As part of their quarterly British Railway Announcements for Winter 2022 Bachmann have announced the ex London South Western Railway (LSWR) / Southern railway 56ft non corridor cross country sets in 00 gauge.

There were 36 sets formed wholly of 56ft vehicles and these sets were generically called ‘Cross County sets’. They were constructed between 1906 and 1910 being built originally as 4 coach sets. These sets comprised of the following:

• Brake Thirds, four compartment to LSWR Drawing 1446, SR diagram 124, 2 per set
• Composite (1^st / 3^rd class), seven compartment, to LSWR Drawing 1298, SR Diagram 274
• Third LSWR Drawing 1302, SR Diagram 17, 8 compartment, (The all Thirds were originally introduced as 2^nd / 3^rd Composites but rebranded to all Thirds with no structural change by the end of 1919)

The set numbers were in the ranges 130-151, 253-263 and 311-314 (sets 311-314 were originally introduced as 6 coach sets but became four coach formations in 1934 (and subsequently 3 coach sets). All sets were reduced to three coaches in the mid to late 1930s by the removal of the 8 compartment Third Diagram 17 coaches which became loose stock. At the same time the number of first class compartments in the Composite, Diagram 274 was reduced from 5 to 3 (not a physical alteration just reclassification and change in class banding on the outside of the compartments)

Despite the longevity of these sets, apart from the reduction from 4 to 3 coaches and the reclassification of some of the composite compartments there was no real physical changes to any of the coaches.
In terms of use, they were seen all over the SW section of the Southern and their duties were pretty well interchangeable with any other 3/4 set. They did not generally run on Brighton or SE section lines, although photographic evidence exists of them running along the south coast to Brighton.

Withdrawal of these sets was completed during 1956/7 Brake Third number LSWR 1520 SR 2975 (ex set 63 / 146) survives and is operational service on the Bluebell Railway http://www.bluebell-railway.co.uk/bluebell/pics/1520.html and Composite number 5065 (ex set 134) survives on the Kent and East Sussex Railway awaiting restoration.

As was standard LSWR practice not all the coaches had full electrical equipment, i.e dynamo and battery boxes the others being through wired.

The initial EFE Rail Releases, build on the success of the EFE Rail Gate stock (and utilising some shared tooling), in three coach book box sets are as follows

• E86013 ex LSWR Cross Country Set – 3 coach set 253 – SR Malachite SR Malachite
• E86014 Ex LSWR/SR Cross Country Set – 3 Coach set 130 – BR Crimson BR Unlined Crimson
• E86015 Ex LSWR/SR Cross Country Set – 3 Coach set 314 – BR Green BR(s) Green

These coach sets are currently on the high seas and should be with retailers such as Kernow Model Rail Centre  in the next few weeks.