This model was bought from auction in a painted condition that, lets say, was not very sympathetic to such a well loved class of locomotive. It had originally been built to a professional quality and painted in British Railways crimson lake livery as no. 46245 City of London, complete with cabside yellow stripe. A condition that I well remember seeing the full size loco at Derby works open day in 1964. The model must have looked truly wonderful and would have been the envy of most O gauge modellers……….. until someone saw fit to overspray it in silver paint. Apparently for a film set. Fortunately and the one saving grace, they masked off the chassis, cylinders, wheels and motion of the loco.
Over the past few months I have stripped off all of the paint from the main body of the loco and tender. I have ensured that the model is now in fully working condition and repaired any areas and added extra detail that the model needed to bring it up to my own personal exacting standards. John Cockcroft has made a wonderful job of repainting (less yellow stripe) and she is now in better than original condition. As a passionate collector of fine scale models I am very proud to be responsible for buying and restoring to it’s former glory this fine model.