Description
BR(ER) Gresley A3 class Pacific no. 60036 Colombo. Very well built from the Martin Finney kit with an ABC motor/gear unit, Slaters wheels, plunger pick-ups on the loco with additional current collection from the tender. This is another of my recent auction buys. It was originally well painted in BR green as Night Hawk, but the style of tender was not historically accurate for a loco in that livery. In the early 1950’s tenders of this style had the front end rebuilt and I could not be sure that any A3’s with the later green livery had the earlier un-rebuilt tender. That is the reason why I made the difficult decision to strip the original paint, made a few repairs and had it repainted and weathered by Warren Haywood in the early 1950’s blue livery which is historically correct for the unrebuilt tender. In my opinion he has made a fabulous job of it. In the near future I will have another Finney A3, Sir Frederick Banbury, on these pages, that has the rebuilt tender to make a comparison. Recent interest in this model has convinced me to add a photo of the cab interior and also pointed out to me that the tender looked a little overfilled with coal. These issues have now been addressed.
