Model Railway Forum

Can anyone point me in the right direction as to which coaches would be appropriate for this loco please?
Thanks in advance.

Hattons are proposing some 4 and 6 wheel LB&SCR stock. Due next year or the next one after.

https://www.hattons.co.uk/498053/hatton ... etail.aspx

Bogie stock will be more tricky and may require kit building. Roxey Mouldings make some exquisite brass coach kits, you just need to be rather good at soldering!

I have butchered some Triang / Hornby GWR short clerestory coaches to create LBSCR style carriages but it needs a new roof disposing of the clerestory, and the result is a trifle short.

Ah, right thank you for that. So theres nothing RTR thats even close or appropriate then?

Would any of the Bachmann Birdcage stock be appropriate? LC&DR will answer I'm sure? BB

Good question, but No not in LB&SCR Umber I am afraid.

Until 1923 the SE&CR and LB&SCR were fierce rivals. At Victoria any passenger wishing to transfer from the SE&CR to the LB&SCR or vice versa had to do so via the street, despite the stations being built alongside each other. It was not until after Grouping in 1923 did the Southern Railway knock through the joint wall so passengers could avoid a soaking on wet days!

To see a LB&SCR loco pulling SE&CR carriages would have been the height of Heresy, it just didn't happen. There were stretches of track where both companies operated, especially between London Bridge and Redhill but always the operations were kept very much at arms length. Most of the way they had their own tracks.

However after Grouping the two companies became Divisions of the Southern Railway, and painted in SR green it was perfectly possible to see a Brighton E4 on a train of Birdcage coaches, in fact in Sussex it became a very common sight.

Former LB&SCR carriages disappeared much more quickly than SE&CR or L&SWR stock, mainly because nearly all the former Brighton main lines and suburban routes were electrified in the 1920s and 1930s. A lot of Brighton carriages were transferred to the Isle of Wight, and many others were converted to electric stock and could be seen whizzing in and out of London until the late 1950s. Before WW2 most suburban electric trains were either converted LB&SCR or L&SWR steam stock.

The LB&SCR did not believe in through corridors and none of their ordinary passenger carriages had gangways. They did however operate a number of Pullman trains. The Pullmans were usually hauled by the H1 and H2 Atlantics, and the I, J and L class tank engines.

Thank you all for your help. Very useful information. Although it does make me wonder why manufacturers produce locos that don't have any available rolling stock to use with them? Another case in point are the Heljan Bo Bo Metropolitan locos. I've been looking for appropriate rolling stock for those too.
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They have always done this. I used to just liked buying locos I liked, didn’t bother me what they pulled. Think many people think that way. They usually get there in the end.

I share your frustration, it is particularly galling to have a lovely Pre-Grouping locomotive exquisitely turned out in full livery, but then nothing authentic to hang behind it. I have campaigned for quite a long time for authentic Goods Brake vans of Pre-Grouping companies so that at the very least locomotives and guards vans match. The wagons in between can be dealt with more easily, because a large proportion of freight rolling stock consisted of privately owned coal wagons, and these are made in reasonable quantities, and the odd pre-Grouping open wagon or covered van can be had and it mattered less that these were not of the same company as the hauling locomotive because there was always an interchange of vehicles between different railways.

So far as passenger stock is concerned it has been virtually impossible to match locomotives and carriages. The ready to run manufacturers have very rarely made anything earlier than the Grouping era. The Bachmann SE&CR Birdcage stock was probably a first, and this is no good for anyone other than modellers of the SE&CR modelling prior to 1923. (Lucky for me, but not for most other modellers!)

Fortunately help, albeit in a small way, is on the horizon with Hattons Genesis series of pre-Group 4 and 6 wheel carriages. To keep costs within reasonable bounds however these will be generic, the chief difference will be the livery. Anyone wanting authentic GWR, Midland or L&NWR carriages will be better advised to go towards Peco / Ratio or Slaters for plastic kits.

Modellers wanting to model the period after 1923 are far better served, but even here unless they are prepared to build kits or scratch build they are limited for choice.

I have used the old, short, Triang/Hornby clerestory carriage as a source of material for 'kit bashing' but it can be a lot of work.