Anti-Mark Ones

Honestly I really cannot see how these are so popular, In my mind they are over-glorified pieces of cheap, mass built BR rubbish.

Now the coaches that SHOULD get the praise are the pre-1948 coaches, the beautiful GWR, LMS, LNER Teaks, SR Bullieds and Maunsells.

Even more so the pre-1923 coaches, SECR's, LWSR's, LBSCR's, London Underground, etc.

Now they are beautiful!
More of them preserved please!

 

Offering the money to restore them then?

 

Alas, I am not the famous person I have always wanted to be, should I win the lottery/become famous, I would happily.

 

No further questions, M'Lud.....

 

The OP is of course right in many ways, but in some ways it flies in the face of reality (there are no more pre-1948 coaches other than grounded bodies to be had, just preserved examples that haven't yet been restored) and there is also the fact that there were generations of Mk 1s. As with pre-nationalisations designs, interiors evolved - e.g. Gresley interiors went from predominantly polished teak to rexine during the 1930s and then to stained and polished blockboard post-war. Personally I cannot abide the later Mk 1s with formica walls and fluorescent lights, and I don't much care for the ubiquitous trojan moquette either, but that's just me!

The real moral is that we should laud and encourage those who have put the time and effort into painstakingly restoring the coaches that we do have, and the additional ones in the pipeline - long may they continue!

 

Other things to throw into the mix

To make services commercially viable heritage railways have to carry a baseload, not many have a fleet of six-wheelers that can do that

You don't want to run older carriage stock in daily service, Talyllyn are just looking to build new in order to better conserve their historic vehicles

Join groups that restore or conserve pre-grouping or pre-nationalisation rolling stock. Sponsor such carriages. The GWR(SVR)A quoted a figure of up to £150k to restore a coach (other groups and railways are available).

Similarly, support provision of covered accommodation

It's the same nugatory argument as with their locomotive contemporaries, the BR Standards

Mark 1s are older than most of the population. To most of the population they're what they remember (or before what they can remember)

Bulleids were mass produced too ("More than 800 Bulleid coaches, designed by Oliver Bulleid, were built for the Southern Railway and British Railways")

Is a newly restored early Mark 1 aesthetically or historically inferior to a newly stored 1947 Hawksworth?

"I can't praise the work that's gone into restoring that item of rolling stock as I've run out of praise"? There's enough to go round pre-grouping, pre-nationalisation and Mark 1s

Patrick

 

Has anyone been going round criticising pre-MK1s?

I haven't seen any. So why the attacks on mk 1s?

 

I used to volunteer with someone from the Watercress Line who could not stop himself from effing and jeffin about how Junky the old wooden bodied coaches were, I couldn't stand him.

Hence my hatred towards Mark Ones, Bullied Pacifics and Black Fives.

 

Oh contrair! Use a time machine to travel forward into the future and bring some back hover coaches! Now THAT would be impressive!

 

Yeah I get that, but in my opinion, they are just as nice to look at as Jockpig (4472).

 

Oh it's not the opinion, it was the constant banging on and on about it like it was gospel, that was the impact.

There's opinions and then there's preaching, he preached to everybody then found it hilarious when we got ticked off about it.

But I digress, I just think the pre-1948/1923 stuff is so much more fascinating to look at, the craftsmanship is more appreciated, also, no vintage coach looks the same.

 

So why are you telling us?
P.s. "Honestly I really cannot see how these are so popular, In my mind they are over-glorified pieces of cheap, mass built BR rubbish" doesn't seem to be saying much about pre-nationisation coaches...

 

Worth pointing out that it isnt always immediately obvious that a Bullied or Stanier 57ft vehicle is lurking in a train of MK1's and the & Thompson vehicles are very MK1 oid

 

I mean take a bulleid coach, replace the wooden frame with steel, remove the quarter lights and make the main windows slightly bigger. you basically have a mk1, at the end of the day mk1s are very useful coaches for day to day running, not every line has the capability of running pre mk1 stock in day to day use let alone on there own

 

I wasn’t aware that Mk1s were popular as such? The mass use of them on heritage lines is more out of necessity than anything else. When most heritage lines started up, Mk1s were the only ready to run coaches available. Some lines have made good progress in restoring older stock, and most visitors seem to recognise these as something a bit more special than a Mk1. However the number of pre nationalisation coaches available, the amount of time and money needed to restore them, and the sheer number of passengers some lines carry, means that Mk1s will always be with us.

A well restored Mk1 (wood panelled rather than Formica) can be a very pleasant place to be. It’s the Mk2s I can’t stand. But obviously I’ll always head for the pre 1948 coaches if there are any in the train.

 

Conmon attitude at the MHR in the 1980s and 1990s. Sadly that’s why their collection of pre nationalisation coaches got decimated.

 

"Hatred" was a word used by the OP, and I find that very sad - it's only a hobby for goodness sake, why get so emotive? Save hatred for the really bad things in life! I can't even bring myself to hate Donald Trump or Boris Johnson and they are both pretty vile characters!