Model Forum / General / Railroads / March 2005

Here goes with a brief analysis of traffic services on the old Midland
Railway.  Note the named trains (Thames-Clyde, Waverley) could run to
more than 8 coaches.  They would be classically first class at the
London end, Catering, second class.

The Nottingham, Derby, Sheffield trains ran to about 8 coaches.  Mid 50s
would still be LMS stock but late 50s most would be replaced by Mark 1s.
But some LMS stock ("porthole" BSK and Restaurant cars) survived to mid
60s.  The LMS (and the certain other railway) used British Standard
gangways whereas Mark 1s followed the LNER and SR in adopting the
Pullman gangway.  This meant forward planning in coupling LMS and Mark 1
coaches so Midland trains tended to be less mixed than on the Great
Central or ECML.  Trains from London could enter either end of
Nottingham, so sets could be turned, so there was no logic in attempting
to keep first class at the London end.  A typical formation could be two
BSKs, two SKs and two CKs.  The catering set would comprise a first
class Restaurant car attached to a SO.  In say 1960 the Restaurant car
would probably be LMS, the SO and one of the BSKs possibly LMS, the rest
would be Mark 1s.

Note that BSOs were mainly used in excursion trains, rarely in "service"
trains.  But it is worth noting that north of the Thames an SK had 48
seats and a SO had 64 seats.  So a scenario could be that there isn't
enough first class accommodation on a service, so one of CKs is replaced
by an FK, resulting in the loss of 18 second class seats but 16 can be
recouped by replacing one of the SKs with a SO. This would result in two
BSKs, one FK, one CK, one SK, one SO plus the catering pair.

Local services retained the classic three coach set of two Brake second
flanking a composite.  All compartment stock, with some of the first
class accommodation possibly having access to toilets.  But there was
often a swinger, often an LMS SK of earlier vintage than "porthole"
stock.

Still need to find out about sleeper and parcels services.

...

I've often wondered, is there a list anywhere of all the above, generally I
can work it out but I still come across one or two combos that get me stuck.