[John Webb]

Also welcome to the forum.

The availability of plans and the best places to look may be affected by the scale you want to build the model to. Let us know what scale are you thinking of building in and we may be better placed to help you.

Regards,
John Webb

 

[John Webb]

I may have found something suitable for you. There is a small book "Greenley's Model Steam Locomotive Design and Specifications", revised by Ernest A Steel, and published in 1952 By Cassell & Co Ltd. This has a small group of drawings of a Gauge 1 American Pacific Loco with a coal-fired boiler, but possibly dating from around the 1920s or 30s in design, I've just realised!

Gauge 1 is 1.75inch gauge and a scale of 10mm to the foot - about 1/30th full size, so a bit smaller than your 1/12th scale. Can be run indoors but is also popular as a garden railway. There is a very active Gauge 1 Model Railway Association www.gaugeone.org who celebrated their 60th year in 2007.

The nearest British equivilent to 1/12 scale is the 5inch gauge with a scale of 1 and 1/16th inch to the foot. Going down you have 3.5inch gauge with models built at 3/4 inch to the foot. But at these sizes you are truely into model engineering and passenger hauling capabilities. Best bet is to seek out your local society of model engineers and chat with them about what you want to do. They may be able to give you sources of plans as well. The larger local libraries may also have books on model engineering - look around 625 in the Decimal Classification system at the end of books on full-size railways for the books on models.

There are also several monthly magazines on live steam modelling & engineering that might give you a lead.

Regards,
John Webb

 

[John Webb]

Martin Evens is another well-known author in this area and of more recent vintage than "LBSC". But most are agreed that LBSC's locos were pretty good.

Regards,
John Webb

 

[John Webb]

Came across another book by 'L.B.S.C.' today - "The Live Steam Book" published in 1929, second edition published 1949 (!) and reprinted 1990 by TEE Publishing. (ISBN 0 905100 86 7) Aimed at those working mostly on 2.75 or 3.5 inch gauge live steam, it looks at all the separate parts of a steam loco - how to make them and put them together. It has no specific design but makes references in places to a number of his designs.

Regards,
John Webb

 

[John Webb]

QUOTE (alastairq @ 22 Sep 2008, 22:00) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>If it can be found, the author that went under the name of LBSC[r] produced a marvellous book on live steam, specifically about his design known as ''Titch''.

this is/was an 0-4-0 tank live steam, passenger hauling...but despite that, the author covered all concievable aspects of locomotive construction..I learnt all I know about Walschearts valve gear and how it works, from his description.

Visiting the St Alban's Model Engineering Society's annual exhibition this weekend, see what I came across!
A 'Tich' under construction - mounted on a special stand to aid construction:

And a completed one!

Regards,
John Webb