BR Southern region coaches

[sej]

Hi, I've just aquired a beautiful P4 model of an SR S15, No. 30841, in early BR livery and would love to have a typical train of 3 to 5 coaches for it to pull, if they ever did.  Does anyone have any suggestions? I very much like the Hornby ex LSWR coaches and would like them in green, is the SR green much different to the shade that BR used?

 

Cheers

Simon

[Oldddudders]

Early BR livery is the early '50s, meaning that coaches were either still in Southern Railway livery, probably malachite green, or in the new crimson and cream, aka blood and custard colours. BR (S) green didn't appear until 1956. Secondary line vehicles, like the Maunsell rebuilds, wore simply crimson. 

 

Hornby offers a wide range (check ebay for those not currently offered) of Maunsell's own pre-war designs, as well as the rebuilds. All are smashing models. Bulleid coaches were new in the late '40s, and carried on being built into the early '50s. Bachmann makes plenty of these, but their quality - and price - falls rather below the Hornby Maunsell products. 

 

This excellent website will tell you a great deal more about all matters Southern http://www.semgonline.com/

[RFS]

Although mainly used on freight traffic. they were often used on stopping passenger trains especially between Salisbury and Exeter.  There are a number of pictures starting here, for example.

 

http://railphotoprints.uk/p1018623573/h412541c0

Edited September 19, 2017 by RFS

[Guest]

As has been said, they were primarily freight locomotives but they did sometimes operate local passenger services. They were also often pressed into service on summer Saturday main line extras. These would generally be formed of older corridor stock so in early BR days low-window Maunsell coaches in crimson/cream with maybe one or two in SR post-war malachite would be appropriate.

[bbishop]

841 was renumbered in 10/48 and was an Exeter Junction loco. Primarily a freight loco, the S15 class undertook a fair amount of secondary passenger work and, in high Summer, relief expresses.

 

Remember SR coaches were in sets. By 1950, the position pertaining to rtr coaches was:

 

LSWR 58' rebuilds. The Bk 3rd - Bk comp sets were on branch lines. The composites were often in three coach sets, flanked by LSWR 56' Bk 3rds. The 3rds were often loose coaches and could be used to strengthen a train. Expect all coaches to be in renumbered malachite green.

 

Maunsell 59' corridor stock could be low windowed or high windowed. Low windowed sets 445 - 448 had a comp, flanked by two four compartment Bk 3rds. High windowed sets could be two car (Bk 3rd - Bk comp), three car (Bk 3rd - Comp - Bk 3rd) or 4 car (Bk 3rd - 1st - 3rd - Bk 3rd) with the Bk 3rds having six compartments. Expect all coaches to be in renumbered malachite green, and the high windowed stock are the most likely coaches for your train. There were also solo Bk comp coaches; these were detached from express trains to provide the through coach from Waterloo to (say) Sidmouth. Not relevant to you, except that I think one was detached from an express at Salisbury and attached to the Exeter slow; I will let Ian agree or disagree with this possibility.

 

Be aware of the Bulleid 59' shorties and the 64' long shorties, but these aren't available as rtr.

 

Bulleid 64' stock was either small vent or large vent. This is a complex story, and maybe irrelevant because they would typically be in express trains. But briefly, sets 770 - 793 were small vent comprising semi open bk 3rd - comp - semi open bk 3rd. Sets 63 - 75 were semi open bk 3rd - Bk comp, and there were also loose Bk Comp coaches used in the same way as the Maunsell ones. One wonderful oddity is that the lavatories in the brake coaches were in the middle, except for the Bk comps in 63 -75, which were at the end. All these would be in malachite.

 

Jumping to large vent stock, sets 858 - 865 went to the South Western and comprised semi open bk 3rd - comp - semi open bk 3rd. And, finally, these were in crimson and cream.

 

Repainting began in 1950, so on a seven year cycle an increasing number of Maunsell sets would be in crimson and cream until in 1956 the Southern Region was permitted to revert to green, albeit a different shade. The Bulleid small vent stock would mostly have remained in green.

 

Hope thia helps. Mainly from memory so mistakes are mine, but reference to Mike King's "An illustrated history of Southern Coaches".

 

Bill

[sej]

Thanks everyone, a comprehensive guide! I've ordered the Oakwood book and will look out for Mike King's. Now to buy some coaches, work out the numbering and convert them to P4!

 

Cheers

Simon

[sej]

Busy sorting out my Maunsells, what sort of issues are there with the Bachmann bullied coaches?

 

Cheers

Simon

[RFS]

Busy sorting out my Maunsells, what sort of issues are there with the Bachmann bulleid coaches?

 

Cheers

Simon

 

Issues with the Bulleid coaches are that they are only available second-hand, plus they do not have a close-coupling mechanism. There are only 4 types - semi-open brake second, open second, corridor second and corridor composite. All have the large windows. Earlier coaches have plastic wheels and large tension-lock couplings on the bogie.  Later ones have slim-line tension-locks and metal wheels. None of the coaches are flush-glazed.

 

SE Finecast make flush-gaze conversion packs but they are very time-consuming to fit (I gave up!). Keen Systems make close-coupling packs for the Bulleid coaches which require a lot of surgery. Instead I went for the Symoba system (http://www.dccsupplies.com/search/results/?search=symoba) which is very good indeed.