Author: Mick Bayliss

North British Railway class H Atlantic no. 881 Borderer

Mick Bayliss Locos now sold
North British Railway class H Atlantic no. 881 Borderer
North British Railway class H Atlantic no. 881 Borderer. Built from the Ace Model Products kit by Mike Williams and this is what he has to say about the build and the kit on his website……..“North British Railway Atlantic by ACE Products.  I was asked to build 2 of these locos, one as North British circa 1918 and the other as LNER circa 1932.  I elected to build them together.  The tenders were built first, using split axles, uninsulated wheels and a perspex block isolating the frames.  There was no information on the tender parts regarding tool boxes, water gauge, hand brake, etc.  this had to be sourced from elsewhere.The loco frames were made up and the driving wheels added to check for square, so far so good!  I then added the trailing wheels.  Even with the elongated slot the wheels were 5 mm above the rail head.  was this deliberate?  A cunning NBR plan to transfer weight to the coupled wheels?  No – just another problem to sort out.  That is how the build went on, problem after problem.  Some easy to solve, others more difficult.  The instructions are poor, with wrong information and page 3 doesn’t even apply to the NBR Atlantic!  I had to replace some of the etches, firebox and smoke box.  On the tender axle box castings the spring wasn’t in line with the box and had to be cut apart and fitted separately.  Parts of the build – the distinctive lubricator and the trailing axle brake gear are not even mentioned in the paperwork.  These had to be scratch built.This kit is very difficult to build, particularly in respect of the amount that has to be scratch built.  It is not a good advert for the ACE brand”.

What I can add is that even though the kit and the build has caused Mike massive problems, he has made a superb job. He has fitted an ABC motor and gear unit, which allows the model to run very freely and smoothly. Expertly painted by Paul Moore. See more photos of this model and more of Paul’s work on the 62C Models website, or on Paul’s flicker page.

Highland Railway David Jones Strath class 4-4-0 no. 91 Strathspey

Mick Bayliss Locos now sold
Highland Railway David Jones Strath class 4-4-0 no. 91 Strathspey in Drummond’s 1st livery. Superbly built and painted by David Thompson from the Lochgorm etchings and Laurie Griffin castings, powered by an ABC motor/gear unit and wiper pick-ups on the loco driving wheels and on the tender wheels. A lovely model, found on Ebay, would you believe, just requiring a small and easy soldered repair to the tender coal rails.

BR (ex LMS) rebuilt Royal Scot class no. 46156 The South Wales Borderer

Mick Bayliss Locos now sold
BR (ex LMS) rebuilt Royal Scot class no. 46156 The South Wales Borderer
BR (exLMS) rebuilt Royal Scot class no. 46156 The South Wales Borderer. Built from the “Just like The Real Thing” kit, with Slaters wheels, wiper pick-ups on the driving wheels of the loco and tender wheels, powering a Slaters GB40L gear and motor unit. This model was found, in a bit of an unfinished state, but reasonably well built, unpainted, only 90% complete, but without any damage, amongst a job-lot of other modelling parts and equipment. I would imagine that the unknown builder is now deceased.
Now, saved from an unknown fate and finished to my standards by myself, with painting and light weathering by Warren Haywood, she is looking proud and as pretty as a picture.

BR (ex LMS) Stanier class 5MT 4-6-0 no. 45299

Mick Bayliss Locos now sold
BR (ex LMS) Stanier class 5MT 4-6-0 no. 45299
BR (ex LMS) Stanier class 5MT 4-6-0 no. 45299. A model bought recently from an auction in Cumbria. A chancy on-line buy. From the two photos on the auction web-site it looked to be fairly well built, but it’s original paintwork looked “play worn” to say the least. On collection (I was on holiday in Cumbria at the time) when I could hold it and feel the build quality, I was well pleased. The model has been built from the Tower Models kit, (construction methods very similar to a DJH kit) with Slaters wheels, a DJH chain driven gear and motor unit and power collection by the American method. The wheels and motion were very free running when turned by fingers, unusual for a gear unit of this type, I thought? Yes the chain was broken. Not so good, but at least I was satisfied that the Walchearts valve gear was robust and should work well under power. When back home, I stripped the loco down, the paintwork was stripped and a new Slaters GB40L gear and motor unit has been fitted. Now fully rebuilt and with superb quality paintwork by Warren Haywood, doesn’t she look good? I particularly like how he has achieved the change of paint finish texture on the smokebox. Warren’s choice of words for it during painting “this black 5 is an absolute belter, as good as I have seen from a DJH model”. A chance well worth taking.

BR (ex LSWR) Drummond T9 class 4-4-0 no. 30709

Mick Bayliss Locos now sold
BR (ex LSWR) Drummond T9 class 4-4-0 no. 30709
BR (ex LSWR) Drummond T9 class 4-4-0 no. 30709. A model which I bought part built at the recent Gauge O Guild show at Barnsley. Described to me as being built from the Martin Finney kit, the loco body and tender most definitely are, but the loco chassis most definitely was not and had been built fairly crudely from scratch. (Why? What happened to the Finney chassis? We may never know). Anyway the Finney parts looked to be well built, so I bought it. As luck would have it, at almost the same time, a Slaters kit for a T9 chassis appeared on Ebay. So I bought that as well. I built the chassis with Slaters wheels, an ABC mini motor and gears unit, also using Laurie Griffin castings where necessary and a static representation of my own for the inside motion. The new chassis was then married to the loco body. I completed the tender and loco body, again using more of Laurie’s superb castings. All finished off with a top quality paint and weathering job by Warren Haywood. Here is the result, in my opinion a fabulous model of one of the very last withered arm T9’s.

BR(ER) Gresley B17 class 4-6-0 no. 61669 Barnsley

Mick Bayliss Locos now sold
BR(ER) Gresley B17 class 4-6-0 no. 61669 Barnsley
BR(ER) Gresley B17 class 4-6-0 no. 61669 Barnsley. This fine model was built from scratch in nickel silver by Bill Davis in 2007, his builders plate is on the underside as provenance. With quality cast iron wheels by Dennis Leakey, turned to fine scale standards by Steve Ross, an ABC Mini 7S gears and Maxon motor unit and with power collection by the American method. John Cockcroft takes the credit for the very nice paint job. Bill is a good friend of mine and he prefers to build in multiples. He tells me that this model was built as one of four, all commissions, the others for supporters of Manchester United, Leicester City and Doncaster Rovers. 

LSWR Adams T6 class 4-4-0 no. 680 (John Brierley/Les Richards)

Mick Bayliss Locos now sold

This superb scratchbuilt model has just been added to my collection. Built by John Brierley and painted by Les Richards, these locomotives were the last to be designed by William Adams for the crack Pullman car Bournmouth expresses of the London and South Western Railway. This model, built using AGH wheels and a Ron Chaplin motor and gears unit, is clearly right up there with the other top quality scratch built models of the collection.

BR (WR) Collett King class 4-6-0 no. 6007 King William III

Mick Bayliss Locos now sold
BR (WR) Collett King class 4-6-0 no. 6007 King William III

BR (WR) Collett King class 4-6-0 no. 6007 King William III. This model is by Masterpiece Models and was constructed and painted in South Korea with DCC control with sound. The build quality and paint finish is second to none and the model, although second hand, is still in absolutely mint condition. The tender is fitted with a removable coal insert and fire irons. The cab has very realistic crew. Since photography the smokebox door has been fitted with an 81A (Old Oak Common) shedplate. This model is for sale. If interested see the Models for sale category of this website.