GWR diagram A26 70' autocoach

[97xx]

Could anyone point me in the right direction for details of the above?

 

I've acquired a Blacksmith's models 00 kit, and pretty much all I know is that this diagram was converted from steam railmotors.

 

I'm British Railways period and so I would need to model it in that era - did they actually last that long and if so what liveries/numbers did the run?

 

JH Russell only shows them in GW era.

 

If it's not suitable for 1948-on, I will happily move it on to someone who wants one of these seemingly quite rare beasts!

 

Thanks.

[The Johnster]

According to John Lewis' 'GW Auto Trailers' volume 1, the 70' A26 were the GW's most numerous type of trailer and thus the nearest thing there was to a standard design.  They all lasted into BR ownership being withdrawn between October 1954 and October 1958.  Numbers were 149,154-8, 181-5, 199-201, 206, 210, and 212-5.  Liveries varied in BR days and it would be difficult to ascertain the exact dates at which individual trailers were repainted. so some would still have been in 1945-7 GW chocolate and cream livery for some time and there may have been examples in the early 1948 'transition' chocolate/cream with BR W prefixed numbers.  From the beginning of June 1948 the WR painted trailers in carmine and cream livery, referred to as maroon and cream by Lewis, but after an incident in 1950 in which Mr Riddles saw one of these at Paddington and demanded to know why a lowly auto trailer was carrying his best gangwayed main line coach livery, trailers were painted plain carmine, referred to as plain maroon by Lewis.  This can be confusing as there was a plain maroon livery used between 1956 and 1959, but this was not applied to A26s.  As the last of the A26s was withdrawn in 1958, it is very unlikely that any were ever given the 1956 plain maroon livery, and it is likely that some were still carrying carmine and cream livery when they were withdrawn, and never carried the plain carmine livery.  They were all gone before the lined maroon livery was extended to all passenger stock in 1959.

 

Bogies veried as well, with 9' fishbelly, American, and 7' Collett types all being used.  Further variation in the BR period is plated toplights, which give the trailers a radically different appearance.  If you decide on a prototype number to model, PM me and I will look up in my Lewis for as many details as possible.  There are several photos so it may be possible to state what liveries were carried on certain dates.

 

By BR times, all had had the guard's compartment end windows plated over.  The number sequence which is intermixed with the A27, A28, and A30 all-steel types of Collett design, is because the trailer number depends on the date at which the trailer was converted from the original steam railmotor, which conincided with the building of the Collett trailers.  I can recommend Stafford Road/Shapeways 3D printed bogies (no connection satisfied customer), as their range includes all the types you might require for your model.

[kevinlms]

14 hours ago, 97xx said:

Could anyone point me in the right direction for details of the above?

 

I've acquired a Blacksmith's models 00 kit, and pretty much all I know is that this diagram was converted from steam railmotors.

 

I'm British Railways period and so I would need to model it in that era - did they actually last that long and if so what liveries/numbers did the run?

 

JH Russell only shows them in GW era.

 

If it's not suitable for 1948-on, I will happily move it on to someone who wants one of these seemingly quite rare beasts!

 

Thanks.

There is an article by E.R.H. Francis in Model Railway Constructor 1976 October, on building this kit.

[97xx]

Ah thanks Kevin, so Mallard became Blacksmith or vice-versa?

[Marshall5]

Mallard became Blacksmith.

Ray.