Coaches for British steam

[Martijn Meerts]

I'm wondering if someone might know which coaches fit with specific British steam trains. I've been looking into buying a few of them, and while I don't need prototypically correct trains, I do like the idea of having at least the correct coaches and number of coaches (or freight cars of course).

 

I'm not sure when I'll buy any of this, I really want to get the layout to a point where I can actually run trains before buying more, but I'm really liking the following locomotives:

 

- Britannia class (Dapol has a lovely looking weathered version of it)

- A4 class (Not sure which colour yet, but I'm a fan of the Brunswick green variants, although the blue ones are nice as well)

- Flying Scotsman (Have to have one of these :) Again, either Brunswick green or blue)

 

I do prefer to have coaches with different running numbers rather than a set of however many identical ones, but I'm not sure that's even possible with what's available model wise.

 

 

[kvp]

1 hour ago, Martijn Meerts said:

-Britannia class (Dapol has a lovely looking weathered version of it)

- A4 class (Not sure which colour yet, but I'm a fan of the Brunswick green variants, although the blue ones are nice as well)

- Flying Scotsman (Have to have one of these :) Again, either Brunswick green or blue)

-Britannia class: early BR coaches, most types

-A4 class: LNER and early BR long distance coaches

-Flying Scotsman: LNER long distance coaches, lots of them

 

Personally i would suggest getting a set of early BR (crimson/cream) express and a set of LNER (teak) long distance Gresley coaches. You could also get some full crimson local cars for the Britannia class but the BR set above would work too. Just get one from each unique product number for each car class and you'll have some nice trains with unique car numbers and slightly inaccurate car type balances.

[railsquid]

2 hours ago, Martijn Meerts said:

I do prefer to have coaches with different running numbers rather than a set of however many identical ones, but I'm not sure that's even possible with what's available model wise.

 

 

Both Dapol and Farish release batches of coaches with different running numbers, though it's tricky to assemble a varied rake in one purchase.

 

Which coaches/liveries are "correct" will depend very much on what era the locomotive's livery depicts, very broadly divided into pre-nationalisation, British railways "early crest" (1948-1956)  and "late crest" (1956-1968 for steam locomotives). You won't go wrong with a set of maroon BR Mk1s as these were the mainstay of express trains from the mid 50s ~ mid 60s.

[Martijn Meerts]

Thanks for the info. I've never been much into British trains apart from thinking they have some interesting steam locomotives :)

 

I'm not looking at a specific era, or 100% prototypically correctness, after all, they'll be running along with the Japanese trains through Japanese scenery. I'd just like them to not be very obviously wrong.

 

[railsquid]

In that case a rake of (Farish) maroon or crimson/cream Mk1s would do for the Britannia, and (Dapol or possibly Minitrix) Gresley teaks for the A4 and Scotsman.

 

 

[Welshbloke]

If you want Dapol Gresley teak stock they currently have three different running numbers for each type they make. I'm a bit ambivalent about mine though, the teak printing may be better and the detail finer but they haven't caught the shape as well as Minitrix did decades ago.

 

The Gresley stock ran mixed with MK1s later on, so combining the two in crimson and cream or maroon is perfectly acceptable. A few Gresley buffet cars even made it into BR blue and grey and lasted into the 70s. Note that while Minitrix did make maroon Gresley stock they only made around a thousand of both designs they produced, so prices are high. The LNER teak versions are sought after but more common. AFAIK Dapol make or have made both crimson and cream and maroon versions.

 

I run a Minitrix Britannia with maroon MK1s and a Minitrix LNER A3 with matching teak stock. I realise they're a bit clunky by modern standards but they just keep running and running. You can service them easily too:

 

 

[Martijn Meerts]

I think I'll stick with Dapol and/or Graham Farish for the coaches, probably Dapol for the locomotives. I did notice they are quite expensive, especially the Graham Farish ones. But I guess I'm used to the prices of Japanese models ;)

 

Did they also run with multiple colours in 1 rake, or just different types of the same colour? Also, what would be a common/reasonable number of coaches? I've seen a bunch of info pages, but either they don't talk about the coaches much, or I'm just not reading them well enough. Of course, I've been reading them on the train on my phone, so the small screen doesn't really help :)

 

[Welshbloke]

Yes, there would have been mixed crimson/cream and maroon (also known as crimson lake) trains. Then later on mixed maroon and blue/grey formations.

 

The crimson/cream livery was the original BR colour scheme, with the idea of emphasising one nationalised railway rather than the privately owned "Big Four" with their different colours and insignia. Later on BR allowed their regions more freedom, at which point the Western Region adopted GWR style chocolate and cream, the Southern went for green, and the London Midland Region went for crimson lake as did the Eastern Region. All was eventually swept away by the "Corporate Image" blue and grey livery. This came in just as steam was withdrawn.

 

One bizarre thing: At one point Southern green coaches began turning up randomly on other regions. They'd been swapped for the best condition MK1s of said regions which were destined to be converted into EMUs. The early MK1s suffered badly from corrosion due to poor window design, this was improved on later builds (hence the raised windowframes on some stock - these made a better seal between glazing and body).

[multivac]

On 18/03/2018 at 9:40 PM, Martijn Meerts said:

- Britannia class (Dapol has a lovely looking weathered version of it)

- A4 class (Not sure which colour yet, but I'm a fan of the Brunswick green variants, although the blue ones are nice as well)

- Flying Scotsman (Have to have one of these :) Again, either Brunswick green or blue)

 

I do prefer to have coaches with different running numbers rather than a set of however many identical ones, but I'm not sure that's even possible with what's available model wise.

 

 

1

 

You could model modern British mainline preserved steam excursions with a loco picked from your list shown above and a rake of maroon BR Mk 1 stock. You could just run a loco and one Mk 1 brake coach to represent a loco and it's support coach that usually contains supporting personnel, tools and somewhere to brew tea! A Britannia class seen on the mainline is 70013 Oliver Cromwell ,  with A4s you could have 60009 Union of South Africa in Brunswick Green and Sir Nigel Gresley in LNER Blue. With Flying Scotsman you could have Brunswick Green, BR Blue or LNER green.

 

If you want to get really serious then most excursion Mk 1 stock coach diagrams are available and you can change the numbers with decals too. 

 

A quick search of Youtube will bring up some interested trains.

[Martijn Meerts]

Thanks for the info. Hadn’t really considered the preserved excursion train idea, but that’s definitely an option as well.