Just an idle thought I had as I am building my first N gauge layout which will be GWR/early BR so I started wondering which of the big 4 rail companies are best supported in N gauge?
By supported I mean do different manufacturers predominately supply more volume and varied items for 1 or 2 of them?


Phil 

Dunno about best  but worst is definitely SR, if you're not prepared to sccratch build and kit bash then avoid the SR, general opinion seems to be the GWR is best supported

Meah. Green [shudder].

Plus, y'know, they all look the same.

You could do with something with a bit of distinction, flair, colour, charisma, style. Let me think...

...oo, I know!

LMS! All those choices, Jubilees, Royal Scots, Coronations, Black 5's, 8F's, Ivatt's, Fairburn, Jinty's, y'know, something with a name rather than just yet another number.   

Right, blue touch paper well and truly lit, I'm off.

[Runs like the clappers!]

Or do what I did and base your layout in Oxfordshire and have the choice of GWR, LMS, SR and LNER. Trouble is, you can then spend a fortune on different locos and stock.

None of the big 4 is sufficiently covered to stock an authentic layout based on Ready to Run rolling stock alone...

There are particularly gaps in the smaller locos and in the surviving earlier (pre-grouping) stock for all four.

Looking at locos:
The GWR has the widest coverage in types and sizes available (so long as you ignore the Welsh bit of the territory). Unlike the others the significant gap is the top end of the power range in the King.
The LMS is well covered for the post-war period with the Ivatt class 2s and the Fairbairn Tanks, plus the Royal Scots and Duchesses in rebuilt form, but is weaker for 1920s/30s.
The Southern has a couple of smaller, earlier tank locos with the Terrier and M7, but then only the N and the Pacifics above that.
The LNER has no tank loco at all and only a couple of Union Mills 4-4-0s among the smaller Tender locos.

Looking at coaching stock:
The Southern is best covered with the only pre-group representation in the SECR Birdcage stock plus Maunsells and Bulleids from the grouping era.
The LNER and GWR each have the two main types from the Grouping era covered (Gresleys, Thompsons / Collets/Hawksworths)
The LMS is weakest with only the Staniers available.

Quote from: PLD on March 21, 2021, 01:21:19 PM

The Southern has a couple of smaller, earlier tank locos with the Terrier and M7, but then only the N and the Pacifics above that.

Not forgetting the C and Schools classes from Farish and Dapol, and the T9, 700 and 0395 from UM. The SR could have it a lot worse, though the 4-6-0s are a glaring omission.

That's a good question, Phil.

From my own perspective (pre-War era and mostly Union Mills locomotives), I'd say the LMS.  An important caveat would be the LMS in England and Wales.  If you are modelling something other than the major main lines, many of the engines seen would have been secondary types, often of pre-Grouping origin.

For passenger turns I have the 'Prince of Wales' and '2P' classes.
For freight, and the LMS was very much about freight, I have '2F', '3F', 'Cauliflower', 'G2' and '7F' classes.

The LNER is well-served too, particularly the North Eastern Area with a 4-4-0 and three 0-6-0s.

If I was to attempt to look more widely than my own interest, I'd suggest the GWR is probably best served with locomotives from Dapol, Graham Farish and Sonic in addition to four lovelies from Union Mills.

For carriages, the LNER, GWR and Southern are fairly well-supported.

One point perhaps worth remembering is the pre-War and post-War 'Big Four' companies had a rather different 'look' and some models available are only correct for the last few years of the companies' existence.

Best wishes

John

Just to mention the complete list of Southern/BR(S) RTR items (includes EMUs):
[spoiler]
Arnold/Hornby 5BEL/Class 403
Farish 4CEP/Class 411

Farish SR Merchant Navy
Dapol SR V Schools
Union Mills LSWR T9
Farish SECR N
Dapol SR Q1
Union Mills LSWR 700
Union Mills LSWR 395
Farish SECR C

Dapol LSWR M7
Dapol LBSCR A1X
[/spoiler]

There is a lack of tank engines, and as others have said, pre-grouping engines as well, if anyone wanted to do pre-grouping LBSCR then they're pretty much stuffed outside of the Terrier for RTR!

Number of Tank engines per company:
GWR: 4 Tank engines, might be forgetting something, 14xx, 57xx, 64xx and if want to count it 94xx (old now)
LMS: 2, Jinty and Fairburn (unless forgetting something)
SR: 2, Terrier and M7
LNER: 1 if you count the old J94 class

Quote from: JimSan on March 22, 2021, 11:24:16 PM
Number of Tank engines per company:
GWR: 4 Tank engines, might be forgetting something, 14xx, 57xx, 64xx and if want to count it 94xx (old now)

45xx, poss 44xx - not sure I haven't seen both flat topped and sloping topped prairie tanks.

Quote from: JimSan on March 22, 2021, 11:24:16 PM
Number of Tank engines per company:
LMS: 2, Jinty and Fairburn (unless forgetting something)

Ivatt 2MT 2-6-2T "Mickey Mouse tank", although like the Fairburn they weren't in LMS hands for long.

Dapol did both flat and sloped top tank 45xx, the sloped top more accurately being a 4575 class,  having more water capacity https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GWR_4500_Class.

The 44xx were smaller flat tank topped locos https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GWR_4400_Class.

Quote from: tunneroner61 on March 23, 2021, 08:40:56 AM
Dapol did both flat and sloped top tank 45xx, the sloped top more accurately being a 4575 class,  having more water capacity https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GWR_4500_Class.

The 44xx were smaller flat tank topped locos https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GWR_4400_Class.

Thanks. I was sure I'd seen flat topped tanks modeled but wasn't sure if they were 45xx or 44xx.

Quote from: JimSan on March 22, 2021, 11:24:16 PM

Number of Tank engines per company:
GWR: 4 Tank engines, might be forgetting something, 14xx, 57xx, 64xx and if want to count it 94xx (old now)

Add possibly a 61xx large Prairie if one can be found, and the forthcoming Sonic 56xx

Quote from: chrism on March 23, 2021, 06:22:56 AM
45xx, poss 44xx - not sure I haven't seen both flat topped and sloping topped prairie tanks.

Quote from: chrism on March 23, 2021, 06:26:12 AM
Ivatt 2MT 2-6-2T "Mickey Mouse tank", although like the Fairburn they weren't in LMS hands for long.

Quote from: Newportnobby on March 23, 2021, 10:24:52 AM
Add possibly a 61xx large Prairie if one can be found, and the forthcoming Sonic 56xx

Knew I was forgetting something, the fact that I've got both the Ivatt and the 45xx in my collection doesn't help heh, did also have the 61xx and forgot the 56xx.

So to update the tank engine list:
GWR: 7-8, 14xx, 57xx, 64xx, 61xx, 45xx, 56xx, 94xx and if you want to count 4575 as separate from the 45xx.
LMS: 3, Jinty, Ivatt and Fairburn
SR: 2, Terrier and M7
LNER: 1 if you count the old J94 class

Still rather heavy on GWR

I don't count the large prairie or the 94xx because they just aren't good enough models. Union Mills do a good job of catering for smaller tender locos.