35018 British India Line

It's a shame that there has been no mainline set in green since the Mid Hants' "Green train" was sold. There was a special in March 1995 which Clan Line worked to Southampton using the Ocean Liner set with a couple of Pullman cars thrown in. There was even a set number painted onto the end of the leading coach. It was the nearest recreation I have seen of the image which most people remember as the final years of main line steam on the Southern Region. It's true, however, that maroon stock did appear on inter-regional workings and even on other trains. There's a picture in one of my many books on the last years of Southern steam of maroon coaches on a Summer Saturday Swanage-Waterloo service.

Likewise, blood and custard carriages lasted long enough to have been pulled by locos carrying the late BR crest, including rebuilt Bulleid pacifics.

I think the best chance of seeing green stock on the main line may be a short rake of Mark 1s running into Wareham station. I believe that one grant the Swanage Railway received covered not only the electronic gadgetry which 31806 needed but also the upgrading of a few of their Mark 1s to run on the main line.

Looking back to the early years of main line steam in the preservation era, however, we can't complain. Maroon with West Coast branding still makes for a far more authentic looking train than the long rakes of two-tone rail blue Mark 1s which were the norm until the mid 1980s - just about authentic with a BR-liveried Black Five but not much else. So while I'd love to see a set of green coaches, I'm very grateful for what we currently enjoy

 

Please not mock teak. Anything but that. The Underground 4TC set done that way looked hideous.

 

I'm not sure a set of mk3's are going to look good in any livery behind Tornado. You can't polish a t**d n' all that. A full rake of maroon WCR mk1's behind BIL in BR green will do just nicely though!

 

During the last days of Steam some Gresley buffet cars were transferred to the Southern and they were never repainted in green

 

Agreed it's the railway equivalent of those people who insist on putting mock stone cladding on their house

 

Sorry gents but I totally disagree, having seen mock ups of the Mk3s as done by Mark Allatt. I rather liked the mock teak - the idea will be for it to be "scumbled" I believe, as it was by the LNER and then temporarily, BR in the late 40s on the all steel stock.

The point is to present a set of coaches in a livery that would not look out of place behind Tornado. Those liveries are few and far between for apple green, quite literally teak, or carmine and cream.

My preference would be for teak - I have also seen some excellent Mk3 mock ups of the coronation livery and the green and cream LNER livery used in scotland too.

 

As I saw on the re-routed Pines Express at Reading 1963/64ish. 34041/34102 were two of the regular engines.

 

If they are going for full mock effect why not go the whole hog...

 

I'd love to see one of those recreated and a pint or three of Strong's to help the journey go by.

 

Are these mockups available for viewing on the web?

 

It is nice to find others actually notice what is behind the loco too! From pictures from 'the days of steam', the first issue modern mainline steam faces is that few trains seemed to be all Mark 1, many having some pre-BR coaches in there, and often a mix of liveries. Top link work was perhaps different and all SR Green for BIL would probably be authentic enough. What there wasn't was brake coaches with roller shutter doors or Met Cam Pullmans painted maroon (or indeed in any livery unless in full sets with at most Mark 1 BCKs on each end, presumably in Maroon, of the 1928 Pullman brakes were having a rest that day!

But, of course, railway preservation tends to be all about the locos to many.................

Steven

 

Rather depends what the starting point is though, if its a Mk3 aircon it will have the charm of a new build Wetherspoons?

 

'Preservation' is not necessarily a priority for mainline rakes though?

 

I was rather hoping that jamessquared would offer up on of the Bluebell's Bulleid brakes for conversion.

 

I suppose if anyone wants a set of coaches in green we could resurrect the Pilkington K set.

 

Yes - I'll find you the links tonight when home and on laptop.

 

It's fine if a mainline steam hauled train can be made to look authentic and I think the recent Golden Arrow with Clan Line with the Golden Arrow regalia on a set of Pullmans running for a lot of the day on the route of the original train is as good as it gets but the main attraction is the spectacle of a steam hauled train at speed. The heritage railways are the home of authenticity or at least should be. There are various reasons why during normal service this does not happen which is why I do a lot of photo charters. I call it 12 in to the foot scale modelling.

 

Assuming 35018 does turn up on the front of the Lune River Trip on Saturday, then West Coast must be pretty confident the loco's testing bugs have been sorted if they haven't decided to do one final test run, to make sure everything is fine.

 

There is still 3 days assuming they think she needs a further test, she has run a loaded test with what looks like no adverse effects, but i guess its going to be a case of what appears in steam on friday to be warmed through could even be the 8F

 

I've heard the same from another source today - Sadly, the shade of green is purported to be BR express passenger green, not G. R. Wrenn's close approximation to malachite, which is what my fiver was on! ;-)