Locos now sold

BR(ER) Gresley B17/4 class 4-6-0 no. 61647 Helmingham Hall

Mick Bayliss Locos now sold 24th May 20258th June 2025

BR(ER) Gresley B17/4 class 4-6-0 no. 61647 Helmingham Hall. A recent acquisition from Ebay (risky I know) and I have to admit that this is one of the best kit built models that these pages have seen. That is some admission as I have built many of them myself. Built to professional standards from the DMR kit and painted by Conrad Cooper, his name signed on the underside of the running plate as provenance. Other than light lubrication I have had to do nothing to this model to get it to my exacting standards. A risk that has paid off. Slaters wheels and an ABC motor and gear unit with current collection by plunger pickups. I ran this model a week ago at the Poachers test track in Lincoln, and with six blood and custard coaches in tow it performed faultlessly. Most of the B17/4 class were footballers, 61647 being I believe the only member of the sub-class that was named after an East Anglian country home.

LMS (ex Highland Railway) Jones goods 4-6-0 no. 17928

Mick Bayliss Locos now sold 16th April 202516th April 2025

LMS (ex Highland Railway) Jones goods 4-6-0 no. 17928. Another very unusual class of loco to see modelled is the Jones goods. This model has been well built (from a kit, not sure which?), painted and superbly weathered in the plain black LMS goods livery. With Slaters wheels (correct flangless drivers on the centre axle), the front driving axle has hornblocks and guides and is compensated with the centre axle. An ABC motor and gears unit mounted on the fixed rear axle provides the power, and wipers collect the current, it now works very well indeed. Much better than when I received it, even though it had been described by the seller as an excellent performer. Additional weight has also been added to the boiler and firebox to give greater adhesion. I’m happy with it now and it provides something different to my collection.

Highland Railway Jones Loch class 4-4-0 no. 132 Loch Naver

Mick Bayliss Locos now sold 7th April 202527th February 2026

Highland Railway Jones Loch class 4-4-0 no. 132 Loch Naver. A very unusual class of model loco to be offered for sale. This lovely model has been built and painted to top quality (provenance of the builder unknown at present) using a kit (probably Lochgorm) as a basis of construction. Slaters wheels and an ABC motor and gear unit, using current collection by the American (my preference) method, which uses the tender wheels to collect from one rail and the loco wheels to collect from the other. The gear unit is positioned on the fixed rear driving axle. The front driving axle has hornblocks and guides and is compensated with the trailing axle of the bogie. Very clever and works well. The kit is not designed like that, so a fair amount of scratch building has gone into this model by the very competent builder. The leading and centre axles of the tender are also compensated together. The trailing axle is fixed. The inside cab detail of the backhead is of a quality that most modellers (including me) can only dream of. I have models in my collection that have been built by names like Geoff Holt and Laurie Griffin. The quality of this model is up there with those names.

Great Northern Railway Ivatt class C1 Atlantic no. 990 Henry Oakley

Mick Bayliss Locos now sold, Wally West scratchbuilt locos 28th March 202528th March 2025

GNR Ivatt class C1 4-4-2 no. 990 Henry Oakley. Built in 1966 from scratch by Walter (Wally) West, using a Pittman DC81 motor and gear unit. With the knowledge of the friendship between Wally and Bernard Miller at the time of build, it is very likely that the wheel castings are from the Miller Swan & Co. range. The split axles and insulated spacers between the frames allow power to be collected from the tender wheels, via sprung plungers/tender buffers, connecting with contact faces on the back of the loco. All brake blocks are made from non conductive material to eliminate shorting across the brake rigging. All loco driving and tender axles have sprung hornblocks. Superbly painted by Bernard Miller with hand painted lettering and numerals in the fully lined GNR passenger green livery.
I have a dislike of collecting models of preserved locos, but as the model is in it’s short smokebox (saturated) condition and the preserved loco has a long smokebox it is not a model of the loco as preserved. In fact the preserved loco wasn’t superheated until 1923, so I think I’m correct in saying that it would not have carried the GNR livery, as it has since it has been preserved, whilst it had a long smokebox.
A letter has come to light dated March 10th 1966 where Bernard tells Wally “I am delighted to hear about the GN Atlantic and shall look forward to seeing it very much indeed. Wally M. (Mayhew) tells me that you are also building one for him”.
This model, according to Wally’s widow Mary, was his favorite and for it’s age has been rarely used. The paintwork has needed no repairs and it still runs like a dream. The Gauge O Guild Gazette of January 1968 lists a “GNR 4-4-2 (Mr. West)”, on display at the A.G.M. of 1967 and of January 1969 a “GNR 4-4-2 Klondyke by W. West”, is listed as being on display at the A.G.M. of 1968.

Southern Railway (Isle of Wight section) ex LSWR Adams O2 class 0-4-4T no. W21 Sandown

Mick Bayliss Locos now sold 20th March 20258th June 2025

Southern Railway (Isle of Wight section) ex LSWR Adams O2 class 0-4-4T no. W21. Very well built from the Connoisseur Models kit, with Slaters wheels and a Portescap RG7 motor and gear unit with current collection by plunger pick-ups. Recently modified for 2 rail operation with new insulated wheels. The original paint was stripped and the model has now been beautifully repainted by Warren Haywood. This model was originally built as finescale 3 rail skate pick-up operation.

BR (ex LSWR) Adams Radial 415 class 4-4-2T no. 30584

Mick Bayliss Locos now sold 24th February 202524th February 2025

BR (ex LSWR) Adams Radial 415 class 4-4-2T no. 30584. I have just acquired this lovely model in an exchange, and when I was told some of it’s history, bells started to ring in my mind. Built from the Martin Finney kit, with Slaters wheels, an ABC motor and gear unit and wiper pickups to the tops of the driving wheels for current collection. I remember this superb model being built. The builder was a very good friend of mine who taught me a lot about 7mm loco modelling, Graham Jaques, now deceased. He had been asked to build it by another good friend Mike Heather, also now deceased. Mike was one of the founder members of the Poachers club in Lincoln and was a very good modeller himself. But he had bought so many kits and his health was not great, he knew that he just would not live long enough to build them all, hense he asked Graham to build this Adams Radial for him. Graham and I used to travel together from Leicester to Lincoln to play trains every third Sunday of the month (I still do). Why am I prepared to sell such a lovely model that means so much to me? Good question.

Midland Railway Johnson 1327 class 4-4-0 no. 1344

Mick Bayliss Locos now sold 22nd February 20253rd December 2025

Midland Railway Johnson 1327 class 4-4-0 no. 1344. This model has been beautifully built and painted to a professional standard from the Janick kit, with fully working inside motion. The original loco was built for the Midland Railway by Dubs & Co. of Glasgow in 1877.

Bought from auction recently, the model was not in working order and had only been used for display. The wiper pickups, collecting current from the driving wheels were creating serious shorts on the splashers. Those pickups have now been discarded and replaced with wipers on the tops of the tender wheels. The model now performs superbly and on test at the Poachers track in Lincoln, she was able to haul six bogie coaches with ease. Good going for a 4-4-0.