MTH British coaches- how realistic are they?

Going by photos only, and a decade or two of seeing the real thing, I'd say the MTH cars are far more prototypical-looking. The Lionel Hogwarts cars have the very high-water-mark look and are more toy-like. The blue steamer; is it the Duchess of Atholl? The Caledonian railway was absorbed in the company groupings of 1923, and the Duchesses are a design from the later LMS. When the railways were nationalized in 1948, a few paint schemes were tried for the passenger express locomotives. I'm reasonably sure that's where this shade of blue came from. 

The "blood-and-custard" cars and the blue Duchess are a great group for the 1940s-1950s era, before things got dirty and dull through the 60s. (See? I didn't mention "diesel") I'm sure there are some more well-versed Brit train experts who will chime in. Enjoy that set and post some pics when you get a chance!

In my opinion, the MTH coaches are very well done. As has been said said, the Hogwarts cars ride much higher and are the most toy-like of the bunch. I love the ACE cars and think they look spectacular - not what you might imagine 'tinplate' would look like at all, but they're more expensive and not as readily available as the others.

I only have one three-rail BR-style coach I'm happy with, and that's an MTH LMS-style baggage car I bought to run with my Hogwarts Express.

I wish Lionel could find a way to acquire Lima's old O scale British Railways Mark One passenger car tooling. The Lima cars are only a bit longer than Lionel's, they look a LOT better, and I believe they're scale length.

You got a Duchess half price?!?!  Awwww man!  I want a European loco!  

There was three British locos at the time of my purchase, The black lms and two blue/ black Caladonian's. I was torn as the only two remaining coaches were the blood and cream and they would have gone great with the black lms but I thought the blue and black Caladonian was a sharp looking loco and reminded me of Thomas the tank as well as the "little engine that could" so I got the weird combo. I will have to see if I can get the rest of the Caladonian passenger set with the all blue coaches.

prrhorseshoecurve posted:

There was three British locos at the time of my purchase, The black lms and two blue/ black Caladonian's. I was torn as the only two remaining coaches were the blood and cream and they would have gone great with the black lms but I thought the blue and black Caladonian was a sharp looking loco and reminded me of Thomas the tank as well as the "little engine that could" so I got the weird combo. I will have to see if I can get the rest of the Caladonian passenger set with the all blue coaches.

Too bad they are all gone now.  

I have them and consider them to be very prototypical. The British experimented almost continuously with passenger paint schemes. Freight was always black and if they were important enough they got white and red lining. Passenger power cycled through red, blue and green over the years.  Eventually the dark Brunswick green won as the final paint scheme. Much of it had to do with in-fighting between the different regions aka the 4 former major railways before Nationalization. LMS used red, LNER used blue and apple green, GWR dark green, Southern light "Malachite" green.