So to continue the theme of branch lines and small engines. I also have a Dapol 4-4-0, a LMS 2P, which was popular on the S&DJR and was used for both passenger and freight working. Actually they usually ran on the main line but I have mine in branch line service as the tender drive and plastic body doesn’t lend itself to pulling much of a train.
I also use a HD GWR 0-6-2T in this type of service.
Then comes the Triang DMU – the horror of branch line steam but they were introduced to try and extend the life of these branch lines and were an essential part of the 1950’s scene.
The strange one is the LMS 4F, 0-6-0, which was a common engine on branch lines but mine is in HO scale and has 3 LMS coaches so it is in main line service. It would probably better to run it in a freight configuration with a connecting wagon to enable it to join with HD wagons. This is because the coaches being HO look wrong and they are also MK1’s purporting to be LMS. I think that the loco might look OK with OO freight wagons – something to try in the future.
So there we are HD 0-6-2T’s running long coal and oil trains, mixed freight and suburban 3 coach passenger services and these little locos running one coach with a vent van pretending that they are on branch line service, when we all know that they run on the same track as the expresses – its a toy thing and imagination