My loco collection

GWR Churchward Saint class 4-6-0 no. 2908 Lady of Quality

Mick Bayliss My loco collection

GWR Churchward Saint class 4-6-0 no. 2908 Lady of Quality. Built from the DJH Piercy kit, with a chain drive gear unit, Slaters wheels and plunger pickups to the driving wheels and (belt and braces) wiper pickups to the tender wheels. Since the kit was released some years ago I had admired the good looks of the loco and quality of the kit, so when a part built kit appeared on Ebay at a reasonable price I bought it, tender ready built, Severnmill “Lady of Quality” nameplates included. I have now recently had Bob Walker, of the Poachers group, to complete the build for me, and what a good job he has made of it. Superb painting by Warren Haywood adds the finishing touch. The full size Lady of Quality circa 1935, was one of the early Saints with lever reverse and stepped frames at the cab end. Bob has modified the standard kit to incorporate these unusual features superbly.

Midland Railway Deeley class 4P 4-4-0 no. 1035

Mick Bayliss My loco collection

Midland Railway Deeley class 4P 4-4-0 no. 1035. A recent Ebay find. Built from scratch with superb fully working inside motion. No provenance as to the builder but he certainly knew how to make a good model. I had it running at the recent Poachers running session and it performed without fault with my rake of five of Bernard Miller’s Midland bogie coaches. However, the livery is not perfect. The lining on the wheels is worn in places, the cylinders have lost their lining transfers and the numbers on the tender are dull. The crimson lake of the livery is a lovely deep colour and is smooth with no imperfections, (again no provenance of the painter). With more TLC and as time permits this impressive model has the potential to rise to another level of quality.

Unusually, this is a model of one of the few Midland Compounds that were built with shallow frames. Henry Fowler didn’t like those and had them all rebuilt with the deeper frames of the LMS compounds. Most models of this class are built from kits, which as far as I know, all have the deeper frames.

LNER (ex GNR) Ivatt class D2 4-4-0 no. 4390

Mick Bayliss My loco collection

LNER (ex Great Northern Railway) Ivatt class D2 4-4-0 no. 4390. Going back around 30 years to my early days of 7mm modelling, I joined the East Midlands O gauge group. In those days and with thanks to Nelson Keen and Les Hargreaves, we had test track running sessions at Silverdale in Nottingham (we still do), Nuthall and Willington Power Station. One member that I remember well, because he always ran lovely models, was a chap by the name of Tony Evans (now sadly deceased, I’m sure) and one of those models was an LNER D2. I am now lucky enough to own that model. Built from scratch with superb inside motion by Peter Everton, (his builders plate “Peter Everton Wickersley Made in England” is on the underside as provenance) and undoubtedly painted by Alan Brackenborough. “J.A.Evans” is also painted on the underside of the loco and tender. A top quality model with cast iron provenance and personal history to boot. It has been around the houses quite a bit, two other owners at least as I know of, but she is still in superb condition with no build defects and just a small paint defect, virtually unnoticeable on top of the running plate left side.

BR (ex LMS) Stanier class 5MT 4-6-0 no. 45353

Mick Bayliss Model for sale, My loco collection

BR (ex LMS) Stanier class 5MT 4-6-0 no. 45353. Very well built from the Javelin kit with Staters wheels and an ABC motor and gear unit and wiper pickups. Accurately painted in the livery that many black 5’s went into after nationisation of the British railways in the late 1940’s early 50’s and before the lovely LNWR style lining was applied on first repaint. Beautifully and skillfully weathered. No provenance of builder/painter/weatherer is known unfortunately. The O gauge finescale fraternity owe David Andrews for a great many quality locomotive kits. Many people wouldn’t realize that he designed the models that formed the original Gladiator range of kits and was joined by Alan Bullock, who later developed the Javelin range, the kits in which were also designed by David. At about the same time David sold the Gladiator range to Geoff Stratford, who continued to develop that range before selling it to the present owners Trisha and Dave Hill. David then concentrated on designing his new range of “David Andrews Locomotive kits”, until his retirement some years ago.

BR (ex War Department) Stanier class 8F 2-8-0 no. 48774

Mick Bayliss Model for sale, My loco collection

BR (ex War Department) Stanier class 8F 2-8-0 no. 48774. A top quality model in all departments. Kit – David Andrews. Build quality – superb. Motor/gears – ABC. Power collection – American method. Paint quality – superb with red inside frames. Weathering quality – astonishing. Good looks – judge for yourself. Performance – very good. If I had the ability to produce this model myself (I wish) I wouldn’t have done it any differently. Bought from an auction (risky) and I cannot fault it. Even the slightly drunken lamp irons at the front are now standing to attention. Strange how I need to see photographs before spotting slight anomalies like that.

BR Standard class 2 2-6-0 no. 78013

Mick Bayliss Model for sale, My loco collection
BR Standard class 2 2-6-0 no. 78013
BR Standard class 2 2-6-0 no. 78013. Built from the DJH kit, Slaters wheels and a Portescap RG7 motor and gear unit, with power collection by plunger pickups. I have to be honest my ignorance tripped myself up with this recent auction buy. I have a commission for the similar Ivatt class 2 and without being aware of the differences I bought this Standard class 2 with the intention of modifying it into the Ivatt. Foolish boy. I now know the differences and realise that I made a big mistake. If there is one thing that I have learned in life, it is if you make a mistake, get yourself out of it again. I think my photos of this model prove that it is not a mistake anymore. It is common knowledge that this DJH kit, if built out of the box, is not accurate in that the cylinders stick out too far. I have modified the cylinder mountings on my model to overcome this inaccuracy. Painted by myself and numbered to be one of the Leicester (15A) based class 2’s of the early 1960’s.

BR Peppercorn A1 class Pacific no. 60114 W.P.Allen

Mick Bayliss Model for sale, My loco collection
BR Peppercorn A1 class Pacific no. 60114 W.P.Allen. This lovely model is from a kit, factory built by DJH Grandspot. However, in my opinion it was a case of the tail wagging the dog, (or in this case the client telling the builder) as it was built as 60116 Hal O’ the Wynd, and I bought it as that. However, on research, Mr. Peppercorns 60116 was not named when originally built and wasn’t named until the loco had been repainted in BR blue livery. I like my models to be as proto-typically correct as possible. The only A1 class loco to carry a name whilst it was in apple green livery was 60114, hence why this model found its way into the works to be renumbered and renamed as you see it here. Talking of livery, 60114 carried apple green between when built in August 1948 and November 1949, when he was repainted in BR passenger blue. The warm and sunny weather when the model was photographed has made the livery look more like Muscat green, see the loco “Northern Rock” on the R&ER, a livery that I think looks fabulous on that loco, but not quite right for 60114, so perhaps re-photography on a not so sunny day, or a light weathering may be required? Mr W.P. Allen was a high ranking trades union official of the time. Apologies to the man, but I prefer the name Hal O’ the Wynd, just as the original client did, obviously. Also noteworthy are the curly topped sixes to the number. DJH, I’m sorry to say used straight topped sixes, so they had to be corrected also.

LMS (ex Caledonian Railway) Dugald Drummond 294 class (Jumbo) 0-6-0 no. 17324

Mick Bayliss Model for sale, My loco collection
LMS (ex Caledonian Railway) Dugald Drummond 294 class (Jumbo) 0-6-0 no. 17324
LMS (ex Caledonian Railway) Dugald Drummond 294 class (Jumbo) 0-6-0 no. 17324. A recent purchase from Ebay that I just could not resist. Built from scratch by Bob Jamieson. I am always hesitant about buying on-line, unseen, but the photos and description of this model, and the fact that I had bought from the vendor before gave me confidence that it would be good…..and it certainly is. Even the paint, (before arrival I had said to myself that if the paint is poor I can have it repainted in Caley blue) is too good to strip. I am a great admirer of the late Peter Cowlings coaches, and buy them whenever I can. I have a 5 coach set of ex Caley coaches in LMS fully lined crimson lake livery, that are a perfect match for this Jumbo. Happy days.
Post photo addition, the loco power classification “2” has been added to the cab sides just below the lamp iron, using methfix transfers. Also the dodgy looking “LMS” transfer on the left hand cabside has been replaced, again using methfix.

LNER Gresley V2 class 2-6-2 no. 4791

Mick Bayliss Model for sale, My loco collection
LNER Gresley V2 class 2-6-2 no. 4791
LNER Gresley V2 class 2-6-2 no. 4791. A DJH factory built and painted ready to run model in mint “plus” condition. This superb example features additional chassis details, eg a heavy machined brass frame spacer above the leading drivers, another machined brass spacer above the pony truck and tender wheel wiper current collection to supplement the usual plunger pickups on the loco driving wheels, all added by model engineer Colin Garton. The top quality motor and gear unit assembly is by Ron Chaplin.