Just bought a Graham Farish 374-875W inspection saloon on ebay cos it looked nice - how sad is that. I also probably paid a silly price for it although I did bid below the asking price.
It's on the way but now I know its mine, what do I do with it? (No non family friendly answers please..)
Doing a search on the forum I gather they were either run by themselves or as part of a complete train. Can any of the large number of BR experts out there give me some clues as to how I could use it? Ta!!

I have one of these, for much the same reason!

At the time of the NGS release, there was a thread on here about the coach and its operations. Essentially, yes, they ran on their own with a loco. Sometimes they were propelled so the "management" could inspect the line as the traveled along.

Being a short (one coach, one loco) train, it is ideal for me.

Photos I have seen have it being hauled by 26/27s (perhaps not surprising as pictures are in Scotland), but I run it with whatever is to hand (and not EWS) 

Skyline2uk

Every time I saw one (Blue / Grey livery) it was being hauled by a Class 37 locomotive

The first time it was hauled into Glasgow Central
The Class 37 locomotive then propelled out, and I thought the loco would run round, but instead it continued to where ever it was going (I suspect to Shields Road for reverse)

The next time was in Aberdeen, hauled from Inverness and again a Class 37 locomotive 
It was used to examine the platforms and clearances on the route over several days

They were also used briefly as an observation coach between Glasgow and Oban / Fort William

Quote from: mjkerr on March 23, 2016, 06:12:07 PM
They were also used briefly as an observation coach between Glasgow and Oban / Fort William

So they were used in a rake of coaches on that line - any more info would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.

I bought mine in EWS livery because I had a class 66 EWS and it was the most modern one.  At the back of my mind I am considering just running short trains. DRS 20 and 37 with Nuclear flask, DMU's and of course the Inspection saloon.   The longest would probably be a four piece Class 220. If I went with this Idea I would only run my container stock at any length as one of my baseboards exists only for a container yard and the track plan so that 5 pairs of container wagons can get around the curves and park up in the yard,

Dave

In the BR Blue era any loco could work with the inspection saloons, obviously the loco would be appropriate for the route so smaller loco's would be used for certain branch lines or routes with a lower route availability figure.  Personally I've seen them at work in Devon in the 1980's with variously classes 31, 37, 47 or 50 hauling them around.  They were also moved around as part of a train to position them for their next outing, quite often in a departmental freights (engineers trunk workings).  On preserved railways I've seen one attached to a service train for private function / party, if remember correctly it was at the Severn Valley Railway at one of the Diesel Gala's.
John

Does anyone know what speed they're rated for please?

Quote from: newportnobby on March 29, 2016, 03:43:10 PM
Does anyone know what speed they're rated for please?

Take a look here Mick. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/975025_Caroline

Sounds pretty quick to me but HTH.

Dave G

Just received mine today from Rails of Sheffield ebay site and very nice it is too.
Checked Daveg's Wiki link and was pleased to see that they said 'and which has historically been used as a VIP excursion train on several occasions'.
So that's ideal for my preserved railway layout as I can put it on the end of a rake of coaches for my miniature VIP's!!
 

Thanks for the link, Dave.
It will be highly unusual for my trains to be at 100mph