5 - 7mm Locomotives

BANWY VALLEY LOCOS

For my first attempt at 7mm locos, I bought two of the PECO Glyn Valley kits, as you could hide any mechanism under the skirts. In fact I used Hornby 0-6-0 mechs, which performed very well, particularly with the extra weight of the white-metal bodies. To provide variety, I built one with the kit front spectacle plate - on the right, without the condenser pipes - and one with the filled-in spectacle plate that the GVT had, plus condenser pipes. Wooden dumb-buffers were fitted to match the buffers on the coaches.

My first scratch-built loco in 7mm was based on the Corris Railway No 4, later Sir Hayden of the TR. Construction was mainly in plasticard - the saddle tank was made from one of those plastic canisters that 35mm film cassettes used to come in. The mechanism under this was an ancient cut down Triang 0-6-0 , fitted with Romford drivers and with tiny trailing wheels added. Not the best of runners. As with the PECO locos, name plates were made up from Slaters plastic letters

The firm of DJH produced an early 7mm narrow gauge white-metal kit for the FR England loco. It wasn't terribly well regarded, but I bought one from the 7mm second-hand stall and gave it a go. The body castings took a lot of fettling to get a decent result. The tender was scratched out of plasticard to match. Roy Link very kindly gave me a motor and gears, as the kit ones had disappeared, and it was a good runner on Banwy Valley Mark 3. The loco was awarded the John Stitson Shield for Best Kitbuilt at the 1991 7mmNGA AGM, so there should be a better photo of it in Narrow Lines.

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BAIGENT'S LOCOS

The first loco to work in Baigent's Yard was the S&D white-metal kit of the WDLR Dick-Kerr PE loco. A very heavy body, it was put on the mechanism from the Corris loco and ran quite well. Too big for Baigent's Basin, though, and sold early on. I wrote up the build in Narrow Lines - can't remember the issue.

Also built for Baigent's Yard was this model of the Andrew Barclay fireless loco that worked at the John Lysaght steelworks. The prototype was 3 foot gauge, of course, so the wheels are well set back underneath. I had thoughts of buying 21mm Romford axles and building out the frames, but never got any further. The mechanism is a cut down Triang, re-wheeled with Romford drivers. These had every other spoke cut out and the survivors thickened up with car body filler. The body was made from plasticard, although the steam reservoir is the plastic holder from a deoderant stick. I was living in Germany at the time, and went to the local apoteke to buy a suitably-sized stick. The locals looked a bit taken aback at the sight of a gentleman choosing his deodorant with the aid of a vernier calliper, but once they realized that I was English they shrugged and went off muttering about crazy Englanders.

This loco was awarded 3rd place in the Scratchbuilt catagory at the 1991 7mmNGA AGM, and sits on a shelf over my desk. The name plates were home etched, but the makers plate was bought in. I wrote a little article about this build for the Broadly Narrow Gauge newsletter. It's photographed here with my new digital camera, and you can read the lettering on the works plate quite clearly, but not well enough to see that the works number is wrong!

A Wrightlines white-metal Ruston for Baigent's Basin. Built as per the instructions as a cabbed version and running on a Tenshodo Spud.

Another Wrightlines Ruston, this time the cabless version. The two Rustons were the main motive power at Baigent's Basin.

My scratch-built Muir Hill Fordson loco. The Fordson tractor was an ERTL die-cast and the rest was plasticard. Another Tenshodo Spud went under this. I wrote an article describing the construction which appeared in Narrow Gauge & Industrial Railway Modelling Review issue 11. The article appeared just before S&D brought out their kit.

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OTHER 7mm LOCOS

Locos in this section were ones I built because I liked them, rather than for use on a particular layout.

Photo used with permission of the 7mm NGA

This was an early scratch build - the Tralee & Dingle 2-6-0. I had the P B Whitehouse T&D book with lots of photos, and thought it would be easy to build one - it wasn't. The body was plasticard, with 0 gauge white metal chimney and dome. The number plate was my first attempt at etching. The mechanism was a Hornby 0-6-0 with grafted-on Walschaerts valve gear - a Hornby spare part - and pony truck. I removed every other spoke from the wheels to get the correct number, but they looked a bit skinny. It was meant to be 3 foot gauge so looked a bit odd. However, it was awarded a Nosbert at the 1984 7mmNGA AGM, despite the rather dodgy rivets on the cab.

In October 2011 this loco surfaced on e-bay, where it sold for £287!

My version of the WHR 'Russell'. The body was built from plasticard, with 0 gauge white-metal chimney and dome. The mechanism was a Hornby 0-6-0 with grafted-on Hornby Walschaerts valve gear and two-wheel trucks. I modelled it with the cut-outs in the buffer beams, but before the FR hacked down the height. It has my own etched name-plates and bought-in works plate. It was awarded the Don Mason Shield for Best Scratchbuilt at the 1995 7mmNGA AGM.

My attempt at a de Winton VB. Made from plasticard on a Tenshodo Spud with grafted-on side rods. No, the valve-gear didn't work. The week I finished it S&D bought out a white-metal kit.

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Apart from the AB fireless and the Muir Hill all the locos were sold on the 7mmNGA second-hand stall at the 2004 AGM - they seemed to go quite quickly, and made me a nice little sum to plough back into the next scale.

Page created 20 May 2011 Last edited 20 Dec 2011