Loco commissions

Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway Aspinal Highflyer class Atlantic no. 1403

Mick Bayliss Loco commissions, My loco collection

Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway Aspinal Highflyer class Atlantic no. 1403. Built and basically painted by myself on commission from the Lanky kit and expertly lined out by John Cockcroft. The model has Slaters wheels, an ABC motor and gear unit and collects power by my favoured American method. The gentleman that asked me to build has now decided to sell his considerable collection of L&Y models, giving me the opportunity to buy this one back. It is a lovely model and I am very happy to be able to add it to my collection.

North Eastern Railway P2 class 0-6-0 no. 1098

Mick Bayliss Loco commissions
North Eastern Railway P2 class 0-6-0 no. 1098. Built by myself on commission from the very comprehensive Piercy Models kit, which includes static inside valve gear and a wealth of inside cab detail. With Slaters wheels, plunger pick-ups and a motor and gearbox combination by Premier Components. This model is now ready for testing at the Poachers test track in Lincoln, then if all’s well it will be handed to my client. Work was started on the build of this model on February 28th 2022 and finished to the stage shown on the 11th August. Build time 82 hours. 

North Eastern Railway Raven class D 4-4-4T no. 2143

Mick Bayliss Loco commissions
NER class D 4-4-4T no. 2143
North Eastern Railway Raven class D 4-4-4T no. 2143

Built on a commission basis from the very comprehensive DJH kit and fitted with Slaters wheels and the excellent Slaters GB30R-3M gearbox with a Mashima motor. Many parts of this model are cast in white metal, the smokebox/boiler/firebox has been usual for DJH kits for as long as I have been building, but this kit has the cab floor cast as a drop in from below casting, to which the backhead can be screwed, making a well detailed unit. The cab roof and splasher box castings are well detailed and everything fits together well. Each of the bogie frames are also one piece castings, the leading one has a very clever wiper power pickup idea, designed and incorporated into the kit. All in all making a quick to build model and recommended for the more inexperienced model builder. The superb paintwork is by Warren Hayward.

LNER Gresley A1 class Pacific no. 4479 Robert the Devil

Mick Bayliss Loco commissions, Wally West scratchbuilt locos
Robert the Devil

Robert the Devil
LNER Gresley A1 class Pacific no. 4479 Robert the Devil. Built (to 95% completion) from scratch by Wally West circa 1980’s using driving wheel castings by Alan Harris and a massive Pittman gear and motor unit. For a reason unknown Robert the Devil (and his twin brother Great Northern) were left unfinished until in early 2020, when I was commissioned by Wally’s family to complete the models. This entailed, in the main, the soldered assembly of cab parts and the fitting of all handrails on the boiler, cab and tender. It also entailed the preparation of the model for final painting by Warren Haywood. This model is now in the possession of Wally’s daughter Jane, as a memento of her father’s modelling skills.

RSH 0-6-0ST Aberconway

Mick Bayliss Loco commissions, Wally West scratchbuilt locos

Aberconway, built from scratch with fully working inside motion, circa late 1990’s by Wally West using wheels turned from good quality castings. The split axles and insulated spacers between the frames allow power to be collected through the non-insulated wheels and the frames to the JH motor and a double reduction gear unit. All brake blocks are made from non conductive material to eliminate shorting across the brake rigging. All loco axles have sprung hornblocks. Superbly painted in fully lined green livery by Alan Brackenborough. The detail of the hand applied lining in particular should be admired. A superbly built and painted model in every respect. The full size locomotive, which Wally fired as a lad, was a Robert Stephenson & Hawthorns 0-6-0ST no. 6942 of 1938 and worked at Cadeby colliery near Doncaster. She was scrapped in late 1963. I have had the model working with my rake of 20 mineral wagons and brake van. She has a modest top speed which is perfect for the job and would certainly pull twice that load, quietly and with no fuss.

BR(SR) N15 class 4-6-0 no. 30788 Sir Urre of the Mount

Mick Bayliss Loco commissions
30788 Sir Urre of the Mount

30788 Sir Urre of the Mount
BR(SR) King Arthur class 4-6-0 no. 30788 Sir Urre of the Mount

Built from the Gladiator kit, which was originally designed by Adrian Rowland under the North Star Design label. I started building this model on the 11th November 2019 and finished it on April 30th, taking 131 hours. It has been built with sprung hornblocks on the first and second axles, otherwise straight from the box, with Slaters wheels and an ABC motor/gears unit. The superb painting and lining is by Warren Hayward.

During the final stages of the build I got myself into a spot of bother with the left side motion. Throughout each stage of the build I had kept ensuring that there were no tight spots, with the coupling rods, then with the slide bars and crossheads, as any experienced builder does. Then when it came to the Walchearts valve gear. I built up each set exactly the same, (other than opposite hand of course) and fitted the right side first with no problems or tight spots. But when it came to the left side, something was wrong, too tight when the crosshead was at it’s end of the stroke on the slidebars. It took me some time to find the problem. As the right side had gone together so well, it couldn’t be a fault with the etches and I checked each side was built exactly the same. I can only put the cause down to tolerances (there is always a plus or minus tolerance on the location of everything) stacking-up all one way, needing the crosshead link to be extended by 1.5mm. All’s well now and he runs very smoothly.

When this kit was originally released, I was in the market to buy a King Arthur to build for myself and had a choice between the Modern Outline Kit and the North Star Design. I chose the MOK and enjoyed building it and have never regretted it. So when asked to build this on commission I looked forward to making the comparison. I can now advise that the MOK is a superior product, but is a good deal more expensive to buy. Sir Urre of the Mount here has built into a very nice model and I would say is good value for money. You pays yer money and makes yer choice.

Hawthorn Leslie 0-6-0ST Sprotborough

Mick Bayliss Loco commissions, Wally West scratchbuilt locos

Sprotborough, built from scratch with fully working inside motion, circa late 1990’s by Wally West using wheels turned from good quality castings. The split axles and insulated spacers between the frames allow power to be collected through the non-insulated wheels and the frames to the JH motor and a double reduction gear unit. All brake blocks are made from non conductive material to eliminate shorting across the brake rigging. All loco axles have sprung hornblocks. Superbly painted in fully lined green livery by Alan Brackenborough. The detail of the hand applied lining in particular should be admired. A superbly built and painted model in every respect. The full size locomotive, which Wally fired as a lad, was a Hawthorn Leslie 0-6-0ST no. 3658 of 1926 and worked at Cadeby colliery near Doncaster. She was scrapped in June 1966. I have had the model working with my rake of 20 mineral wagons and brake van. She has a modest top speed which is perfect for the job and would certainly pull twice that load, quietly and with no fuss.

North Eastern Railway W class 4-6-2T (Whitby Tank) no. 688

Mick Bayliss Loco commissions
Whitby Tank no. 688
Whitby Tank no. 688
North Eastern Railway class W 4-6-2T no. 688. Built by myself, predominantly from a spare set of nickel silver etchings from Nick Dunhill, but as is always the case, a fair amount of the build had to be from scratch. Most lost wax castings are from the Laurie Griffin range, including the representation of static inside motion. Wheels are Slaters and the motor and gearbox unit are from ABC. The lovely paintwork, with lining by bow pen, has been expertly applied by John Cockcroft. Number plates by Diane Carney. The etches were collected from Nick at Kettering 2019, work started on the 28th May 2019 and was completed on the 10th February 2020, with 125 hours booked for the build, exclusive of painting.