acourtrail

5554 was an early build MK2c with the MK2b style toilet windows. The only later build MK2c TSO that carried either Trans - Pennine or Regional Railways liveries was 5614 (it carried both liveries).

While those Royal 47s do look nice, there will be a slight inaccuracy with 47799 - the model doesn't look like it will have a flush front at the No2 end which the real locomotive has.

That one was VERY lucky to make it into the 1950s, never mind blue & grey and later preservation. According to the MoT report into the Penmanshiel Tunnel train fire in 1949 - 9124 (the report has conflicting numbers for the restaurant car - a floorplan diagram states it as 9184, but 9124 is quoted in the written part of the report at least twice) was the 11th coach it the train, and right next to the two Thompson coaches that were burned out. The fire did spread into the seating end of 9124, but it was uncoupled from the burning coaches, and the fire in 9124 was put out before the coach was too badly damaged.

Yes, I am sure they would have. They also got pinched a lot by the Southern and Western Regions during the summers.

I would rather buy my stuff from a proper model shop, but I have to use eBay because there are no good model shops sensibly near enough to me. Cheltenham Model centre is my nearest I can just about get to (but that entails paying about £40 worth of train fares for me, and takes all day), so its eBay for me sadly.

The Thompson coaches didn't take long to hit the shops - they are starting to appear brand new on a famous online auction site!

The diagram 24 RB/RBR (1644 - 1760 number series) would be the easiest to do, because the windows and doors stayed the same throughout their lives (at least until the modern day charter operators got their hands on some of them). They carried maroon, Southern Region green, chocolate and cream, blue and grey, the three main intercity liveries (executive, swallow and white roof). Some later on got blood and custard, LNWR and pullman liveries when they ran in charter trains, but even those could be done using the standard version tooling because when they had the saloons converted into storage space, the unwanted windows were just painted white.

More than I expected this quarter, given that we had a VERY big batch of nice coaches last quarter. While there isn't much I would like this time round, I might be tempted by a maroon Thompson or two (they did sometimes get onto the Southern and Western regions) - and with some of the coaches from last quarter starting to come out, I need some time to get all of those ones first! I am not surprised the ex NGS Thompson BG is now in the Farish range proper - but I already have two NGS ones, even though I am not a member of the NGS (they turn up on eBay quite often, so I was able to get a lined maroon one and a blue one).

Just need Dapol to do this in N! Did these saloons carry any other liveries apart from the ones already being done?

There were two Intercity liveried TSOs used on the Waterloo - Exeter route in the early 1990s, one was a MK2d and one was a MK2e. If you were to customise a MK2f TSO, you could do the M2e fairly easily. I agree, some more green MK1s would have been nice (and some more Bulleids in 1960s green too) - maybe next year. Best do that OT quick if you are after the MK2s, because I suspect the blue & grey TSOs and all the Intercity swift and Virgin ones will soon be gone for a burton if they aren't already! I wonder how long the maroon TSOs and SKs will last too - mind you, there can't be too many people after a maroon SK at the moment, because I managed to get a £33 "buy it now" one off eBay that had been on there for nearly a week.

Nice lot of MK1s being done there! The RMBs in blood & custard and chocolate & cream liveries should appeal to the people doing charter trains and preserved railway themes (for those who don't already know - RMBs never wore those liveries in BR service, so they are actually era 8 onwards). I only hope the SKs don't all sell out before they hit the shops, because I might want some of those (with 3 SKs and 1 TSO in chocolate & cream already in my fleet, I really don't need any more, but no doubt I will find a home for some more!).

I agree, 25 years ago is hardly actual modern image (given how much has changed in that time), but people often have their own definition of what modern image is, a lot of people I know would define anything post steam as modern image! Personally, I consider anything post privatisation as modern image, but I know that most people will say I am stretching that term a bit!

Yes, and I have bought some. Trouble is, my fleet of chocolate & cream MK1s are used to represent several different named trains as I feel like on the day, so they need to stay on BR1 bogies (bar the FO, which I put on B4 bogies years ago, because W3085 was like that in real life) to be accurate for most of those trains. Those spare bogies are useful, I have used some under my fleet of maroon "charter train" MK1s.

Yes - set 525 became a 6 set later on. Farish did do both of the TSOs for that set (and I have both of those), but as you said, they didn't do CK 15915. I am not too worried about not having the extra CK (I run my set 525 as a 3 set, so don't need the second CK, and I use the 2 TSOs for when I am having a preserved railway day). Yes, a diagram 24 RB/RBR would be nice, I would want one in green (so that I could represent a (Warship hauled) Brighton - Plymouth train, by adding the 2 TSOs and RB to my set 525 to get the Brighton portion (ignoring the fact that 525 wasn't one of the two actual sets), and using my Bulleid L set 830 for the Portsmouth portion). While I have a chocolate & cream RU, an RB would also be nice (plus another FK), then I could represent the Bristolian (ignoring the fact that the set of coaches used on that train had B4 bogies).

They would be nice, and they would sell, but everyone will have different needs in terms of what they want/need in each set. An obvious set would be 4x Regional Railways MK2a for the North Wales Coast. That would be a complete train (just add a class 37). While not something I would want, plenty of other people who do modern image would snap those up! Farish have done 2x pairs of MK1s in the West Highland Line green & cream livery. Those are a bit of a niche thing really to be fair (and they need to do another pair of TSOs, so that people could then make the full six coach train). Sets of MK1s in B.R Southern Region green would work, because a lot of their MK1s ran in fixed sets. I wanted to make a K set (BSK+CK+BSK), but while Farish made all the correct coaches to form set 525 (BSK 34641 + CK 15567 + BSK 34642), they were released separately, and it took me ages to find them all!