MODELLING PROTOTYPICAL FORMATIONS FOR ECML EXPRESSES
Railway modellers give a lot of attention to the locomotive at the front of a train but often much less to the rake of coaches it is pulling. This article describes prototypical train formations based on expresses on the East Coast Main Line (ECML) during the 1950s.
In this era, most ECML expresses were formed predominantly of Mk. 1 coaching stock, most of which is available ready-to-run (RTR) from Hornby and Bachmann. However, the vast majority had a catering core based on ex-LNER vehicles, which, in general, have to be kit-built.
Sources of information
The starting point for putting any prototypical formation together is a combination of the relevant Carriage Working Notice (CWN) and/or photographs of a train in question. CWNs are probably the greatest help – many of them are available on the BR Coaching Stock group’s forum run by Robert Carroll. Prototypical photographs are harder to find as it can be like looking for the proverbial ‘needle in a haystack’. Sadly, many photographs concentrate on the locomotive and the rest of the train is obscure or not present. Many more aren’t captioned with useful information about which service they are of, or the date of the photograph. The glamourous-named trains are easiest as they are more often correctly-captioned and may carry a headboard to help with identification. Secondary, unnamed, expresses are often captioned with ‘an up express’ or similar, which is less helpful and some detective work is required to ascertain whether the photograph is of the train of interest. This research can be part of the fun but it is time-consuming. The best books to look in
