Just wondering if anyone could point me in a good direction on 'reading up' on rolling stock. I can't seem to understand what type goes with what. Wagons with different private owners? Does this mean they were are effectively jumbled up on track or 

Which classes pulled what type of rolling stock?

I'm heading out so I apologise for any delayed replies. Many Thanks Chris

Probably best if you said what period you were modelling and what locos etc you had or what you wanted to model ?

Guessing a Preservation Railway to be honest, I haven't really thought about it apart from checking eHattons era guide. There's such a variety I would like to run on the layout. Guessing pick an era and stick with the late of the previous era and early of the next era?

Hi Drakken,

Quote from: Drakken on September 11, 2013, 12:42:57 AM
Guessing a Preservation Railway to be honest, I haven't really thought about it apart from checking eHattons era guide. There's such a variety I would like to run on the layout. Guessing pick an era and stick with the late of the previous era and early of the next era?

Preservation Railway is a great notion I feel and I too am using that in part as my excuse, it does allow for perhaps the widest range of stock to run.  I'm not advocating running those very nice PO wagons you've just acquired behind anything other than matching era loco's - pre BR for clean wagons, but until you get up to speed for what-does-go with-what the somewhat maligned by some era guides aren't that a bad starting point 
Those POs would be kept relatively pristine by a society as would the loco's, but I suspect the 'real world' societies may sometimes stretch a point as to what they might allocate to haul them, if you did so be prepared for a little light-hearted ribbing from some quarters - have you come across 'Rule 1' yet 
Preservation also means you can justify 'visiting' stock from other societies, and even the latest on charter specials.
There's no rush to find your feet, so just aim for the enjoyment of getting a layout sorted and running to whatever standard pleases you 

Regards, Gerry,

If you can afford to lose a couple of months from your life, take a look at this site as it may be of help.

http://www.igg.org.uk/gansg/index.htm#apps

Quote from: Drakken on September 11, 2013, 12:42:57 AM
Guessing a Preservation Railway to be honest, I haven't really thought about it apart from checking eHattons era guide. There's such a variety I would like to run on the layout. Guessing pick an era and stick with the late of the previous era and early of the next era?

Preservation era core items I'd go something like

- Mark 1 coaches in various colours (some entirely fictional)
- A diesel to do all the real work (moving stuff around while the steam loco is still getting up to steam, putting things away, dragging the kettle from ashpit back to the shed, rescuing trains when the kettle disgraces itself)
- A steam loco to make the kids go "ooh"
- A few wagons for engineering work

The one oddity that isn't available RTR is one of the many Mark 1 coaches modified to have wheelchair space.

The bigger lines have a limited supply of "heritage" coaches but not that many were preserved while a lot of Mark 1 stock was cheaply available and is also easy (relatively) to maintain. I guess I'd go with something like

Mark 1 Brake Second + Mark 1 Composite

for 2 coaches, add a Mark 1 Second or a Mark 1 catering car of some kind for a 3 coach train. Catering vehicles are quite popular on heritage railways as its a way to generate revenue and useful on "rail ale" days.

Wagons tend to be those of functional use plus maybe a few beautiful pristine "heritage" wagons that are preserved.

Functional ones could include
- BR era vans particularly as tool stores etc
- A flat wagon (incredibly useful for so many things)
- Perhaps an open wagon for moving junk about
- Brake van or two (also good for brake van rides)
- Maybe a couple of ballast wagons and a shark van (NGS kit) for permanent way work

And of course a pile of half decayed scrap waiting for restoration!

Preservation modelled right is in some ways quite a speciality of its own (and sadly often ignored). On the plus side you'll find several preserved railways have their stock lists to hand, timetables up (except for stock movements) and are well videoed so you can dp research from your chair.

Heritage railways also tend to have an oversupply of locomotives, ridiculously fancy signalling (for what in most cases would have had nothing but tokens) and thus are ideal modelling subjects 

I really appreciate the replies!

I didn't expect so much information in all your posts.

@EtchedPixels: I think you've just described the layout I'd like to have to & keep the locomotives and wagon, coaches relatively era correct is abit tricky for two reasons I'm not sure what 'goes' with what & there's so much I want to buy lol

@newportnobby: Thanks for the link. I'll definatley been reading this. Like any new hobby I need knowledge

@steam-driven boy: I think the plan this weekend coming is to get some track down and 'test' the layout to see how it runs sort of speak. The two main radius on the layout seem a little tight but I can only try.

Thank you again for the replies, A lot of information I need to read up on and look forward to showing you all soon!

One approach is to try and decide if you want to model the area you live in, or some other specific location, and the time period then look for a book which covers that, Oakwood Press do a lot of small books of that sort, the following page of their site allows you to select an area which will give you a list of all relevant books for that area.

http://www.oakwoodpress.co.uk/bookarea.htm

Even if you want a fictitious location you may still want it to be within a certain area and time.

Quite a few model railway shows have booksellers stalls where you can browse, often they will have second hand items and special offers.

Another good site for rolling stock that I have spent ages looking on is this - http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/gansg/index.htm - and it is even better that the guy who wrote it models in N gauge too!