The 'Epoch' or 'Era' system explained

The model railway hobby has for a while been using the ‘Epoch’ or ‘Era’ system to group models into a defined time period. There is no standard system as such, and the grouped time periods varies slightly not just between manufacturers but also geographically e.g. between mainland Europe or North America or the UK. This page details the UK time periods and the 'Era' system now being used by manufacturers and ourselves within the product descriptions. 

The UK eras commence with the birth of railways in the early 1800s and the ‘Railway Mania’ that followed on from the Liverpool and Manchester Railway Act in 1826. The plethora or railway companies were ‘Grouped’; in 1923 into the ‘Big Four’ most recognisable companies, the Southern Railway, the London Midland and Scottish Railway, the London and North Eastern Railway, and the Great Western Railway.

Nationalisation occurred in 1948 with the formation of British Railways and this has subsequent gone through many changes that started with Sectorisation then Privatisation and the current Railway Franchising and operators.

The table below shows these Eras as defined by Bachmann and Hornby (as there are slight variations between them).

Era	Bachmann Era - date ranges	Hornby Era - date ranges	Description
1	1804 - 1875	1804 - 1869	Pioneering - Railway Mania
2	1875 - 1922	1870 - 1922	Pre - Grouping - many companies -  such as: GWR, LSWR, LBSC, Midland, North Eastern, Great Eastern, LNWR Caledonian, Great Central, Somerset & Dorset to name a but a few.
3	1923 - 1947	1923 - 1947	Grouping - The Big Four -  the Southern Railway, the London Midland and Scottish Railway, the London and North Eastern Railway, and the Great Western Railway (plus a small number of joint railways).
4	1948 - 1956	1947 - 1956	Nationalisation - British Railways - Initial 'British Railways' lettering and the early lion and wheel Emblem
5	1957 - 1966	1956 - 1968	British Railways - Late rampant lion and wheel crest - early green diesels
6	1967 - 1971	1969 - 1971	British Railways - Blue - Pre TOPS numbers
7	1971 - 1982	1971 - 1986	British Railways - Blue - TOPS numbering era
8	1982 - 1994	1982 - 1997	British Railways - Sectorisation - such as: InterCity, Regional Railways, Network South East, Railfreight (Coal, Petroleum, Metals and Construction), Trainload and Rail Express Systems.
9	1995 - 2006	1996 - 2008	Post Privatisation - such as: English Welsh & Scottish (EWS), Freightliner, Load Haul, Great Western Railway, Midland Main Line, West Coast, Chiltern Lines, Network SouthCentral, Thameslink, West Anglia Great Northern, Anglia Railways, Scotrail, South Western Railway
10	2006 - 2017	2006 - 2017	Network Franchising (Train Operating Companies) such as: South West Trains, First Great Western, Chiltern Railway, Virgin East Coast (GNER), Virgin West Coast, East Midlands Trains
11	2014 - onwards	2014 - onwards	Current Day Operators - such as: Great Western Railway, Avanti West Coast, East Midlands Railway, Cross Country, Great Northern, Greater Anglia, LNER, Southern, South Western Railway, South Eastern, Scotrail, Transpennine Express, West Midlands Railway.

It should always be noted that Era information is provided as a guide to the time period when a model or livery would have been seen. Normally the era has started at the date of a significant change in the industry such as Grouping in 1923 Nationalisation in 1948, or in livery policy for example by British Railways in 1956.

Since Sectorisation for example the date range of the Eras means that they include within an era many livery changes. As with any modelling activity you should always conduct your own research and ideally work from dated photographs of a particular prototype that you want to recreate.