1950's/60's use of B sets in the Thames Valley

[Tallpaul69]

Hello All,

My layout Lower Thames Valley is an interpretation of the Relief Lines and the start of the High Wycombe Branch at Maidenhead in 1960/2.

 

I have a couple of B sets but cannot find in the carriage working diagram book any use of them in the area in my timeframe, but does anyone have any evidence of their use ?

I am thinking of using one pair with perhaps a Hornby Collett suburban in between.

 

Any thoughts or information would be appreciated?

 

Hope you are all well and keeping safe,

Best regards

Paul

[gwrrob]

20 minutes ago, Tallpaul69 said:

 

I am thinking of using one pair with perhaps a Hornby Collett suburban in between.

 

 

Paul, either side but not in between.

[Hal Nail]

9 minutes ago, Tallpaul69 said:

 

I am thinking of using one pair with perhaps a Hornby Collett suburban in between.

 

 

gwrrob beat me to it: the B sets were permanently coupled

I've not seen evidence of a one in the area to be honest but I have seen a very similar brake third, working with BR surburbans.

 

[Mike G]

I think most of the B set history is covered here:

 

http://www.gwr.org.uk/b-set-notes.html

 

Mike

[The Johnster]

Not all B sets were permanently coupled and both the early Collett E116 (K's once did a plastic kit of this which turns up on 'Bay occasionally) and the later flat ended E147s had normal buffers and drawgear at the inner ends of each coach.  The bowended sets were close coupled and had 'mini' buffers on the inner ends.  Some sets were split and used singly in the Newton Abbott area in the late 50s and early 60s.

On 21/04/2020 at 16:40, Tallpaul69 said:

I am thinking of using one pair with perhaps a Hornby Collett suburban in between.

 

These coaches ran in 4 car fixed formations in the London Area, but would have been mostly withdrawn and replaced by 117/8 dmus by the end of your period.  I am not aware of these sets being broken up, but some of the Birmingham area sets were.

[chrisf]

Some clarification is needed.  By the mid 1950s the staple formation in the London area was the 5 coach Q set, formed brake third, third, composite, third, brake third.  This had taken since early in World War 2 to evolve from four coach sets and there would have been constant re-formation as new stock arrived.

 

None of this helps Tallpaul but I have found something which might.  In the summer 1955 CWP something described as a 'two coach non-corridor set' spent its day working between Slough, Maidenhead and Hign Wycombe.  As the description 'B  set' is used elsewhere in the document this suggests that so long as there were two coaches and at least one had first class accommodation it did not really matter what they were.  I think this is the nearest to evidence of a B set that you will find.  The "Henley branch set" is described as two brake composites but this line had a long history of using decommissioned slip coaches.

 

Chris

[The Johnster]

Two first class compartments at least must be provided, one smoking and one non-smoking, so if there were 2 coaches and one had first class, it couldn't be a B set coach unless the other one was as well.  AFAIK on the GW only B set coaches as composites had single first class compartments, and other brack composites, including ex-slip coaches, had two.