Mark I 57ft Suburbans / Staniers

[RichardBattersby]

My wife was very good to me at the weekend (after a trip to the seaside and some fish & chips) and allowed me to purchase a new Farish Fairburn tank.

After searching the forum and reading some posts, I get the impression that both the Fairburn (mine is late crest BR) and the forthcoming 4MT tank (on the wish list) would be suitable for suburban trains and mixed local goods.

With regards to coaching stock, I can see Hattons have two 57fters in BR Maroons (I like this livery) but no brake. The only suburban brakes they have are crimson or blue. Would they have ever run as two suburbans in maroon and a brake in LMS crimson or would that just be silly?
Whilst scrolling through the coaches I saw the Stanier coaches which I didn't realise was part of the Farish catalogue. I tried googling these but the sites I read would a little detail heavy. I'm assuming these ran initially as LMS coaches and then were kept through BR also, given the liveries Farish are offering. Would these have ever run in short rakes of 2-3 coaches? Would they fit with the large tanks as a small local passenger service?
Please educate me 

[Lankyman]

From memory (and I have just confirmed this by looking up a few books I have) several Fairburn tanks were allocated to the North Manchester area and worked regularly well into the 1960's with 3 and 4 coach formations. I don't recollect ever seeing any of the BR Mk1 versions but towards the end of steam quite often corridor versions of the Staniers appeared. Relative luxury but not as many seats. A Fairburn and 3 would not look out of place around Manchester Victoria at that time. Stanier and BR Standard Class 4 tanks were also used.

Ron

[PLD]

My wife was very good to me at the weekend (after a trip to the seaside and some fish & chips) and allowed me to purchase a new Farish Fairburn tank.

After searching the forum and reading some posts, I get the impression that both the Fairburn (mine is late crest BR) and the forthcoming 4MT tank (on the wish list) would be suitable for suburban trains and mixed local goods.

With regards to coaching stock, I can see Hattons have two 57fters in BR Maroons (I like this livery) but no brake. The only suburban brakes they have are crimson or blue. Would they have ever run as two suburbans in maroon and a brake in LMS crimson or would that just be silly?
Whilst scrolling through the coaches I saw the Stanier coaches which I didn't realise was part of the Farish catalogue. I tried googling these but the sites I read would a little detail heavy. I'm assuming these ran initially as LMS coaches and then were kept through BR also, given the liveries Farish are offering. Would these have ever run in short rakes of 2-3 coaches? Would they fit with the large tanks as a small local passenger service?
Please educate me 

The 'Crimson' Suburbans are a BR Livery - the Suburban equivalent of the Crimson & cream (so called "blood and custard") 'mainline' livery (they are a post nationalisation design) and it is legitimate to mix them with Maroon liveried examples.

The Staniers produced to date are 1933-41 built types, built by the LMS but lasted in front line service into the late 1960s. They could be seen with the Large Tanks on some longer commuter or interurban type services, though this sort of trains would more commonly be 5-8 coaches than 2/3.

[Newportnobby]

I agree with Ron that Fairburns would have been seen with either suburbans or Staniers but I would also add maroon Mk1s.
Farish have certainly made maroon suburban brakes as I have some.

[johnlambert]

Birmingham suburban services, at least on the Western Region in the 1950s were frequently composed of one suburban brake in between a second and composite coach.  Additional coaches would be added at peak times.

As others have said; you could see trains composed of BR Crimson and BR Maroon coaches.  There would be a schedule for maintenance and repainting and each coach would have to wait for its turn to visit the paint shop.

Mainline coaches, like the Stanier ones, could be seen on minor routes behind a tank engine as part of a through service that was attached to, or detached from an express.  For example, on my local line, trains from London to Birmingham might include a couple of coaches for Stratford-upon-Avon, which were detached at Leamington Spa (General).