Hornby R40029A BR Maunsell Kitchen/Dining 1st S7880S – Era 4 Coach

OO GaugeHornbyR40029A BR Maunsell Kitchen/Dining 1st S7880S – Era 4 Coach
Brand new item direct from our new Yorkshire model railway shop.
Product InfoSouthern Railway inherited a variety of coach stock that hadbeen used by other railway companies pre-grouping. Furthermore, SouthernRailway continued to build new coaches to the design of the three largestcompanies. The Maunsell carriage was intended to be the standard carriagedesign for use across the Southern Railway lines, incorporating the bestfeatures of each of the former companies’ designs. Maunsell Coaches wereconstructed between 1925 and 1936 at Eastleigh, with 1200 being built.The standard coach design was 59ft long and made from woodwith steel sheeting. One feature of the coaches was the low window placementwhich while less of an issue when seated, meant that whilst stood up it wasdifficult to see outside the coach without ducking. In 1929 this feature wasamended, resulting in the introduction of ‘high window’ coaches, although oncorridor coaches the low windows remained on the compartment side of the coach.In operation, coaches were grouper together to form sets. The intention was thatcoaches would remain in these sets for long durations, with the set numbersappearing at the brake end of the set. 139 sets were created with loose stockbeing used to supplement the sets on busier trains.In August 1925, construction began on six First Class DiningSaloons for the Western Section. The first of a batch of twenty-six suchvehicles under Diagram 2651, they were intended for the London-Bournemouth,London-Portsmouth and London-Exeter services and were of the low-windoweddesign. Seating twenty four passengers in four seating bays at one end and thekitchen, pantry, service vestibule and side corridor at the other, a set ofdouble loading doors opened into the vestibule, while the passengers accessedthe Restaurant from the gangways at either end.Four further low windowed Dining Saloons were completedbetween July and December 1929, intended for the inter-regional through setsand in May/June 1930, ten further Dining Saloons entered service, under Order464, on West Country workings.