Mid 1950s Eastern Non Vestibuled Stock

[31B]

Hi all,

 

I'm modelling March Cambridgeshire in mid 50s, and was wondering what RTR non vestibule stock is suitable. I have Thompson and Gresley suburban coaches, but I'm not sure if they only worked on suburban services. If so what other RTR non vestibule Eastern stock is there?

[34theletterbetweenB&D]

The Gresley and Thompson types available from Hornby were secondary service stock; rather than inner suburban stock for which at the southern end of the LNER there were articulated high capacity sets, see below*. Otherwise it is kits at present, other than the dated BR mk1s from Bachmann.

Coming soon:

*The very very exciting announcement of (GNR/LNER) Quad Arts from Ellis Clark.

BR mk1s, from Accurascale, with the very necessary lav compo in addition to BS and S.

[stewartingram]

I've ridden in a mK1 non-corridor BR coach from March-Ely, around 1966. I can't remember what the other coaches were, nor how many. At the time I was quite chuffed to see it and jumped at the chance to ride in it. Most local services were dmu anyway. I'm pretty sure it was a full 3rd coach.

[31B]

8 hours ago, 34theletterbetweenB&D said:

The Gresley and Thompson types available from Hornby were secondary service stock; rather than inner suburban stock for which at the southern end of the LNER there were articulated high capacity sets, see below*. Otherwise it is kits at present, other than the dated BR mk1s from Bachmann.

Coming soon:

*The very very exciting announcement of (GNR/LNER) Quad Arts from Ellis Clark.

BR mk1s, from Accurascale, with the very necessary lav compo in addition to BS and S.

Thanks for clarifying, that's put my mind at ease. 

 

I was aware of the new quad arts coming, but not the mk1s. I'm sure they'll be lovely models but I haven't found any evidence of the quad arts through March in the carriage working diagrams. I'm sure the mk1s will be useful though so I'll get an order in.

 

Thanks for your help 👍

[31B]

7 hours ago, stewartingram said:

I've ridden in a mK1 non-corridor BR coach from March-Ely, around 1966. I can't remember what the other coaches were, nor how many. At the time I was quite chuffed to see it and jumped at the chance to ride in it. Most local services were dmu anyway. I'm pretty sure it was a full 3rd coach.

Great stuff Stewart. 🙂

[giz]

The most obvious missing RTR coach for the GE section in this period is the dia 265 lavatory third, of which 79 were built just before the war. They were 54ft long steel clad with 8 compartments, a lavatory and a side corridor but no gangways. I don't even think a full kit has ever been available although Mousa Models did brass sides only.

[31B]

20 hours ago, giz said:

The most obvious missing RTR coach for the GE section in this period is the dia 265 lavatory third, of which 79 were built just before the war. They were 54ft long steel clad with 8 compartments, a lavatory and a side corridor but no gangways. I don't even think a full kit has ever been available although Mousa Models did brass sides only.

Ah yes, good shout. The carriage workings I've been looking at have a lot of TLs, but I'll just need to use straight thirds for now until someone does produce one.

[John Tomlinson]

Sadly there aren't any of the Gresley "shorty" 52" 6' vestibuled coaches available in RTR, which would have been around in your time period.

 

So it's kits for these, brass from MJT(?), plastic from Kirk, or 3-D print from Isinglass. Someone has now bought the Kirk range, but these tend to come up on ebay as well.

 

John.

[31B]

23 hours ago, John Tomlinson said:

Sadly there aren't any of the Gresley "shorty" 52" 6' vestibuled coaches available in RTR, which would have been around in your time period.

 

So it's kits for these, brass from MJT(?), plastic from Kirk, or 3-D print from Isinglass. Someone has now bought the Kirk range, but these tend to come up on ebay as well.

 

John.

Thanks for that John.

 

How prevalent were the shorter Gresleys compared to the longer 61'6" carriages?

 

Are there any rough guidelines of when the shorter stock would be used?

[John Tomlinson]

1 hour ago, 31B said:

Thanks for that John.

 

How prevalent were the shorter Gresleys compared to the longer 61'6" carriages?

 

Are there any rough guidelines of when the shorter stock would be used?

 

Pretty common all over East Anglia, as far as I can work out from photos, although they did range across the country, there are even pics of them on the Cambrian Coast line!

 

IIRC the idea of them was that trains with sections to different locations could be made up with a greater variety of stock, because many Great Eastern section platforms are quite short. So more coaches for a given length, with firsts, seconds, composites mixed as required.

 

Looking back from 2024 this policy of total non standardisation of all LNER coaching stock looks barmy, with small differences in internal arrangements to suit whatever the traffic requirements of specific lines were thought to be. Look through any book on LNER coaches and the range of diagrams, and you'll see what I mean. Fun for us modellers though!

 

John.

[31B]

Thanks for the reply John. Much appreciated. 👍