Modelling News

28-May-2004

Paul Bailey of DJB Engineering is pressing ahead with plans for a Gauge 3 live steam LNWR 5ft 6in 2-4-2 tank and has already completed much of the design work. For reliability and ease of use it will be a simple engine with gas firing and slip eccentrics. It sounds wonderful and they hope to have a completed model within nine months - incredible. The price being mentioned at this early stage is very reasonable and we can’t wait to see one.

21-May-2004

We noticed an old and incomplete Gauge 3 live steam model of a Great Central 04 ROD on e-bay this week. It sold for £138 which sounds very cheap, but it was unfinished, had no tender and the condition and workmanship completely unknown. If it was sound it should make an interesting and useful model that would look good on a train of 50 wagons – If the purchaser wishes to get in touch we’d offer him a discount for fifty kits!

We still have trouble with people not knowing what Gauge 3 is, some experienced modellers insisting on referring to it as 3in gauge! It is of course 2½in gauge, the designation “3” being a sequence of Gauges 0, 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 standardised in 1899. Gauges 2 and 4 are virtually extinct now and Gauge 5 (4¾in – I think) evolved into the 5in gauge that we know today. Perhaps we should call it “Gauge 2½”, but its been called Gauge 3 for 105 years!

14-May-2004

We always welcome comments and suggestions from customers and as a result of one comment we now have a new, longer coil spring for use in buffers. Anyone who has bought a kit and would prefer these springs, just give us a call and we’ll pop a set in the post. We are also in the process of improving our LNWR 7-ton axlebox, the wording on the front of which was indistinct. We are modifying the pattern, so the next batch will have better detail, more like the LNWR 10-ton box which is legible (just – with a lens!).

We recently made up a length of the new Gauge 3 Society track. Their web site hardly mentions it, but this track really is a great step forward for Gauge 3. With individual plastic sleepers, each with two chairs cast in and a pair of spacer-bars to keep the adjacent sleeper the correct distance apart, they slide onto the rail really easily and it costs less than £9 per yard complete including rail. Very nice indeed. If you are even thinking about Gauge 3 its worth investing in a yard to try out – then we hope you’ll be tempted to buy a wagon or two to sit on it!

7-May-2004

We are looking into the possibility of making a kit for the GNR 8-ton van. This is a small vehicle, contemporary with our LNWR van, has outside framing and four end-stanchions. If you might be interested in one of these please get in touch. This is for feasibility purposes and we ask for no commitment or obligation. The price would be about £100 complete.

We now have four types of axleboxes for sale: LNWR 7-ton grease; LNWR 10-ton grease; RCH Ellis grease; RCH No.116 oil. Four further types are in preparation: Attock’s RCH and L&Y grease; GNR 8-ton; LNWR 10-ton oil and, thanks to the extreme generosity of Doug Hewson, RCH 1923 12-ton ‘split’ oil.

 

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