BR MK1 Maroon RMB

BR MK1 Maroon RMB

Type: MINIATURE BUFFET CAR (RMB)
Built: 1957 - 1962
Seating: 44, Open plan, 2+2
Length: 64.5 feet
Weight: 38 tons
Era: 1957 - late 60s
BR Region: ALL

In order to keep the catering costs down whilst still finding new ways of providing on board catering requirements, many new catering cars we ordered to new designs between 1957 and 1962.

The Miniature Buffet Car was one of these designs, built within a standard SO shell with the catering facilities located towards the centre of the coach occupying the space of two seating bays. The counter positioned lengthways, the serving area designed specifically for the serving of hot and cold drinks and snacks, all crammed into 50 square feet. The compartment, accessed by a sliding door with shelves placed behind the door for maximum storage space, is fitted with a sink, propane gas fired boiler, egg boiler and pipe warmer which occupy the stainless steel recess at the other end. The rear wall fitted with shelves to display bottled liquid refreshment, while the space under the counter displays various comestibles on offer.

Here presented as No. 1819, allocated to the London Midland region and a member of the first batch to be built in 1957, is mounted on Commonwelath bogies and built with aluminum window frames, fitted internally with tungsten lighting, melamine interior panelling, and duel steam / electric heating. Two toilets are provided, both at the same end of the coach, on opposite sides of the centre isle.


USE

Originally used on long-distance prestige trains to supplement the full meals being provided by dining cars, these coaches soon found better use providing light refreshments on cross country services. Normally located between First and Second class accommodation.


LIVERY

A change of government in 1951 saw the passing of a new Transport Act that lead to the abolition of the Railway Executive in 1956, giving the Regions much more autonomy in their actions. One such regional development led to the London Midland, Southern and Western regions adopting new liveries based on their former pre-nationalised companies.

Urged on by the desire to replace the Crimson and Cream livery with a single coloured livery for ease of maintenance and cleaning, the Maroon livery made its first appearance in the spring of 1956. Instigated by the London Midland Region (the largest BR region) - this livery closely matched that of the former London Midland and Scottish Railway, whose lines outside of Scotland the LM region now controlled.

Maroon was adopted as the standard livery for coaching stock - replacing Crimson and Cream - on all regions, except the Southern. Coach ends were painted black until 1964 where upon new painting techniques, developed at the Southern Region's Eastleigh works, started the trend to paint the coach ends in the same colour as the body sides.

The Maroon livery lasted until the Blue Grey corporate livery was unveiled in 1965. During the mid 50s and late 60s, many rakes would be formed with a mixture of coaching stock bearing old and new liveries.


THE MARK 1 PROGRAMME

After the Second World War, wartime conditions highlighted the need for better standards in regards to vehicle lengths, profiles and couplings, for stock working between the 'Big Four' companies. A commission of senior officers was duly appointed by the UK 'Railway Companies Association' to create and implement a set of dimensions that would be applied to all future stock from each company. Although completed, the standards were not implemented, as nationalisation was imminent.

On nationalisation in 1948, the commission's findings were used by the new 'British Railways Carriage Standards Committee' as the basis to developed the 'C1 Restriction' profile - a set of standards governing coach length, profile and bogie centres. Thus from this the classic Mark 1 design was born, the prototypes unveiled on 18th September 1950, production coaches entering revenue service in March 1951. The Mk1 became the standard design for all new coaches between 1951 a

Author: Stephen Dark/Alexander Barnard

BR MK1 Maroon RMB
• config.txt 6.13KB
mk1_maroon_rmb_art
mk1_maroon_rmb_art_512.texture.txt 95 bytes
mk1_maroon_rmb_art_512.tga 1.00MB
mk1_maroon_rmb_art_icon.texture.txt 97 bytes
mk1_maroon_rmb_art_icon.tga 32.02KB
mk1_maroon_rmb_body
env.texture.txt 26 bytes
env.tga 48.53KB
mk1_maroon_rmb.texture.txt 37 bytes
mk1_maroon_rmb.tga 1.50MB
mk1_maroon_rmb_body.pm 507.97KB
mk1_maroon_rmb_shadow
black.texture.txt 28 bytes
black.tga 812 bytes
mk1_maroon_rmb_shadow.pm 72.61KB