Of course I do not wish to be a faceless soul with no three dimensional aspect and only appearing within the depths of the interweb, but I also don’t really want to be inundated with unnecessary spam either so please respect my privacy.
However, despite sounding like a grumpy old man above, I do actually welcome comments on posts (to which I will always try and respond), feedback and questions related to this blog or all things Southern Railway, and the other way to contact me is by email here
I do not intend to exhibit either Canute Road Quay or Fisherton Sarum to death, primarily so that it does not become too familiar on the exhibition circuit, avoiding the walk on by syndrome that can be seen with some layouts that the public has seen time and time again.
Canute Road Quay or Fisherton Sarum, and therefore by inference myself, can however be seen at one or three shows a year, details of my the current booked appearances can be found on my Exhibition Diary page here.
I am indebted to my family and members of the High Wycombe and District Model Railway Society that have ably assisted me and without whom I would not be able to exhibit Canute Road Quay or Fisherton Sarum at all.
For the benefit of Exhibition Managers, interested in perhaps inviting either Canute Road Quay or Fisherton Sarum (although the latter is on hiatus at the moment) to their show, please contact me via email here.
As you might also be able to tell from my ‘x’ feed (AKA twitter) That due to the unique way X is, now run you can’t see previews of posts in the side bar anymore, but click here and or follow me @grahammuz (feel free to follow me if you don’t). You can also follow me on Threads @graham_muz or Instagram also @graham_muz
I often post a mix of my thoughts at the time, observations on life, updates to this blog and the fact that I support Torquay United…up the Gulls!
Hi,
Can you help please. I have a Class 73 Electro-Diesel Locomotive with Large Logo BR Blue and want to find out the numbering and type of coach stock used at the time.
Thanks,
Paul Q
Thanks Graham for this and other advance announcements. As regards adding the USA tank to my sidings, the considerable temptation is overshadowed by the similar hints of an Adams Radial Tank, and an S15. Not to mention hints from KMRC of rolling stock. So at risk of having none of these, I shall have to hold fire for the short term. Dare I say it, the 4mm LSWR modeller has never had it so good. I still look for a half-decent r-t-p station building of Tite origin.
Peter B
Peter
The tweet messages were retweets from elsewhere and while interesting and indeed possibly correct I am unable at this to collaborate such.
Hi Graham,
I’m a recent convert to the Southern (well BR Southern Region) as I have spent most of my modelling life focussing on Western region steam. I have a query relating to passenger stock, inspired by an article in the latest Model Rail magazine and single coach formations/trains.
I have some pictures of the Lyme Regis branch, showing a Radial tank pulling a single coach. I have also seen pictures of the single coach train on the Torrington branch.
My question is did the Terrier,s ever run with a single coach, particularly on the Hayling Island branch? Likewise did the Beattie well tanks ever pull a single coach to the terminus at Padstow? Finally did the Southern region ever see single coach Pull Push formations? Finally, is there a particular book that would be beneficial to a newcomer modelling the Southern Region that you could recommend?
Many thanks for reading my e-mail and I hope that it has not inconvenienced you in any way.
Mark
Hello Mark, good to hear from you and I am always to converse on all things Southern.
I am glad that you have seen the light and moved over tot he Southern Way! Single coach trains were reasonably unusual and certainly only seen on a few branches, and you have listed most of them that I know of including the Hayling Island branch witgh Terriers especially out of the summer season. The Beattie well tanks were pretty much confined to goods services but I am sure there will have been an exception to the rule.
Certainly by BR(s) days all Pull Push units were two coaches and the use of single Pull Push coaches in early SR days was pretty unusual too. If you are interested in books on Southern Coaching stock then I can totally recommend Mike King’s excellent “Illustrated history of Southern Coaches” and “Illustrated history of Southern Pull Push stock” I am lucky to count Mike as a good friend and his works are my bible for anything connected with Southern coach stock.
I hope this helps?
Graham,
Many thanks for your help – and the heads up on the books too. I am a real sucker for pull push (and autocoach) operations, and had hoped to buy one of the new Hornby sets, so I will probably endeavour to get hold of that book first. However, I do understand that it is a bit restricted in terms of date/time of operations, so I may have to consider the Kernow set instead!
Best wishes and many thanks for sharing your knowledge,
Mark
Hi Graham. Thanks for your interesting comments on why you model post war. It is my area of interest also, but I am trying to capture examples of the variations and combinations of insignia and livery in 1948 for locos from all 4 companies. I have yet to start on the Southern but could you tell me a good reference for southern loco liveries carried in 1948. Yeadons for the LNER and Essery for the LMS are excellent for this, and I now need similar quality references for the SR and the GWR. Many thanks for your time. Rodger
Hello Rodger
I am not aware of a single source for such livery information I tend to refer to either the various D.L.Bradley books or the Irwell Press “Book of ….” ranges of books about individual locomotive classes.
Thanks for the quick reply Graham. I suspected as much! The “book of…” series is a bit variable – the one on the royal scots was full of useful details for modelling a specific loco at any point in time, but the one on the A3s much less so. Cheers. Rodger
I agree to a certain extent about the variability of the “Book of series” however the Southern ones appear to be more consistent which may be simply due to the availability of the individual locomotive records.
Hello Graham
Like you a keen SR fan, modelling Ash to Aldershot at the moment, allows a touch of SR, SECR and LSWR so a good spot, need help on Bulleid Coaches, have built Southern Pride and like them however, difficult to obtain, whose kits do you use, any help would be useful.
Paul McMaster
Hi Paul
I am yet to do any blog posts about my Bulleid coaches but the first one is not that far off. I have a couple of Southern Pride 3 coach sets but these are no longer in production so as you say difficult to find. My other sets are Phoenix kits from the Southern Railways Group or using Comet brass sides.
Graham
Just a quick one, I do not intend to run complete Pullman Services on my layout, however I have seen pics and videos of rakes of coaches with what appears to be a couple of Pullmans in between, am I right in this, and if so what would those coaches have been , I have assumed a kitchen and parlour car, though of course your expertise will be greatly appreciated
Paul
Hi Paul
Some boat trains to Southampton often had one or Pullmans in the formation and would be Parlours and maybe a kitchen depending if other dinning cars already in the formation. The winter Kentish Belle on the Eastern section was a parlour car in the middle of a Mk1 set.