1960s Mail Train

[RedFox72]

Hi,
I am trying to create a mail train from 1960s and wondering if anyone knows if the coaches were crimson or maroon, I know Hornby do the Maroon and Bachmann do the Crimson. Just want to get it right.I can't seem to find a maroon HVP coach, I am very knew to all this just getting back into it after a short break of 26 years!! I want to do a bit of a Great Train robbery diorama on my layout, have got my eye on Bachmann's Class 40 D211 'Mauretania' BR Green Ind. Discs (DCC Sound) as the closest I can seem to find to pull it. Any advice or insight would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Happy New Year

Nathan

[Old Man Phil]

This is as good a pic as you will get of the original as it was photographed soon after the robbery when the coaches were moved to Cheddington Station: http://www.iljournal.it/2013/chi-era-br ... 6%20/2-132

Note the nose. Destination Code boxes. 1M44 was to code number for this Train. I think D211 is a Jouef Class 40. I have 3 of these and none of them have the destination boxes. To get it right you need to fit them. They come as a kit from Genesis. Possible Bachmann or Lima do one with the boxes, but it is definitely NOT D211: http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/great-trai ... ed-1735666

[6C]

The TPOs were maroon - same as in LMS days.

The other coaches apart from the TPO section - carried pre-sorted mail, not requiring the TPO services and would have been carried in bogie GUVs etc - which were a mixture of maroon and more rarely crimson.

Bachmann are bringing out D211 in the future, but was not the loco as you confirm.

There is currently a split headcode Lima 40 currently on FeeBay with the headcode conversion already done :

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Lima-class-40 ... 4d16c3e24c

[RedFox72]

Thanks guys, Just need a maroon TPO coach , shame that Bachmann don't do the TPO coach as they do the others in weathered, unless I get the Hornby one??

[luckymucklebackit]

The Bachman coaches are the BR mark 1 postal vehicles, for a Great Train Robbery diorama you need LMS vehicles, the closest being the old Hornby models. The train was remarkably well recorded, as I posted on another thread the vehicles were

Loco D326
BG M31016M
POS M30204M High Value Package Vehicle
POS M30289M
POS M30235M
POS M30220M
POS M30277M
POS M30214M
POT M30210M
POT M30275M
POS M30272M Preserved
POS M30247M
POT M302??M

Lima did D326 as a RTR model, I have one that I got on Ebay

Jim

[RedFox72]

Thanks Jim !

[RedFox72]

Jim,

I would love to know the make up of your train, pictures etc

[luckymucklebackit]

Hi Redfox. Took a couple of photographs of a mock up of the robbery aftermath!! The vans normally run as part of larger mail and parcels trains, I make no attempt to model the actual West Coast Postal 1M44.

Lima class 40 D326, they even stole the buffer!

Layout december 033 by d9009alycidon, on Flickr

Mainline ex LMS BG and Hornby Mail Sorting Van

Layout december 032 by d9009alycidon, on Flickr


Layout december 031 by d9009alycidon, on Flickr


Layout december 029 by d9009alycidon, on Flickr


Layout december 035 by d9009alycidon, on Flickr

Jim

[RedFox72]

I like it Jim, whats the first coach is it a parcels brake van ? I would like to know the make up of the rest of your night mail train

Nathan

[luckymucklebackit]

I like it Jim, whats the first coach is it a parcels brake van ? I would like to know the make up of the rest of your night mail train

Nathan

Hi Nathan, the first coach is a Mainline LMS all steel Parcels Brake Van. I do not have a specific "night mail" train like the west coast postal, which was nearly all postal vans, I run a few mixed formation trains from a pool of vans as follows

BG Maroon B.R. Mk 1 Lima
BG Maroon B.R. Mk 1 Lima
BG Maroon LNER (Thomson) Bachman
G.U.V. Maroon B.R. Mk 1 Lima
BG Maroon L.M.S. Mainline
C.C.T. Maroon B.R. Mk 1 Lima
C.C.T. Maroon L.M.S. Lima
C.C.T. Crim/Cream L.M.S. Lima
Siphon Maroon G.W.R. Lima
C.C.T. Maroon L.N.E.R. KIT
Sorting Van Maroon L.M.S. Hornby
Sorting Van Maroon L.M.S. Hornby
Utility Van Green S.R. Tri-ang
C.C.T. Blue B.R. Mk 1 Lima
Full Brake Blue/Grey B.R. Mk 1 Lima

As per prototype parcels trains, there is frequent marshalling of these trains in the corse of their journey

[RedFox72]

Thanks, I will have to start collecting

[Phipps]

This is probably going to sound like total nonsense....
Some considerable time ago, I bought a Lima 40 from a guy on Ebay & just so happened by chance that the loco was D326. I only intended to get the model because it was a variant without a yellow panel & when it arrived, found to have a faulty chassis (wiring problems).
I told the seller who asked me to get a quote, then got the right royal hump that the repairs were too costly. Various emails later I ended up returning the loco, unrepaired, & nothing more said.
Furthermore, I still had to give the guy a positive, as he'd done everything correctly (apart from description of it being a working model).
In the meantime, the history of the real D326/40126 came to my attention, about it being "jinxed" & how even the NRM wouldn't touch it with a bargepole.
Conclusion is that I would love to make a version of this loco but a tad wary of any potential "curse" that may come with it.
Maybe I should dispense with the "negative waves", as Oddball in Kelly's Heroes might say,
but there's always the thought lurking in my mind.

[Tovidious]

Since posters here are familer with mail trains, may I ask a non-great train robbery question? I am doing a mixed passenger night mail type train using Hornby and Bachmann ex-LMS coaches as running in the late 1950s. I was going to use the Bachmann Mk1 TPO with nets but that is red. I do not want to use the Hornby TPO since it is really not up to today's standards. So, can I use the red Mk1 TPO from Bachmann or not? It was my understanding that that was correct for the late 50s.

[stuartp]

So, can I use the red Mk1 TPO from Bachmann or not? It was my understanding that that was correct for the late 50s.

Yes, just, although you might have to exercise a bit of modeller's licence to fit your exact circumstances. The Mk1 vehicles were introduced in 1959 so they just squeeze into your timeframe, although I think they were allocated to major TPOs at first (The Great Western TPO springs to mind). One I can think of which worked on its own with ordinary coaches (as opposed to in a set with other Mk1 stock) was the Highland TPO which operated between Perth, Inverness and Dingwall, and was attached to express passenger trains. That didn't use Mk 1 stock until 1962 though, prior to that it used a trio of lovely HR 50 footers. I'm not sure if any bits of the GWTPO worked as single coaches or if it stayed in one lump from Paddington to Penzance, certainly other TPOs collected and discarded coaches in ones and twos all over the place.

[Tovidious]

Thank you, StuartP