OO Gauge GWR Toplight Mainline & City Coaches announced

[adb968008]

Just an aside but South Devon just returned a stunning restoration of a toplight this summer too..

 

 

[checkrail]

1 hour ago, adb968008 said:

Just an aside but South Devon just returned a stunning restoration of a toplight this summer too..

Wow!  Looks exquisite (and prompts a lot of questions which I think I'll find the answers to in due course).

[Miss Prism]

Crikey - the South Devon has produced an accurate livery!

 

[gwrrob]

44 minutes ago, checkrail said:

Wow!  Looks exquisite (and prompts a lot of questions which I think I'll find the answers to in due course).

 

It's an all third toplight of 1910 , diagram C30 and on loan from Bodmin.

[cctransuk]

2 minutes ago, gwrrob said:

 

It's an all third toplight of 1910 , diagram C30 and on loan from Bodmin.

 

So - was it restored by South Devon or Bodmin?

 

Whoever - it's a lovely job!

 

CJI.

[Miss Prism]

It's been modified internally to become an 'open 3rd'.

[checkrail]

22 minutes ago, Miss Prism said:

It's been modified internally to become an 'open 3rd'.

Yep, that was one of the questions that were prompted!

[Compound2632]

5 minutes ago, checkrail said:

Yep, that was one of the questions that were prompted!

 

http://www.cs.rhrp.org.uk/se/CarriageInfo.asp?Ref=140

 

Having been gutted internally, presumably it was considered impractical to restore the interior fully, the present arrangement being better adapted to use on a heritage railway. (Though that somewhat negates the "heritage" designation, to my mind. One loses the educational experience of travelling in a compartment.)

[cctransuk]

19 minutes ago, Compound2632 said:

 

http://www.cs.rhrp.org.uk/se/CarriageInfo.asp?Ref=140

 

Having been gutted internally, presumably it was considered impractical to restore the interior fully, the present arrangement being better adapted to use on a heritage railway. (Though that somewhat negates the "heritage" designation, to my mind. One loses the educational experience of travelling in a compartment.)

 

Having gone to so much trouble, it seems a shame that it isn't fully authentic.

 

CJI.

[Neal Ball]

59 minutes ago, Miss Prism said:

It's been modified internally to become an 'open 3rd'.

 

Should it have been a Compartment 3rd, or a Corridor 3rd?.... I see there are no corridor connections.

 

It's a shame that the interior wasn't re-built back to original condition.

[Hal Nail]

Putting back the interior and corridor connections would add significant cost and given there has been some concern whether heritage railways can even survive at the moment, I doubt that's a priority for fund raising right now.

 

As it is, an older coach than we usually see is back in use and looking very good.

 

[Compound2632]

2 minutes ago, Hal Nail said:

As it is, an older coach than we usually see is back in use and looking very good.

 

Yes indeed, but it does offend a little against my instinct for the Reithian principles.

[The Johnster]

It was built as a gangwayed coach and retains the outline of the plated over gangway connetions and the supporting gangway 'hangers' (don't know if that's the proper term for them).  Presumably restoration of the compartment/side corridor interior is possible at a future date; I'm sure the Bodmin people had their reasons and have not done anything irreversable.

[Penrhos1920]

7 hours ago, AY Mod said:

On my desk right now for review and I have to say I think they're superb.

 

 

 

Shame about the tail lamp.  But that aside I’m feeling very tempted to splash the cash.

[gwrrob]

Although I haven't seen it there's a review of these in the November issue of Model Rail.

 

[ossy5190]

Thanks for the pictures Andy, very nice looking models.

 

Presumably the white panel in place of the toplights in the centre of the coach is a destination roller blind? I'm planning on running mine as an excursion set so was wondering if perhaps something like 'SPECIAL' or 'EXCURSION' could be displayed. Not being a GWR modeler I'm not sure if these coaches ever were used on such workings but there are accounts of GWR excursion trains running to Glasgow in the pre-grouping era. A little bit of modelers licence may be required!

[Miss Prism]

If going from Paddington to Glasgow in an 'excursion', the Mainline & City stock is probably the last thing you would want to ride in.

 

[The Stationmaster]

2 minutes ago, Miss Prism said:

If going from Paddington to Glasgow in an 'excursion', the Mainline & City stock is probably the last thing you would want to ride in.

 

And they didn't use them on their seemingly quite frequent excursions to Ireland either. (Yes. there were regular GWR excursions to Killarney among other Irish destinations but you had to read the smaller print on the handbills to understand exactly what was involved.)

[The Johnster]

I would not be surprised to see ML&C coaches being used on local daytrip excursions in the London Area; Windsor Castle, Henley Regatta, that sort of thing.  Some would probably be surplus to timetable requirments on weekends and the go-to for this sort of thing!

 

Killarney was I believe done as an out-and-back long day trip, leaving Paddington in the evening on the Fishguard Boat train for the 02.40 sailing, berthing in Rosslare just before 6 am.  These timings were the same for years and I believe are still used.  At Rosslare Harbour the ferry connected with two trains, one for Dublin and one for Cork, where one would change for Killarney, have time for a Jaunting Car trip up the Gap of Dunloe or taking a boat out on the lake and doing a bit of fishing, and then the return journey for the 21.30 sailing from Rosslare and eventual arrival back at Paddington at about 8.30 am on the third day.  Something of an endurance test but you could sleep on the boat, they had cabins and bunks in those days, and on the train up from Fishguard.

 

I've done Waterford and back in a 'day', though not by rail this side, we drove down to Fishguard leaving at about nine in the evening, and got the Cork train at Rosslare.  This was an interesting run, because at that time, about 1990 not sure, the rail bridge at New Ross was out having been hit by a ship, and the train terminated at a country station I don't recall the name of just this side of it.  Matters then proceeded in a particularly Irish but nonetheless highly efficient manner that would not have been possible here and probably isn't possible there any more either...

 

A bus, coach rather, had been left overnight in the station car park, and our driver from Rosslare had the key to it, got on board, and started it up, and off we went to Waterford, guard acting as conductor, calling at all the stations the train was booked for and connecting with a Cork train at Waterford.  On the way back the bus took us all the way Waterford-Rosslare Harbour, because the booked loco had failed, same crew arrangement and it was only us Brits that found it in any way remarkable!  It did cross my mind that he could have driven us on to the ferry, but then reason prevailed, at least to the extent that it is permitted to in Ireland.

[Ian Hargrave]

Did the Fishguard-Rosslare ferry in 1964 but not by day return. Train to Cork which was slow and very beautiful

 

 but onward by country bus to Glengarriff ,County Cork .Spent a week at a pub mainly drinking Guinness,trying to catch & occasionally succeeding,mackerel which the landlord’s wife cooked for us. Stayed up late listening to Brooklyn expats extolling the virtue in alcoholic tones of returning to their roots..a performance which was absorbed with tolerance and patience with all who just.needed leave to go to bed.

And then a return,….Ireland is a wonderful and enigmatic place…thanks be.

 

[The Johnster]

Summer 1963, so I was 11, 10 days camping at Glengariff, a pure joy.  When we got there after driving from Cork, a long schlep in those days, father was too tired to bother with the tent and we stayed overnight in a guest house, which was also a post office, off-licence, bakery, petrol station, betting shop, ironmongers, greengrocers, butcher, the lot including, as it turned out, a cinema in a shed out the back! 

 

We pitched up just outside town on the Berehaven road, and what followed was 10 days of glorious weather and about as much freedom as it was possible for an 11-year-old to imagine.  Eire in 1963 was a bit like going for a holiday in the middle ages in some ways, which had advantages for Johnsters of that age!  Basically, I was thrown out of the tent after breakfast and told to be back before dark.  The local kids were friendly and accepted me as just another kid, so I went fishing on trawlers and in open boats (Johnster brave hunter, catch many mackeral), spent days up mountains rabbitting or counting sheep and checking they were branded, learned to ride bareback and went to a horse fair, got fed and watered in all sorts of homes from the plush to the 'traditional', went swimming in loughs and the sea, with seals, and had what I did not take long afterwards to realise was the absolute time of my life.  I have a soft spot for Glengarriff!

Edited October 23, 2023 by The Johnster

[checkrail]

15 hours ago, The Johnster said:

Killarney was I believe done as an out-and-back long day trip, leaving Paddington in the evening on the Fishguard Boat train for the 02.40 sailing, berthing in Rosslare just before 6 am.

Fascinating stuff - I had no idea. What en epic trip.

[Garethp8873]

On 09/10/2023 at 17:43, adb968008 said:

Just an aside but South Devon just returned a stunning restoration of a toplight this summer too..

 

 

 

Lovely job at the South Devon Railway. Hopefully not be long til we SVR's example of a C10 2426 back up and running with the rest of the GWR coach stock :)

[rovex]

Has anyone got their hands on some of these yet!

[Coppercap]

1 hour ago, rovex said:

Has anyone got their hands on some of these yet!

Only reviewers of samples, eg. Model Rail. Nobody has them in stock yet, at least, not where I have ordered mine from, or anywhere else I've looked.