Which coaches please?

[Karhedron]

The newer Farish Pullmans are very good but they are of a different batch. They are the Mk1 pullman coaches introduced circa 1960.



The older ones are not based accurately on a single diagram although they resemble the 1920s matchboard designs.

[NeMo]

I always thought that the older Farish Pullman coaches are a little bit freelance. Nothing wrong in that, in the sense you can press them into service on the SR, LMS and LNER and not be completely out of line. But they don't model any one specific coach seen on any of those Big Four companies.

@Karhedron is right about the new coaches, which I believe are based on the Mk1 coach chassis, though the bodywork is entirely unique to the Pullman coaches. In relatively recent times -- certainly the 1980s -- you'd see these mixed in with BR Mk1s on steam specials. I remember riding behind 'Clan Line' on one such train, and apart from the brown Pullman coaches, there were some BR blue Mk1s and even some InterCity liveried coaches, plus the ubiquitous Mk1 Full Brake used by the Steam Locomotive Operators Association as a sort of support vehicle. I do believe at least one of these SLOA brakes was in maroon, so quite the range of liveries possible here!

Cheers, NeMo

Anyway, the carriages. I got some S/H ones off EBAY so I could see them in the flesh and I definitely prefer the older Farish Pullmans....

[PLD]

Anyway, the carriages. I got some S/H ones off EBAY so I could see them in the flesh and I definitely prefer the older Farish Pullmans. The newer Farish ones just don't seem anywhere near as good

As other's have said, the newer ones are a much more accurate model of a (to some) less attractive prototype...

I currently have 2 of the 0646 and one 0656 (brake end composite). I don't know much about what other carriages were available in this range at the time but would like to end up with a rake of 8 to 10 in some kind of set rather than just random carriages. Appreciate any help you can give here.

You already have the full range of both types Farish made! there only were the two body types and as far as I'm aware each was only ever issued with one running number, however there are/have been several after market transfer/decal makers who produce replacement names/numbers for them.

A typical rake would have a brake each end and any number of parlours in between; sometimes with one or more kitchen cars inserted and/or a parcels van added to one end.