Glasgow & South Western Railway Manson 381 class 4-6-0 no. 386

This lovely and very unusual model was built from scratch by the famous Ian Middleditch. Famous because he has won the Gauge O Guild Chairmans trophy for scratch-built models, more times than I have had hot dinners. So he must he good. Built from Nickel silver, with Slaters wheels, a Slaters GB30R-3M motor and gear unit and with power collection by plunger pickups on the loco and with wipers on the bogie tender for good measure. Originally painted by Ian and part of the David Thompson collection. But that paintwork had become scratched, so now stripped, refurbished with the Slaters motor unit, and the new paintwork is by Warren Haywood. At the lack of suitable transfers, he has hand painted the numbers and tender lettering. True artistry.

LNER Gresley A3 class 4-6-2 no. 2752 Spion Kop

LNER Gresley A3 class 4-6-2 no. 2752 Spion Kop. This fabulous model was built from the Martin Finney kit by Graham Varlev, with Slaters wheels, a Portescap RG7 motor and gears unit. Current collection is by the American method, which collects power from one rail via the loco wheels and the other rail by the tender wheels. The drawbar is insulated as it has to be. All loco driving and tender wheels are compensated in true Martin Finney fashion. Paintwork is by Larry Goddard and he has signed his name, together with the builder’s name on the underside of the running plate to give absolute provenance. She runs as quietly and as smoothly as she looks. Regular viewers of these pages might realise that the Gresley A3 class is up there as one of my favourite locomotive classes, whether in LNER green, BR blue, BR green, single chimney, double chimney, smoke deflectors, they always look good to me. A true Gresley masterpiece.

BR (ex LNER) Gresley rebuild of the Holden B12 class no. 61570

BR (ex LNER) Gresley rebuild of the Holden B12 class no. 61570. This refurbished model was originally very well built from the superb Connoisseur Models kit, with a noisy (read on) motor and gear unit, Slaters wheels (centre drivers are flangeless, which should help the model to negotiate tighter curves) and power collection by plunger pickups on loco and tender. This model was a recent and risky on-line auction buy. To be honest, not that risky for me really, as I had previously bought another model from this seller, so I was already aware of the very good build quality of the models that he was selling, on behalf of the widow of a deceased friend of his. Not too far for me to travel to collect either, which reduced the risk even more, as not needing to use the postal service. Now stripped of original paint, refurbished where necessary, an ABC motor and gear unit replacing the noisy one, a top quality repaint, light weathering and a new identity by Warren Haywood, doesn’t she look good?

BR (ex SECR) Wainwright C class 0-6-0 no. 31575

A lovely model, recently bought from auction in an unfinished plain black livery. The quality of this model was so good, all that I have needed to do to it has been to strip the original paint, repaint it and add transfers. No remedial work and no repairs required. The level of detail is so good that I now regret not having it professionally repainted into the fully lined SECR green livery, polished dome and all. In fact it wouldn’t be too much trouble to strip my new paint that you see here and still have that fabulous livery applied by Warren Haywood…..food for thought. Portescap RG7 motor and gear unit, Slaters wheels, wiper pickups on loco and tender, all make this loco a very smooth and powerful performer. An H class tank, of the same quality, was also acquired at the same time as this C class. It has already been stripped and will be professionally repainted as 31518 at the request of a friend who has reserved it.

GWR de Glehn compound 4-4-2 no. 102 La France

GWR de Glehn compound 4-4-2 no. 102 La France. Built from the superb Modern Outline Kit, with Slaters wheels and an ABC motor and gear unit. An existing client commissioned me to build this model for him. However, a colleague at Poachers and model builder himself, Bob Walker, had built one of these kits recently, quite honestly I bottled it and passed the buck onto him. I have no regrets as he has built this challenging kit brilliantly. Warren Haywood’s paintwork has made this into a stunning model, which has been tested with six coaches and just glides around the Poachers test track. I should take some of the credit as I did all of the organising, running around, added the coal in the tender and even put it in the box prior to handover. A very successful team effort!!

The full size locomotive was built in 1903 specifically for G.J.Churchward of the GWR by Société Alsacienne de Constructions Mécaniques for comparison with his own design two cylinder Saint/Scott class Atlantic locomotive Albion. It did not provide any significant improvement in either performance or economy.

La France was repainted into the standard GWR green livery in 1905, rebuilt with the GWR standard no.1 boiler in 1916 and was withdrawn in 1926.