LB&SCR 4-6-2T ABERGAVENNY in Gauge 2 David Viewing

Built by the little-known firm of C.Butcher & Co. in Watford, most likely around the time that the prototype emerged on the Brighton line in late 1910.

'Abergavenny' is an accurate model to a high standard, unlike most of the contemporary tinplate, and requires 10' radius curves. When the model came to me, it was missing a side tank and - crucially - an idler gear. With no idea of the gear-form, let alone the ratio, I drew up the the motor pinion and axle in Computer Aided Design and began experimenting. My initial idea was to try to persuade one of my model engineer friends to hob the gear in brass for me but, now I had 3D design, I had Shapeways 3D print in Nylon. So far, the gear has taken without complaint the torque of Henry Greenly's 'boiler motor' (a wound-field arrangement that occupies most of the boiler volume) and the rather crude bevel drive to the centre axle. I also had Model Engineers Laser cut the missing platework.

Unable to revive the monstrous motor, I replaced it with a brushed and ball-raced Racing motor. It is very free-running, and works because the big locomotive's inertia is sufficiently massive to overcome the 'cogging' that such a powerful 3-pole motor would suffer from in a smaller model. Abergavenny still has her original current-collecting plunger-pickups, though lifted clear of the track because power is by LiPo battery and remote control.

So here is a model locomotive, that might not have turned a wheel since the First World War, brought back to life by the miracle of 3D, running with a contemporary train !