Graham Farish collections

[Wooburn2014]

Hi All,

Can somebody tell me how to recognise an graham farish model based on number and or packaging

I can find out from old catalogues when a certain number was produced and if it was made in Poole or not but not the type of packaging or certain materials etc are usd during the years of production

I'm mostly interested in the old 4 digit number used like 2011 as an example

I hope that somebody have some answers because her must be collectors like me around

Many thanks

Herman

[BernardTPM]

Graham Farish have used a number of styles of packaging over the years since they started making model railway items in the late 1940s, 00 at first, later adding N, dropping 00 in the late 1970s.

If you're referring to N gauge, then the earliest packaging (1970) was blue and yellow, marked 'GRAHAM FARISH'. The earliest boxes were plain without windows, locos and bogie carriages having vac formed, red flocked trays. Wagons and four wheel coaches were in simple boxes. These were replaced with window boxes with white vac formed trays circa 1972/3 when all items were supplied painted (previously wagons and coaches were in plain plastic colours - red, brown, green, grey) and the name 'GRAFAR' was adopted. In the mid-1970s the new black and gold colours arrived. The 'boxes' were clear plastic square 'tubing' with moulded black plastic ends, the stylised 'GF' picked out in metallic gold. This style lasted until circa 1980 when more conventional window boxes with white vac formed trays came in and the name reverted to 'GRAHAM FARISH'. Initially these were still black and gold, but yellow replaced gold around 1982/3. This style continued to the end of Poole production, though extra yellow banding was added some time in the 1990s. Sorry the dates are a bit vague - that would take quite a while to properly research.

[Guest spet0114]

Another good source of GF info is their various adverts in the magazines. The RM seemed to always have a full page GF advert somewhere for much of the 70s and 80s. These would give info on model numbers etc as well as approximate dates. If you let me know what models in particular you're interested in, I can see if I can find anything in my archives....