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Accurate historical train make up; passenger or goods

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jhb171achill

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In this day and age we see trains made up of entirely the same type of vehicle - be it passenger or goods. No ICR sets sail with a De Dietrich coach and a Craven as intermediates; nor does the "Enterprise" ever consist of a mix of DD and Mk 4stock. Well, apart from the new EGVs, that is.

 

Goods trains are all of idntical Tara wagons, no odd tank wagon, beet truck of flat wagon samdwiched in between; or a string of identical pockets or container flats. Even maintenance trains are made up of the one type of vehicle per train.

 

Few exceptions exist, and few have existed for some time.

 

But for anyone modelling any period pre 1990, standardised rakes were an extreme rarity. Many a fantastic layout set in the "Black'n'Tan" era or earlier, might have a rake of identical 4 wheeled vans behind a superbly weathered "A" class or a "Pair". Many a passenger train will have a string of identical Cravens (OK after Buttevant, but not before), or identical laminates, or even identical wooden stock.

 

This is generally as inaccurate as the ICR with the DD intermediate.

 

To take a few absolutely typical train make ups from old photos of mine taken in the late 70s, we can pick out the following...

 

Goods: 30 ton van, 8 "H" vans, one with wood planked doors - one grey with snail, three grey with roundel, four brown. A flat with a BR "Freightliner" container, and several "Lancashire Flats", finally two beet wagons and a wood-planked open wagon.

 

Passenger: Six wheel "Hot water Bottle" tin van, brake standard, full standard laminate, Craven, Park Royal, Craven, two more laminates, not the same. Another - BR van, two Cravens, Laminate, Park Royal, Laminate.

 

This would be the norm. So, if you're modelling pre 1990, remember the mix!

 

Cravens, several types of Laminates, several variations of Park Royals, several variations of laminated brake standards, brake standard gennies, four and six wheel heating and luggage vans, four wheel post vans converted to brakes 9there were four; one still exists at Heuston) - all these were indiscriminately mixed in main line and suburban trains. The only carriages never to operate in traffic with anything else were the Mk 2 air-cons from 1972; and all subsequent types. Mk 2AB, Mk 3 and of course Mk 4 all kept themselves to themselves.

 

The goods picture was the same, though in pre container days, "H" or other covered vans formed perhaps 70% of all wagons in routine goods trains (not counting things like mining traffic or beet).

 

Hope this is of interest to some!

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