TT4051 SR - 4 Wheel - '7512' - First Class Coach

Hornby’s TT:120 SR First Class Four-Wheel Coach is a finely detailed model capturing the charm of early 20th-century rail travel, featuring a distinctive four-compartment design in authentic SR green livery with crisp First Class markings. 

Perfectly scaled, this newly tooled coach brings a touch of heritage to any TT:120 layout, evoking the golden age of British rail.

History

These four-wheel coaches are typical of the type that was operating at the end of the 19th century and into the early part of the 20th. Introduced by many of the pre-Grouping companies before the more comfortable bogie-coaches became common place. As new, more modern coaches were introduced, the four-wheelers were often cascaded down to rural branch lines and where passenger numbers were much lighter. 

Some survived into the 1950s and ‘60s, by virtue of their relative isolation from the major centres of operation, while others found further use as departmental vehicles. When these small vehicles were retired, often their bodies were bought-up by local people for use as summer homes, but especially by farmers who found they made good chicken coops or storage sheds. 

The chassis from the coaches often found further use as goods wagons. Because so many of these wooden bodies found their way into private hands, good number have survived to be saved by preservationists, who have refurbished them and mounted them onto suitable underframes for use on heritage trains.