robertcwp

The chocolate and cream BSO in The Cathedrals Express was W9272. I found a photo of it a while back. Railway Observer stated W9276 which was either a typo or there were two in the livery, 7021_Cathedrals_1961 by Robert Carroll, on Flickr

Two Mark 1 BSOs at the front of this train: 1964_1V86_Reddings-between-Cheltenham-Gloucester_3-69 by Robert Carroll, on Flickr

Diag 24 page from Diagram book index. Note that the quantity for the 1644-99 batch is shown incorrectly and should be 56. Most of the WR allocation was maroon when new but W1729-32 were chocolate and cream and W1646 was repainted in that livery when almost new and ran in The Bristolian. The remainder of that set carried a trial batch of B4 bogies. Bogie types are not mentioned but the first BRCW lot had BR heavy duty bogies when new and all others Commonwealth. Most of the first batch were rebogied pretty early on. The S1716-24 batch and E1714-5 were converted to 4 Rep buffet cars. Diag_24_Diag-book-index-sheet by Robert Carroll, on Flickr

I think you are right. However, brake blocks in line with 00 wheels are a nuisance when converting carriages to EM and usually have to be removed.

The Mark 1 BSO as built had 39 seats, not 31.

Like this: RMB 1871 Reading_1 16-07-99 by Robert Carroll, on Flickr

From the BR Diagram Book Index: BSO-Diagram-book-index by Robert Carroll, on Flickr FO-73-Diagram-book-index by Robert Carroll, on Flickr BSOs up to E9321 were crimson and cream when new. I found a photo of E9321 in that livery a while back. Several were repainted maroon in 1956 for the Talisman. FO were crimson and cream when new up to E3080. Note that E3076-80 had the trial batch of Commonwealth bogies but this is not shown in the index. As they were built in 1955, S3063-70 will have been crimson and cream when new. The FO listing also includes the various other diagrams. E3081-84 were 1957 experimental prototypes. Two of the WR batch of FOs were painted umber and cream to match Pullman cars in the Blue Pullman substitute set in the early 1960s.

The model they are doing is a Diagram 73, by far the most numerous type of Mark 1 FO. Diag 71 applied to the first three, with no middle doors, which Bachmann has done. Diag 72 had a door into the middle seating bay.

These are the three most numerous gangwayed Mark 1 types not hitherto covered by Bachmann. All have been done by Hornby at a more basic level but these will be higher-quality and higher-specification models, probably with better liveries than Hornby has done. As for liveries, there was a chocolate and cream BSO+RB pair in the Cathedrals Express in the early 1960s, with the BSO being used for dining. 7031_Cathedrals_Shipton-under-Wychwood by Robert Carroll, on Flickr

No idea as no information came with the negative.

I recently added this image of 2001 to my collection, having purchased the original large-format negative. I have no idea who the photographer was. 2001_nr-PottersBar by Robert Carroll, on Flickr

They would certainly go well with Deltics and not out of place behind a 50 or a 31/4 either. 50040_17-4-80 by Robert Carroll, on Flickr 31407_Doncaster_1729@1747_18-6-78 by Robert Carroll, on Flickr 9007_1E11 by Robert Carroll, on Flickr

Test run of Mark 2b stock today. The train includes a Bachmann BG and a Hornby RB and FO.

Sorry, no it's not readable even on the master scan.

I thought the 2f had a bigger roof hatch than 2c to 2e but might be mistaken. I believe 2f had a heater unit in the system which 2d and 2e did not as they had separate pressure ventilation for heating.

I have been doing some coupling experiments. My Mark 2b stock needs to be able to couple to Bachmann Mark 2a stock and assorted Mark 1 stock such as Bachmann BGs and RUs and Hornby RBs and FOs. I tried Hornby magnetic couplings but the NEM boxes on the Bachmann 2a stock are so far back that they don't work. I could use Hunt ones but am not keen. I tried changing the 2b coupling mounts to the short version that came with the carriages and they seem fine but then I found that a short Bachmann tension lock in the standard Accurascale mount gives much the same spacing. So, for now, it's short t/l couplings for me.

If they can get the articulation to work, which it seems they can, then I hope so.

Just going off the bottom of this is Harris's comment about the brake third twin from set 103 being withdrawn due to the fire at Doncaster works, but this is contradicted by a photo in his own book of 1727/8 in BR days. It seems that, if any stock was damaged in the fire at Doncaster, it was repaired. Apart from the two twins destroyed at Huntingdon, for which there is photographic evidence of the wrecks, all the stock survived until the early 1960s.

The 'West Riding Limited' twin first was also destroyed in the Huntingdon fire. So far as I can establish, all the surviving twins gained extra doors after the fire and whilst still crimson and cream. What catches people out is that three of the four types had the extra door only on one side. The Twin-FOs had the doors on one side of each vehicle such that the doors were on opposite sides of the train. Viewed from the outside, the additional door was visible on the right-hand vehicle. Each vehicle thereby lost two seats. The BTO-TO twins and the RT-TO twins each had the extra door on one side of the TO (the side with the single seats, thereby losing two seats). The TO vehicles were laid out opposite ways round in terms of which side had the single seats so that on the BTO-TO twin with the brake to the left when viewed from the outside, there was no additional door visible, as shown in the photo of E1727/8E in LNER Carriages (Harris) page 70. On the RT-TO twin with the RT on the left viewed from the outside, there was an extra door visible on the TO. On the BTO-RT twin, the extra door was on the BTO on the side with the single seats only, so with the RT to the left and BTO to the right when viewed from the outside, you could see the extra door on the BTO. There are errors in the Harris LNER book regarding this stock.

Hard to tell for sure even on the full-size scan but it might be that part of the guttering has been replaced and the colours don't match. The far end is out of focus.

No problem.

The twin first is from the 'spare set' and has roller bearings for use in The Talisman. The number on the other one is not readable as it's out of focus. Apart from interior decor and lettering when new, all four sets were the same, albeit there were only two observation cars. The West Riding twin first and one of the Coronation twin brake third/thirds were destroyed in the Huntingdon fire.

As a number of BR Eastern modellers follow this thread, I thought these two images that I have added to my collection might be of interest: Twin-RS-SO_JUL-63 by Robert Carroll, on Flickr E1733-4E_YorkCW_28-9-63 by Robert Carroll, on Flickr

This image might also be of interest. It shows the side of a second/kitchen second without the additional door: Twin-RS-SO_JUL-63 by Robert Carroll, on Flickr

I am aware that they have built the doors into the design. One of the 3D printed mock-ups they had on show included the door on one side of the twin first. The question for me is when, if ever, Hornby will get round to actually doing the stock in maroon. I hope they get the doors right. They were on both sides of the twin first, one on each half, and on one side of the other three twins. The Silver Jubilee set, which Hornby is not doing (yet) did not gain additional doors.