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Farish Mk1s in Blue/Grey and or Maroon


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Good afternoon all.

 

Well I almost took the plunge at the weekend, I went to my local Model Shop with the express intention of buying a nice new Farish 47 in Large Logo and a set of coaches as a starting point. Mk2s were available in Blue / Grey but all I seemed to be able to get in the way of Mk1s were Restaurant / Buffet vehicles! Without Mk1s, I think I would feel somehow incomplete :unsure:

 

Returning home and nosing around on the Internet a bit, this seems to be a nationwide trend! I??™m guessing I??™ve missed the boat from the production of the last batch. So I thought, what about some 60??™s hydraulics? Same story with Maroon Mk1s also!

 

Nothing much on Ebay at the moment, so what may I ask is a bloke supposed to do?

 

Does anybody know of shops out there with secret stashes of Mk1 SKs, BSKs etc etc?

 

Thanks

Mike.

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So I thought, what about some 60??™s hydraulics? Same story with Maroon Mk1s also!

Hydraulics have the option of running with Maroon Colletts from Dapol as well as Mk1s. The colletts are much nicer than the Mk1s anyway IMHO.

 

Although by the 1960s most expresses would be Mk1s there would still have been plenty of Collett coaches about so it is not too much of a stretch.

 

The other option is to ring around model shops who do not have much of a web presence. I find lots of these shops often have models in stock long after the box shifters have been cleaned out. Then of course you brave the perils of eBay.

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Looking on the Farish site the next lot of coaches will be more maroon staniers, the MK1s, apart from the buffets/restaurant cars are showing as Out of Stock so nothing looming on that front.

 

Looks like we will have to rely on toyfairs for a bit, not a bad thing can get some good prices.

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Phone around - much of the stuff that is "out of stock everywhere" is readily available in some model shop somewhere. When people were paying 120 quid for a Dapol 73 on ebay there were ones sitting in model shops still.

 

One place worth checking is Aberystwyth of all places - the Albatross I think it's called (to me its 'the one by the pier') - has a surprisingly esoteric collection of N gauge coaches and I've picked up Farish pre Bachmann virgin coaches and other oddments there.

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Thanks all for your replies.

 

Hydraulics have the option of running with Maroon Colletts from Dapol as well as Mk1s. The colletts are much nicer than the Mk1s anyway IMHO.

 

Although by the 1960s most expresses would be Mk1s there would still have been plenty of Collett coaches about so it is not too much of a stretch.

 

The other option is to ring around model shops who do not have much of a web presence. I find lots of these shops often have models in stock long after the box shifters have been cleaned out. Then of course you brave the perils of eBay.

 

Thanks - Collets are something that hadn't occurred to me and it would at least give me something to pull to begin with

 

 

Looking on the Farish site the next lot of coaches will be more maroon staniers, the MK1s, apart from the buffets/restaurant cars are showing as Out of Stock so nothing looming on that front.

 

Looks like we will have to rely on toyfairs for a bit, not a bad thing can get some good prices.

 

Yes I had a quick look at the Farish website and that didn't give me too much cause for hope!

 

 

Mike

 

Did you try Hattons?

 

They had 6 BCK's in blue grey when I last looked. That and the selection of one of the buffet cars and you have the start of a rake...

 

Pete

 

Thanks Pete - yes noticed the BCKs etc on the Hattons site and as you say, that might give me a starting point. For the Blue/Grey era I could also just get a rake of Mk2s as well I guess.

 

What are you looking for in Blue Grey.

 

I have some older ones with Pizza cutters in that are just about to be cut up for a TPO project. TIf you let me know by PM I may be able to help if they are of interest

 

Russell

 

Thanks for the kind offer Russell - I'm not quite sure what's what with the Farish coaches at the moment but I assume the Pizza Cutter era would be pre-Bachmann, so no interiors?

 

Phone around - much of the stuff that is "out of stock everywhere" is readily available in some model shop somewhere. When people were paying 120 quid for a Dapol 73 on ebay there were ones sitting in model shops still.

 

One place worth checking is Aberystwyth of all places - the Albatross I think it's called (to me its 'the one by the pier') - has a surprisingly esoteric collection of N gauge coaches and I've picked up Farish pre Bachmann virgin coaches and other oddments there.

 

Sound advice - as you say I'm sure there are plenty of shops without a web presence and thinking about it, there are a few down in my area that I could take a bit of a tour around for a day out. Nothing wrong with actually going to a Model shop just for a change!!

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I could also just get a rake of Mk2s as well I guess.

 

The Farish Mark 2 stock is the later air conditioned stock, which first started popping up in the south west mid 1970s with the class 50s and 47/4s. It is possible to convert them to the older mark 2 coaches using vinyl sides and adding roof vents. None of the hydraulics ever had ETH fitted so I don't believe they would have worked the Mark2D rakes.

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I'm not quite sure what's what with the Farish coaches at the moment but I assume the Pizza Cutter era would be pre-Bachmann, so no interiors?

 

The shiny pizza cutter wheels can easily be changed to the latest finer profile blackened ones available from FarBach in packs of 10. Fortunately the older Poole Mk1s did have interiors, it's the MK2s that don't (although cast resin inserts are available) and some of the later Bachmann Chinese Mk1s.

 

G.

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Phone around - much of the stuff that is "out of stock everywhere" is readily available in some model shop somewhere. When people were paying 120 quid for a Dapol 73 on ebay there were ones sitting in model shops still.

 

One place worth checking is Aberystwyth of all places - the Albatross I think it's called (to me its 'the one by the pier') - has a surprisingly esoteric collection of N gauge coaches and I've picked up Farish pre Bachmann virgin coaches and other oddments there.

 

Well you were right but I got lucky. Whilst in Hattons today to get a dud 47 replaced I saw some blood/custard Mk1 coaches (not brakes) in the display, I was told they were sold but I mentioned that they weren't appearing on the website and they realised they had fallen out of the stock system so I got all 4, a second open, a second corridor, a first corridor and a composite. How chuffed am I, as I was also buying a Royal Scot and I wanted something non Western region (all my other mainline steam coaches are Colletts) for it to haul.

 

Happy Christmas to me!!

 

Of course next week at the toyfair I will find loads of the things at least a couple of quid cheaper.

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I've seen it mentioned that Farish Mk2s have the sides printed onto a clear bodyshell, so presumably then they are completely flat (smooth) in profile?

 

The Farish Mark 2 stock is the later air conditioned stock, which first started popping up in the south west mid 1970s with the class 50s and 47/4s. It is possible to convert them to the older mark 2 coaches using vinyl sides and adding roof vents. None of the hydraulics ever had ETH fitted so I don't believe they would have worked the Mark2D rakes.

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Thanks for clarifying that Grahame

 

The shiny pizza cutter wheels can easily be changed to the latest finer profile blackened ones available from FarBach in packs of 10. Fortunately the older Poole Mk1s did have interiors, it's the MK2s that don't (although cast resin inserts are available) and some of the later Bachmann Chinese Mk1s.

 

G.

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I've seen it mentioned that Farish Mk2s have the sides printed onto a clear bodyshell, so presumably then they are completely flat (smooth) in profile?

The same is true of the Mk1s. Have a look on the Hattons website and you can see they are totally smooth.

 

http://www.ehattons.com/StockDetail.aspx?SID=25223

 

Only the the Mk1 BG is slightly different as I believe it is a more recent body tooling. All the other Mk1s have printed sides IIRC. That is the reason I do not have any MK1 stock. I am waiting until Bachmann finally get round to scaling their nice 00 MK1s down to N gauge to replace to old Poole-era models. Until then I will be running the superior pre-nationalisation stock (and also the very nice suburbans).

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I am waiting until Bachmann finally get round to scaling their nice 00 MK1s down to N gauge to replace to old Poole-era models. Until then I will be running the superior pre-nationalisation stock (and also the very nice suburbans).

 

I was thinking the same, but as they continue to sell out and are hard to come by I don't see any Bachmann making any moves soon. I would prefer them to downsize the MKIIs first as there are plenty of locomotives to pull them, perhaps even the Aircons could do with updating as well (and as Hornby are still using the Airfix mouldings??) and this would be good for OO too.

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Good afternoon all.

 

Well I almost took the plunge at the weekend, I went to my local Model Shop with the express intention of buying a nice new Farish 47 in Large Logo and a set of coaches as a starting point. Mk2s were available in Blue / Grey but all I seemed to be able to get in the way of Mk1s were Restaurant / Buffet vehicles! Without Mk1s, I think I would feel somehow incomplete :unsure:

 

Returning home and nosing around on the Internet a bit, this seems to be a nationwide trend! I??™m guessing I??™ve missed the boat from the production of the last batch. So I thought, what about some 60??™s hydraulics? Same story with Maroon Mk1s also!

 

Nothing much on Ebay at the moment, so what may I ask is a bloke supposed to do?

 

Does anybody know of shops out there with secret stashes of Mk1 SKs, BSKs etc etc?

 

Thanks

Mike.

 

Hi

 

As far as I am aware the BSK never appeared in Blue / Grey from Farish although there was a code (374-181 from memory) for it which has now disappeared from the Farish Website. A pity as I could have done with a couple.

 

Cheers

 

Paul

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I've seen it mentioned that Farish Mk2s have the sides printed onto a clear bodyshell, so presumably then they are completely flat (smooth) in profile?

 

 

The later Mk1s are also a one piece smooth(ish) body shell (as well as the Mk2s). The original Farish Poole coaches (Mk1 and 2s) had removeable window strips which had embossed window edging and looked very good. The one piece body shells (introduced by Farish Poole and continued by Bachmann China) do have a little relief but it is limited to moulded lumps for things like door handles and hinges. However the Chinese printing/finish is superior to the Poole version. Below is a Chinese one piece Mk1 bodyshell (although the underframe has been upgraded with an Ultima one and the bogies replaced with Farish B4/5 generics). Notice also the interior.

 

 

post-33-1261642631422_thumb.jpg

 

G.

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  • 3 weeks later...

I've just bought 4 Farish Mk1 corridor 2nd coaches. They are slightly different from my existing set. The existing set are still the new style chinese made but they have the same type of bogies as in the above pic and the same black solebars. The new ones have Commonwealth bogies and blue painted solebars.

 

Which is prototpically correct regarding the solebars?

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I've just bought 4 Farish Mk1 corridor 2nd coaches. They are slightly different from my existing set. The existing set are still the new style chinese made but they have the same type of bogies as in the above pic and the same black solebars. The new ones have Commonwealth bogies and blue painted solebars.

 

Which is prototpically correct regarding the solebars?

There is also brown underframes as the official colour for blue era..

 

I'd think the solebar could depend on when and where painted.

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From 1965 to around 1976(?) the underframe parts and bogies of coaches were a chocolate brown colour, but the solebars were normally painted blue to match the new Mk.2 coaches. Strangely loco bogies and underside parts were officially black. The introduction of HSTs in the mid-'70s seems to have led to the abandonment of the brown colour, possibly to avoid confusion. HST power cars have been classified as both locos and driving coaches at different times over the years.

Of course, one weathered it could be difficult to tell what colour an underframe actually is and the angle at the top of Mk.1 solebars meant that it often visually bended in to look more like the colour of the undersides than the body.

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Does anybody know of shops out there with secret stashes of Mk1 SKs, BSKs etc etc?

 

Hi,

 

Apologies for the late reply, but Sheffield Transport Models have 2 Farish Mk1 Blue/Grey SKs. Phone no is 0114 2347792.

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