British Rail Mk1 Coaches

[KingEdwardII]

9 hours ago, dj_crisp said:

Were these the Saturday summer specials?

I would imagine so, since the weekday traffic would hardly justify longer trains of this sort.

I mostly find DMUs in the later photos of places on the line to Barnstaple (post 1970), just as today.

 

Quite a contrast with Newquay where there are loads of photos with Warships, Westerns, Peaks, Class 47s and so on.

 

However, the strange thing is that modern records of passenger numbers for these stations tell a different story. Newquay recorded about 130K passenger entries/exits in 22/23, while Barnstaple recorded almost 537K in the same year. Barnstaple has a steady 1 train per hour schedule to/from Exeter, while Newquay has a much sparser service (~every 2 hours) with most services terminating ar Par and needing a change to get to Plymouth.

 

So these days, it seems that Barnstaple is much more heavily used...

 

Yours, Mike.

[hartleymartin]

On 09/04/2024 at 00:23, Steven B said:

 

What era? 1950s would be different to 1980s

 

Steven B

Let's say 1950s. But, I suppose it is a good question to ask:

What were typical branch line formations of BR Mk1 Carriages, given that there would be variation by area/region, and over time. Let's say a typical formation for each decade. A 1950s formation, 1960s, formation and 1970s formation?

['CHARD]

9 hours ago, hartleymartin said:

Let's say 1950s. But, I suppose it is a good question to ask:

What were typical branch line formations of BR Mk1 Carriages, given that there would be variation by area/region, and over time. Let's say a typical formation for each decade. A 1950s formation, 1960s, formation and 1970s formation?

 

I've just stumbled across this topic in Latest Posts and am by no means deft in such matters, but I would say as a rule of thumb that in the 1950s, Mk1s were just entering service and as such were concentrated on main line and other premier duties. 

 

From what little I know about Scottish branch line goings on, in the fifties the stock would be Big Four hand-me-downs, most likely from the two predecessor companies in that area. In the far west, Southern and ex-GW coaches would be on the respective branches.

 

EDIT to add that Mk1 suburban non-corridor stock may have worked some branch stuff in the fifties, but it's not convincing me TBF.

Edited Monday at 08:13 by 'CHARD

[KingEdwardII]

10 hours ago, hartleymartin said:

Let's say 1950s.

The next question to ask is "what kind of branch line?"

 

A small branch line just serving local travel needs would be unlikely to have much in the way of MK1 coaches.

 

Larger branch lines with longer distance trains would have had MK1s. Here I am thinking of branches such as those to Aberystwyth and to Minehead. Both of those would have longer services ("Cambrian Coast Express" etc) and there are photos of MK1 formations for those services in the 1950s. However, these are not typical "branch line" trains and are quite long (7 coaches or more).

 

Shorter branch lines often had non-corridor stock of uncertain origins ;-), with trains 2 or 3 coaches long.

 

Yours, Mike.

[LNER4479]

On 09/04/2024 at 09:56, dj_crisp said:

 have a few photos in my favs of services labelled as going to Barnstaple in the 80s such as (cant share those actually on the line).

 

 

 

Were these the Saturday summer specials?

 

Cheers

Will

I clearly remember riding a train such as this to Barnstaple and back in March(-ish) 1987 with a fellow BR colleague. We were doing a mad 24 hour rail travel competition and caught the WR sleeper from Reading at midnight (Fri night) and decanted at Exeter at something like 4am (Sat morning). There was then this 4.30am service to Barnstaple, 33 + MkIs. I'm pretty certain it conveyed newspapers in the luggage compartments (off the sleeper? Or maybe a separate newspapers train from London?). It was then something like 6am back off Barnstaple as more of a bona fide passenger service back into Exeter.

I'll have a record of the loco somewhere but not the MkI formation (sorry!).

 

My decade of interest is the 1950s and the 'classic' 3-coach ordinary passenger formation (branchline or otherwise) was BSK-CK-BSK, as others have stated. In fact, pre-1956, more accurately stated as BTK-CK-BTK. Typical 4-coach would be BSK-SK-CK-BSK.

I would agree that use of MkIs on such services in the 1950s would be highly unusual; however, add MkI BCK through coach to add interest, ie BCK / BSK-CK-BSK. You need a lot of brake coaches when modelling the 1950s!

 

Finally (for now - and as it's a modelling forum) my 'Festival of Britain' MkI 'Royal Scot' set that we run on Shap. It's slightly reduced formation (11 vs 13) but otherwise correct, including the full kitchen and the RTO vehicle (Comet sides on Lima donors). Rest are bog standard Bachmann.

 

 

Love MkIs!

[Rivercider]

In the 1970s and 1980s Barnstaple had a weekday train service of seven or eight trains (much less than today).

Generally the services were worked by DMUs, but with one or two loco hauled services in each direction. 

 

The May 1976 WTT showed a couple of loco hauled trains.

The 07.35 Barnstaple to Exeter St Davids was a loco hauled mixed train for which special instructions were included in the Sectional Appendix, as well as mk1 carriages the train  conveyed former Fruit Ds and was restricted to 45 mph, (the loco got to Barnstaple working a freight service).

The 16.00 Exeter St Davids to Barnstaple was loco hauled mk1 set, this set returned as the 17.35 Barnstaple to Exeter St Davids passenger and milk.

 

cheers