Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway Hughes rebuilt 8 class (Dreadnought) 4-6-0 no. 1514

Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway Hughes rebuilt 8 class (Dreadnought) 4-6-0 no. 1514. When the Mark Hoofe collection of L&YR model locos came up for sale, I couldn’t resist buying this one. Even though it had been built un-powered and Mark had only used it for display purposes. Good models of this prototype are rare. Built by Peter Fitton, the model’s scratchbuilt tender carries his brass nameplate on the underside as provenance. The loco is probably scratchbuilt also, but doesn’t carry a nameplate. Certainly it is of Peter’s superb build quality, without doubt, but he might have used one of the kits available (Warren Shepherd or Lanky kits) as a basis for scratchbuilding. The loco also carries the signature of Conrad Cooper who has certainly made a lovely job of the fully lined L&YR livery. Since purchase, I have fitted an ABC motor and gear unit, that collects current via the cast metal (drivers of AGH quality) wheels. Loco wheels insulated on one side, tender wheels insulated on the other. The tender chassis is insulated from the tank, therefore the fallplate does not need to be insulated. All in all a very professionally built model of the highest quality, with very good provenance.

BR(SR) Rebuilt Merchant Navy class Pacific no. 35007 Aberdeen Commonwealth

BR(SR) Rebuilt Merchant Navy class Pacific no. 35007 Aberdeen Commonwealth. A recent purchase. Built from the Modern Outline kit by a deceased friend of mine, Michael Heather. The model runs well and is very well built, but I’m not sure who is responsible for the painting. It’s OK, except the transfers on the sides of the running plates have been poorly applied. A visit to Warren Haywood’s paint-shop is a must before this otherwise lovely model goes on sale.

North Eastern Railway Tennant 2-4-0 no. 1477

A famous model with cast iron provenance, the North Eastern Railway Tennant 2-4-0 no. 1477, was expertly scratch built and painted (circa late 1950’s) by no less than the pioneer of O gauge finescale modelling, the great Bernard Miller. With hand painted lettering and numerals in the fully lined NER passenger green livery. Built with very fine quality cast wheels and a John Hart RM (short) type motor no. 862. She collects power from the tender wheels and from plunger pick-ups on the loco. A belt and braces job and there is nothing wrong with that. This model was built for the famous layout of Stanley Norris and featured in the Model Railway News magazine of February 1960. Also featured in the Railway Modeller magazine of January 1971 when on a visit to Wally Mayhew’s Stanley to Stratford St. Andrew layout.

On Bernard’s passing in 1980 she was obtained by Arthur Dewar and is shown on Arthur’s layout in Jack Ray’s book ‘Model Railways and their builders’ published by Atlantic Press. She also featured in the Gauge O Guild Gazette on Arthur’s layout (see page 338 of the link at the bottom of this page). On Arthur’s death she passed onto Wally West and as part of his collection she has now found her way into my collection.

When obtained, her paintwork had deteriorated with age, the black paint on the outside frames in particular had become unstable and had worn away completely in places. Fortunately, most of the green areas have survived well. I have now had Bernard’s paint restored by the museum conservator John Cockcroft, who has managed to preserve the hand painted numbers and lettering. I must say that he has made a superb job of it. A powerful loco, I have had her pulling eight coaches with ease. A good load for a 2-4-0.

https://www.gaugeoguild.com/secured/gazette_archive/Vol11-10//offline/download.pdf

BR (ex SECR) Wainwright H class 0-4-4T no. 31518

BR (ex SECR) Wainwright H class 0-4-4T no. 31518. A lovely model, recently bought from auction in an unfinished plain black livery. The quality and level of detail of this model was so good, all that I have needed to do to it has been to strip the original paint, and get it repainted by Warren Haywood. No remedial work and no repairs required. Portescap RG7 motor and gear unit, Slaters wheels, wiper pickups, all make this loco a very smooth and powerful performer. A C class tender loco, of the same quality, was also acquired at the same time as this H class. Both models have now been sold very quickly.

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.