Sometimes a photograph can pose questions you weren’t even sure needed asking and the attached photograph from my father’s collection has coincided with some rather pressing research I’m doing.
On the face of it, this is a great colour picture of 60103 Flying Scotsman departing from Kings Cross, the date being somewhere between December 1958 and December 1961, but it’s the Mark 1 BSO, E9217, that has set me to thinking: Were the East Coast expresses run as fixed sets in this period or would they move around as, presumably, the train was broken down into its constituent parts?
Not having an exact date for the picture hampers the research, but maybe some of MREmag’s more knowledgeable coaching experts could help throw some light on the subject in the next edition (I’m being pressed on this matter for rather a tight deadline I’m afraid…) as I’d like to work out how many prototypical coaching rakes could feature the same BSO, within a given timeframe.
And the same photograph as in the OP appears in The Engine Shed blog - funny co-incidence that... perhaps we could get some more teasers for any new LNER-based Hornby models
And the same photograph as in the OP appears in The Engine Shed blog - funny co-incidence that... perhaps we could get some more teasers for any new LNER-based Hornby models
And just to make a suggestion to Paul Isles, perhaps the Hornby models should be issued first with 'E' numbers? I know that renumbering is possible but in general the Eastern region is the poorest cousin, with GWR modellers having the additional (rather than alternative) choice of chocolate and cream and SR modellers green liveries, whilst there is an assumption that if it's maroon it's LMR. And very little coaching stock actually carried the BR roundel on the body side - usually (but not a definitive rule) carried on coaches in sets for named or prestige services and on catering cars.