How about another couple of new(ish) builds

[IanBanks-Jones]

As someone who grew up being carted into London on first gen AC EMU's, would it be feasable/possible to rebuild mk1/2 coaches to sit in for the missing trailers on some of the EMU's at Coventry?

What I'd really like is a 304, but since all trace of their existence (including their trampoline seats) is gone, I know that'll probably never happen.

I think the 309 is a reasonably feasable project, as if I remember, they had their MK1 griddle cars substituted for trailers. Secondary door locking, a few boxes of gadgetry and the small matter of refitting and I'm sure they'd be ace on railtours!

Here's to hoping!

 

[BestWestern]

I suppose the inevitable cashflow problems would prevent all but the most determined of newbuild projects. I'd have thought that reconstructing missing centre vehicles from donor coaches ought to be mostly do-able though.

On a wider scale, I think we are approaching - or perhaps even are already well past - the saturation point for mainline stock being preserved. There are an awful lot of locos about the place, many of them struggling to make a living doing anything useful, and there are a lot of heritage lines to choose from now. Whilst I agree that there is room for something different, and multiple units seem an obvious choice, in general I think there really needs to be more focus on appreciating what we've already got.

'Torndao' has proved to be very popular in it's first few years, but I do wonder how long the appeal will last. When she is no longer a 'new' steam loco, will people still have such an interest? It also needs to be considered that as the years advance there will be less and less capacity on the mainlines to run railtours, and this is also likely to put a further squeeze on how much heritage stock is able to make a living, along with the ever present concern that NR or whoever will one day stop it altogether. I have to say that building stuff brand new to 'preserve', when we already have too much 'proper' heritage as it is, seems totally bonkers to me.

 

[IanBanks-Jones]

I'd broadly agree with you, although, as you say, with paths becoming limited, something like a 309 with its 100mph capability would fit into modern schedules better than, say, a mainline registered class 25. I'm not giving up hope just yet!

 

[pacer-pete]

I think what this post shows is that it is important to preserve at least one complete representative of every class when they are withdrawn from service, because you never know what the future may hold!

 

[Tiny Tim]

If we're going to wish, how about a rake of LMS streamline coaches to run behind Duchess of Hamilton? Or an LNER set for the A4s? We'll probably have to make do with watching this on YouTube if we want to see a whole train running in slinky matched livery.

What happened to all these coaches? Surely one or two have survived?

 

[sprinterguy]

If we're going to wish, how about a rake of LMS streamline coaches to run behind Duchess of Hamilton? Or an LNER set for the A4s? We'll probably have to make do with watching this on YouTube if we want to see a whole train running in slinky matched livery.

What happened to all these coaches? Surely one or two have survived?

One Stanier design LMS carriage has been repainted to match Duchess of Hamilton's streamliner livery.

Both of the beaver tail observation cars that were used on the LNERs’ Coronation trains have survived in preservation. One of them is currently being returned to its original appearance. I’m not sure if any of the articulated twins or triplets that made up the intermediate carriages of the LNER’s Coronation and Silver Jubilee trainsets have made it into preservation though.

 

[MCW]

tell you what would be good for a build, would be something that is interesting, not just as an engine or performance but rather how it influenced design or how designs of engines contrast.

To me a build of the Wheatley Y10 tender engine would be very good in this aspect.

 

[LE Greys]

One Stanier design LMS carriage has been repainted to match Duchess of Hamilton's streamliner livery.

Both of the beaver tail observation cars that were used on the LNERs’ Coronation trains have survived in preservation. One of them is currently being returned to its original appearance. I’m not sure if any of the articulated twins or triplets that made up the intermediate carriages of the LNER’s Coronation and Silver Jubilee trainsets have made it into preservation though.

I'm afraid not. They were put into store in WWII, along with a lot of 'special' stock such as the LMS articulated sets, the GWR Super Saloons and various Pullman cars. GWR Centenary stock carried on, and turned up pretty much everywhere that was once broad gauge. After the war, BR was not so keen on promoting special trains with special stock, so the articulated sets mostly ended up in Scotland. Some regularly worked the Fife Coast Express, whilst the observation cars ended up on tourist trains on the West Highland. I've often wondered why some of them were not collected up and put on the Capitals Limited (later Elizabethan) but then the WR never collected up Centenary stock either, although some of those vehicles survived and are now at Didcot. Probably, the brand new Mark I had a lot to do with it.

All the streamlined, articulated stock was declared 'non-standard', and quietly went for scrap in the 1960s.

 

[sprinterguy]

That's an absolute crying shame that none of the LNER streamline coaching stock (barring the observation cars) survived into preservation. Thankyou for giving some insight into the carriages' later lives too, I knew the back story to the observation cars but for some time I've wondered what became of the rest of the coaching stock after the streamlined trains were disbanded at the start of WW2.

We can at least be thankful that there are some superbly restored full rakes of standard coaching stock of the pre-nationalisation companies representative of that mid-30s era, which can be paired up with appropriate locomotives: The Severn Valley Railway being noteable for having both a Stanier LMS rake and a Gresley LNER teak one (As well as a varied selection of more native GWR stock that is more homogenous with the resident steam fleet!), which makes a nice change from the monotony of resurrected mark 1s on preserved lines, as pleasant as they themselves are.