Hornby R4888B Railway Rolling Stock

Product Description

When Oliver Bulleid took over as Chief Mechanical Officer of the Southern Railway at Richard Maunsell’s retirement, the General Manager and Board were already aware that the SR’s mainline coaching stock lagged behind the standard set by the other three Railway companies. In 1938, with the assistance of his Technical Assistant, L. Lynes, Bulleid began design work for new steam-hauled stock for the Bournemouth and Weymouth services. The order for fifty-four 57’ 11-inch underframes was placed with Lancing Works, but the supply of the bodies for these was put on hold with the onset of war. It was 1944 before the orders for the bodies could be placed and in November 1945, the first of these were finished at Eastleigh Works. Featuring a smooth, continuously curved body side, with small fixed windows above the door windows, the exterior was distinctly Bulleid in character and was a ideal match for his streamlined Pacifics and Light Pacifics. However, the interim nature of the design was apparent in the retention of Maunsell’s underframe and layout, with side doors providing access to each compartment. Two types of stock were built; a Composite of four First, and three Third Class compartments, to Diag. 2316 and a Brake Third of five compartments, with a 22’ long brake van, to Diag. 2121. With two Brake Thirds and a Composite to a 3-car Set, eighteen Sets ran under the number range of 963-980. The Sets first appeared in during 1945/46, on West of England, Bournemouth/Weymouth and Basingstoke/Salisbury services, but once the 64ft 6in Bulleids were introduced, with their large picture windows, they were more often allocated to slower, stopping services, but still on the mainline. They ran as 3-sets until June 1962 without alteration, but from then onwards Set 980, followed by 973, 978 and 979 were increased to eight coaches, through the addition of another Bulleid CK and Maunsell SK stock, for cross-country or inter-regional services, while Sets 974-976 were increased to 5-car Sets. Sets 963-972 ran on the S&DJR from 1959, replacing the Maunsell 3-sets 390-399 as they were withdrawn. Sets 973-979 were featured on the Central Section services from 1962. Set 978 was used on the Hayling Island branch from 1959 until 1962, usually running as a pair and a loose Brake Third and 980 ran Waterloo-West Country. The last coaches were withdrawn in July 1967, at the end of Southern steam; the first withdrawals started in December 1963, leaving just Sets 964/967/968/976 and 980 until 1965, when further withdrawals left just twenty loose coaches. Please note, box and model dimensions are shown as identical however only represent the box/package size.

• Length : 243 mm • Period : Era 4 (1948 - 1956) • Operator/Livery : BR, BR(S) Green • Designer : OVS Bulleid