[John]

Dear Daz,

First of all you need to say which livery you are intending to buy, which may depend on the era you are modelling. SR livery Maunsells would be Ok for the 1930s, BR livery from mid 1950s onwards, until about 1961, when they were all scrapped.

For the SR livery, you would be Ok with any SR Olive Green livery loco, but definitely no BR standards.

For the BR lvery, then you should have SR locos in BR livery or BR standards. The LMS Ivatt 2-6-2T and Fairburn 2-6-4T would be Ok as well.

This a very simple answer to a complicated question. If you tell me what area of the SR or BR(S) you plan to model, I can be more specifc.

 

[John]

Dear Daz,

According to the standard reference (David Gould's book on "Maunsell's SR Steam Carriage Stock", published by The Oakwood Press), all the current batch produced by Hornby in 2007 were withdrawn by December 1961, so you can't use them on a 1962 railway, unless you use modeller's license. Of course some Maunsells lasted a bit longer, until the end of 1964 or thereabouts. Of course I am being pedantic, but you did ask! The book I mentioned is under 10 quid, so it will not break the bank. I am not sure if it is still available, but you will be able to get it from any good second-hand book shop (e.g. through Amazon Marketplace Sellers). Try to get the 3rd edition, published in 2000, if you can.

As most SR or BR(S) modellers will know, these carriages ran in fixed sets. Some carriages were loose and added for strengthening, usually during the summer months, but all the 2007 Hornby batch were in sets initially. With the help of others in another forum, I have analysed the sets which these carriages ran in during the late 1920s/1930s period (SR Olive Green) and then in the mid 1950s to early 1960s (BR Green period). So far, Hornby have not produced one complete authentic set, either in the BR or the SR livery.

We can only hope that the 2008 production will fill in the gaps. It would have been so easy to produce authentic sets with some minor adjustments of the running numbers, but Hornby seem to have ignored this aspect completely. Perhaps they are just making us continue to buy these carriages into 2008!

 

[John]

QUOTE (Dogmatix @ 16 Jan 2008, 09:39) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>Thanks, John, but what I meant is why is the Hornby model (R4305A/B) described in the catalogue and on the box as a "6-compartment brake" when in fact it is a corridor brake? Or did I just get an incorrectly boxed one?

Dear Dogmatix,

I would not worry about the labelling on the boxes as these are often abbreviated. If you wanted to be pedantic, you might call them "Maunsell main-line corridor etc, etc" coaches. Since all these coaches (built between 1926 and 1937 in 3 major styles), were main-line corridor coaches, saying this out in full becomes rather redundant. All these Maunsell coaches were main-line corridor coaches with a side corridor down a number of compartments. As far as I know, SR (under Maunsell) only built main-line corridor coaches, as the surburban lines were nearly all electrified and used EMUs, or used pre-grouping coaches, so there was no need for new suburban coaches.

The Maunsell Brake 3rds coaches (known as BTK) were built in 2 basic configurations, one with 4 compartments and one with 6 compartments. Obviously the 4 compartment BTKs had a much larger luggage compartment and were designed for the longer distance trains to the South West. The 6 compartment coaches had smaller luggage space and were intended for the main-line commuter trains in the Central and SE Divisions. There was also a type of brake coach with both 1st and 3rd class compartments, known as Brake Compos or BCK. These were quite numerous and used mainly on branch trains in the SW. After many SR enthusiasts pointed out this gap in the production, Hornby are planning to bring these out in 2008.

If you are really interested in the details, there are 2 books by David Gould and Mike King which are recommended reading. Just click on the names and it will take you to the full description of the book on Amazon. You don't need to buy them from Amazon, as they should be available from second-hand bookshops.