Help with former GCR coaching

[Lord of Narnia]

I am currently building a layout based on Harrow-on-the-Hill in the late 30s - early 1960s.

 

I am struggling to find out which coaching stock was still in use on the Marylebone-Woodford line in this time period. I assume there was some older GCR stock still around on this route and it may have gradually been replaced with Thompson/Gresley coaches into the 50s?

 

Any help would be appreciated.

[richard i]

A few barnums left and Robinson matchboard stock otherwise mostly gresley et al by 1950s. In 1930s would still have more of a GCR feel to it, though the principle expresses would be gresley stock. Some six wheelers would remain too. Try Mousa models who have a great range of GCR kits.

[Jim Martin]

I'd recommend that you try and get hold of Modeller's Backtrack vol.2 no.6 (Feb-Mar 1993) and Model Rail Jan 2007. Both contain articles by Steve Banks that discuss formations of suburban trains on the GC section from the 1920s up to the 1950s.

 

The first one contains an article titled "Passenger Trains and Formations on the LNER", which covers non-corridor sets in use on the London Extension (the same author also wrote a couple of articles on LNER express train formations which appeared in later issues of MBT). It's a chunky piece - far too long to paraphrase here - with a lot of detail and background (mainly) about the pre-war period, including a discussion of the changing balance of pre- and post-grouping stock

 

The second one has an article titled "BR Mk.1 - Secondary and Suburban" and is about the use of Mk.1 non-corridors. There are several paragraphs and three photos (with useful captions) on Marylebone services in the 1950s, by which time most outer-suburban services were made up entirely of LNER non-corridor carriages. When the Mk.1s were introduced they were allocated one per set:

 

Brake 3rd+Lav Compo (articulated twin - LNER)

1st+3rd (articulated twin - LNER)

3rd (LNER)

Brake 3rd (non-corridor Mk.1)

 

Jim

[jwealleans]

Chris Higgs, who posts on here, recently offered a kit for the D 210 (CL + BT twin) which I think 'Clem' may have completed.  It looked a cracking model. 

 

Unless you are lucky enough to find any of the kits made by the late and lamented John Fozard, Bill Bedford (Mousa Models) is probably your only port of call for the ex-GC carriages.  Jidenco, then Falcon, did some of the corridor types but be very careful about checking their accuracy.  If any Parker diagrams were still in use then Worsley Works do a basic set of components for some diagrams and the GCRS have a couple of others (and have threatened to make the castings available).

 

Quainton Road Models did some of the 6 wheelers and they pop up on Ebay from time to time.  I haven't built any so I can't comment on quality or accuracy.

[Jim Martin]

I assume there was some older GCR stock still around on this route and it may have gradually been replaced with Thompson/Gresley coaches into the 50s?

 

 

 

I should have said: the LNER built quite a lot of GCR-design non-corridor coaches up until about 1926 (my source for this is Michael Harris's Gresley's Coaches). According to the Steve Banks articles, large-scale introduction of Gresley coaches on London Extension secondary services began in the mid-30s. By 1939 there was a roughly even split of LNER and pre-group stock - maybe with a bias towards LNER. Coach sets were either all pre-group or all-LNER (although strengtheners might mean that an individual train would have mixed stock). By nationalisation I think set trains.would be all LNER.

 

Jim

[Lord of Narnia]

Thanks for the replies folks. I may concentrate on LNER stock with Gresley suburbans being a safe bet?