maroon, likewise the later the period, the more maroon ('proper' blue/grey didn't appear until 1965), or even all maroon. For secondary services in the early 60s you could also use the Dapol Collett coaches in maroon with maroon Mk.1s. Their Hymek in green (but not with full yellow ends) matches this period well. The green 37s on the Western were mainly used on South Wales freights - ideal for those new Bachmann 16 tonners (not forgetting their new BR brake van).

[upnick]

Very informative Bernard, just the information i need to make a nice rake with an eight coach rake now do i need to extend my layout ? i ask myself .... lol
Many thanks.

upnick.