hi.
i just got hold of a sir rowland hills class 47,  but im unsure of what travelling post office coaches i should use. There seems to be a few to choose from in the farish catalogue. ie  general utility van, Bg full brake, super bg full brake,  and Tpo coaches.

cant seem to find a decent picture when i google. so hoping someone could help

thank you

The shortest TPO train with a 47 would be something like the Workington - Huddersfield TPO which ran to early 90s and ran as BG-TPO-BG or BG-TPO-BG-BG with the BGs in blue grey or red.  For a period it ran with a courier van instead of one of the BGs.

For later trains then Super BGs and GUVs would be appropriate.

Cheers, Mike

so for the later trains would they just have a few Guv and super bg and that was it?

Depends entirely on when you mean by later and which region!  You need to give us a bit more info.

Google and Flickr are good for searching.

I run my red 47 with 2 GUV's, a BG and 3 TPO coaches. I personally want to avoid the superbg as the are not from the blue riband range of coaches and to my eye the difference shows as well as the older tooling coaches sitting higher than the new ones.

My rake is comprised of:
374-132 Mk1 GUV Blue
374-133 Mk1 GUV Rail express sytems
374-039 Mk1 BG blue/grey
374-900 Mk1 POS Royal Mail Travelling post office
374-902 Mk1 POS blue/grey
374-903 Mk1 POS Royal Mail Letters

For a general parcels train, a motley collection of GUV's and at least one brake coach would suffice and look realistic. There are CCT's due out soon as well.
Hope that helps.

Mark

The Super BGs are very good and although they might not be quite as good as the newest Mk1s they are much nicer than the old Mk1s - they were a sort of intermediate.

The sitting higher might be down to wheelsizes (and whether the bogies have the correct sizes in).

I have just bought the Grafar Mk1 TPO sorting van-mainly because it looks great! However may I ask what sort of consist could a TPO reasonably be included in circa 1957. I have a collection of Mk1 full brakes, composites, and vans and brake seconds which I throw together as parcels consists. Could a TPO attach to a passenger service, mixed train or parcels train? Or, could the TPO be hauled singly on any ocassion? Most grateful for suggestions.

TPO vehicles could run in both dedicated trains and as add-ons to a passenger service in that period. one nice shot I have seen is of a Penzancto Liverpool express with a tpo portion at the front. The tpo portion consists of a single sorting coach and 2 pre-nationalisation BGs.

That's useful info- i've struggled to find many photos of anything but TPO dedicated trainsets (the Night Mail re-make of 1948 doesn't dwell on the set much though it seems to be three TPOs and assorted vans). Plenty of shots of mongrel van trains with all sorts of miscellaneous vehicles seemingly thrown together half at random. Any photo links most welcome.

slightly off topic, but does anyone know if there is any truth in the rumour that Farish are to release a postal storeage carriage to go with their TPO sorting carriages ?

I bought the TPO at Craven Models the other day and it was 'just in' - the chap who runs the place is new to the trade and wasn't aware of any more related units-however I'll check in Colne soon, Howard at West End usually knows what's imminent.

Quote from: class37025 on May 14, 2013, 07:10:33 PM
slightly off topic, but does anyone know if there is any truth in the rumour that Farish are to release a postal storeage carriage to go with their TPO sorting carriages ?

It would be very welcome and a logical addition to the range. Sadly I have not heard anything to suggest that Bachmann are planning to release one in either 00 or N gauge.

If anyone hears anything to the contrary, let me know. 

Hi,
Announced for the Bachmann 2013/4 OO range:

QuoteBR Mk1 TPO Stowage Van

39-750   BR Mk1 POT TPO Stowage Van Post Office Red (As Preserved)    £39.95

39-755    BR Mk1 POT TPO Stowage Van BR Blue & Grey                          £39.95

39-760    BR Mk1 POT TPO Stowage Van Royal Mail Letters Large Red       £39.95

39-765    BR Mk1 POT TPO Stowage Van Royal Mail Travelling Post Office Red        £39.95

A quick check shows eHattons have pre-order page for these, but I've not seen any delivery date promised.  With any luck they'll do well to get that Graham Farish 'shrink ray' turned on them 

Regards, Gerry.

many thanks for that,

fingers and lots of other things crossed that the shrink ray hits them

In the meantime, there are TPO overlays made by Robbie's rolling stock