British Steam passenger trains for newbie

[PGN]

Glad to see you're a steam addict. But if you're going pre-1948, why not go the whole hog and go pre-1923 when you can have a veritable kaleidoscope of colour. Build yourself a model of Carlisle Citadel circa 1920, and you can have:

London & North Western (blackberry black locomotives, plum & spilt milk coaches)
Midland (crimson lake locomotives, crimson lake coaches)
North Eastern (green locomotives, crimson lake coaches)
Maryport & Carlisle (green locomotives, teak coaches)
Caledonian (blue locomotives, purple & white coaches)
Glasgow & South Western (green locomotives, crimson lake coaches ... although if you build yourself a Manson Baltic tank, the boiler should be steel blue)
North British (umber / ochre / bronze green - take your pick - locomotives, crimson lake coaches)

Plus of course, some of the LNWR and NBR locomotives returning from France might still be wearing their ROD livery.

Yes, I know it's a pipe dream ... but the day when it might be possible to make a serious attempt at it is drawing ever closer. Look at the RTR offering:

LNWR "Prince of Wales" 4-6-0 in Blackberry Black from Union Mills
Midland 4F 0-6-0 in goods black livery from Bachmann Farish (in the Landship Train Pack)
4P 4-4-0 in Caledonian Livery from Graham Farish (OK ... so it's a Midland locomotive, but it looks the part)
Fairburn 2-6-4T in Caledonian livery from Bachmann Farish (again, not a correct prototype, but the Caley DID have some big 2-6-4Ts)
NER R class 4-4-0 from Union Mills

Get out your paint brush and you can have a 4P into its correct Midland livery in a jiffy

Caledonian livery old Graham Farish generic coaches are readily obtainable for a price
Peco make a Midland goods brake van, and Bachmann Farish have a forthcoming Midland 20 ton brake van (or if you don't want to wait you could repaint one of their LMS ones)

Locomotive kits are available (sometimes only on the second hand market) for:

LNWR "Prince of Wales tank" 4-6-2T (Langley)
Midland "Flatiron" 0-6-4T (ABS Beaver)
LNWR "Precurson" 4-4-0 (Graham Hughes ... although i have NEVER actually seen one of these)
NBR 0-6-0 and 4-4-0 types (Graham Hughes ... the 0-6-0 much more common than the 4-4-0, but still pretty rare)
NER P2 0-6-0 (Nu-cast)
NER 1001 class "Hippopotamus" long-boilered 0-6-0 (B H Enterprises)
Robinson 2-8-0 (both the LNWR and the Caley acquired some of these from the ROD after the war)
Caledonian 498 and 782 class 0-6-0T (both from Graham Hughes)

The Minitrix 2F 0-6-0T dock shunter can easily be "bashed" into a G&SW dock shunter; and the ABD Beaver kit for the HR banking tank can almost as easily be bashed into a G&SWR 0-6-2T

And then there's more and more 3D printed stuff becoming available all the time.

Mmmmmmmm ... just thinking about it gives me goose bumps ...

[Fredastaire]

@emjaybee earlier you mentioned repainting Farish Jubilees in to crimson. I've  Jubilee loco bodies and tender bodies in Crimson (factory production) have donor green Jubes for the chassis and are wondering how to paint the tender under frame and cylinders in to crimson with straw lining. May I ask you to post photos and information about how you sorted the chassis and cylinders?
Kind regards Fred

[emjaybee]

@emjaybee earlier you mentioned repainting Farish Jubilees in to crimson. I've  Jubilee loco bodies and tender bodies in Crimson (factory production) have donor green Jubes for the chassis and are wondering how to paint the tender under frame and cylinders in to crimson with straw lining. May I ask you to post photos and information about how you sorted the chassis and cylinders?
Kind regards Fred

Alas, my talents do not lay in the loco repainting area.

I have a 'man' for that, although that sounds a tad odd, to elaborate, I use THE 'man' for that. The loco's I have had repainted have all been done by the great Ozymandias on this forum. Have a look at this thread...

https://www.ngaugeforum.co.uk/SMFN/index.php?topic=22566.1545

In particular post #1557.