[kevsmith]

Hi all

Although I am mainly known now for my Z gauge exhibition layouts I spent many years building and showing gauge 1 layouts. The two main ones being Mardy Colliery with its fleet of Industrial steam locos, followed by Gottersee, my German layout set in Bavaria. I was well into working on an American layout based on the Nickel Plate Road when a move to the Lake District, and the loss of the use of the Sheffield club rooms, meant the large scale stuff had to go.

I've been posting pics of the locos on the Gauge 1 group on Flickr and also the USA stuff on Trainboard.com but thought you might be interested as well.

I'll start with my favourite loco. The BR Class 58 Co-Co. This was scratchbuilt in Nickel Silver and followed the prototype design by being built on a modular principal with all the body sections bolted to the underframe

Seen on Mardy

The bogies used two Playmobile mechanisms fitted with scale wheels and a sprung floating axle at the ends, It had a smoke unit, working fans, directional headlights, full cab interiors.

It could run off trackpower or at the flick of a switch run off some onboard Yuasa batteries driving through a Brian Jones black box controlled by a two channel Futuba RC set up. When running off track power the onboard batteries powered the fans and headlights.

The roof of the fan rood module was insulated and acted as the ariel for the RC

One of the real things that inspired the model heading through Worksop station on an MGR Coal working

more soon

Kev

 

[kevsmith]

Seen under construction you can see the modular construction and the scratchbuilt bogies

The loco had another benefit, when I was running my gauge 1 steam locos I used the onboard batteries to power the blower fan used for lighting up. saved carrying more batteries around.

My Aristocraft FA1 wich was also RC with a Brian Jones black box served the same purpose seen here lighting up my 4F

Still on diesels the next one after the 58 was the classic 08 diesel shunter

These are complicated little sods and involved some headscratching. Fully sprung chassis

the view from underneatth

Kev

 

[kevsmith]

Under construction

Opening cab doors and working droplight windows were the only fancy bits

Going back to my 00 days I remembered how awkward 4-4-0s were for getting balanced right and getting them to negotiate tight curves. The Pickersgill 4-4-0 was built just because i fancied it so I designed it so that the coupled wheels part of the chassis and the bogie pivoted as well making it, in effect, a Bo-Bo!

Once complete you would never know the chassis is articulated. This loco ran really well in both directions and had fantastic pulling power for a four coupled

Kev

 

[kevsmith]

a R3/4 view

Still on a Scottish theme, but North British railway rather than Caledonian, was the J36 0-6-0. I'd met a guy at at A GIMRA GTG who was dabbling in Fine scale Gauge 1. I decided to have a go with this loco.

Again the chassis was fully sprung and you can see the flanges are a lot more subtle.

I decided to do it as 65222 'Somme' as I had found a picture of the prototype fitted with a small snowplough

I fitted an opening smokebox door

Kev

 

[kevsmith]

Now I don't care what anybody says, every modeller has that project, started years ago, which with the best intentions has hit the proverbial buffers and languishes in a box. Out of sight and out of mind!

I have a scratchbuilt Z gauge NKP 2-8-4 Berkshire, 75% complete that has not progressed for at least three years but it is a mere stripling compared to my gauge 1 LSWR Beattie 2-4-0 'Shark'

Years before the J36 this was started when I had really fallen out with 0 gauge and wanted to go completely off radar. The wheel profiles were heading towards a gauge 1 equivalent of Scale7 and it was fully sprung,had an opening smokebox door. toolboxes and a full set of inside motion. Coupled with a really complex shape it progressed in fits and starts for two decades!

An early black and white shot

Tubeplate and blastpipe details

The time came to knuckle down and get the damn thing finished and an intensive period of a few weeks saw it finally running although I never painted it, the Beattie LSWR livery proved a challenge too far

It was a beautiful looking thing though, sadly with nowhere to run because of the wheel profiles.

years later I had a a gauge 3 Furness railway 2-2-2WT that started to rival this one for hiding in a dark corner for years!

kev

 

[kevsmith]

Now the thing that set this ball rolling was me putting one of gauge 1 USA locos on Trainboard.com on a thread I started on my abandoned gauge 1 USA layout. I think it took them rather by surprise as many of them are used to buying locos like this RTR. The concept of getting a sheet of Nickel Silver and making one is a bit alien to many of them

I scratchbuilt this very obscure Lima-Hamilton 1000hp switcher for my planned Nickel Plate Road layout which also was abandoned when we moved to the Lakes.

It had got this far, really just needing glazing and decals to put it service

More tomorrow

kev

 

[kevsmith]

Mardy Colliery

My first gauge 1 layout was hugely popular on the model railway circuit in the late 80's early 90s. For many people it was the first scenic gauge 1 layout they had ever seen and the use of small inductrials meant I was able to cram a lot in the 25 foot long it measured.

All of the locos were Nickel Silver and GFS steel construction with Locosteam wheel castings and usually a Beuhler can motor

Maskelyne was a Stephenson and Hawthorn 0-4-0ST. The name came from JN Maskelyne whose collection of Edwardian locomotive drawings has always been an inspiration to me

This was nice slow speed slugger and was suitabily weathered to reflect its coliery life.

Next up was 'Pocohontas' a 15" Hunslet 0-6-0ST. The name came from a mate who had ordered a load of plates from Brandbright at the time

The next two locos were built at the same time with subtle differences

The one on the left is A Hunslet 18" Austerity 0-6-0ST withe the design it was based on, a Hunslet 550050 class 0-6-0ST on the right seen at the coal loader on Mardy. The missing drawhook on the J94 still bugs me 30 years on!

A broadside shot of 68011 on my garden test track at the time

more soon

Kev

 

[kevsmith]

Now 0-4-0 tender engines are rare in the U.k I couldn't resist the gorgeous little North British Y10. Again powered with a Beuhler and named after Ross Pochin another of my model railway heroes.

I now went a bit left field with the next loco. 'Dandie Dinmont' was a Neilsen 0-4-0T that worked on Lord Carlisle's Brampton Railway and had two set of buffers one for standard stock and the lower ones for chaldron wagons. drawings were prepared from a basic drawing of the loco in its original form with the later mods scaled off photos. As an experiment it was fitted with a large Escap coreless motor driving through a double reduction gearbox and fitted with a substantial flywheel. it ran like a dog!

Next up were two more Austerities, one was fitted with the 'Lambton' cab for working the NCBs Philadelphia system in the North east

The second one is in bits in the loft and is one of my winter projects for this year

Kev

 

[kevsmith]

Now not all the locos were metal. I wanted to build a Battle of Britain 4-6-2 having had the wheel castings for some time. At the time my usual Nickel Silver supplier had folded but i had a load of perspex off-cuts from a mate who did Shop front signs

Chassis was the usual GFS steel construction

You'd be hard pressed to tell it was plastic in the shot

The smoke box door was a little sod to get right, again made from perspex

Another plastic fantastic was this little Ruston Hornsby 48DS shunter, one of a pair I made.

The fully detailed engine was built on top of the Rank Pullin can motor which became the sump and the drive from the driven axle to the other one with a Delrin chain

It was too light to ever pull much but looked pretty

Kev

 

[kevsmith]

Now the Playmobile mechanism was a really useful little power unit and reasonably priced. I used to take the clunky wheels off and replace them with Tenmille coach wheels. The LNER Sentinel shunter was a vertical boiler chain driven beast that found widespread use in industry

Mine was built for a mate centre plunger pickup to aid current collection on his garden layout

The boiler was represent by a bit of copper tube and the doors were hinged to allow the interior details to be seen

Still not finished at the time but seen on test on Mardy

Amazingly many years after the layout was sold some footage came to light of Mardy Colliery at a show in 1992. Not my footage so a bit wobbly but an interesting flashback to some of these locos in action

Mardy Colliery 1992

Kev

 

[kevsmith]

Before Mardy Colliery was retired I had already started on my next gauge 1 layout 'Gottersee' my Bavarian branch line layout based on Frasdorf.

I'd acquired a few marklin locos but knew I was going to have to scratchbuild the ones I needed.

First up was the Badische Staatsbahn 0-4-0+0-4-0 Mallett. powered on both engines by Beuhler motors mounted vertically. The pantograph engraver came into its own doing the valve gear

I made patterns for the tender axlebox and cast them in resin

The cab before all the detail was added

painted and lightly weathered. This was a superb runner and would pull the side out of a house

Kev

 

[kevsmith]

Not started by me, this BR89 0-6-0T was a loco Chris Senior started with a view to running it on the layout. he gave it to me and I finished a coupe of years later

 

[Anthony Richards]

Those are absolutely magnificent - thank you for taking the trouble to share them.

The Beattie looks beautiful too in its unpainted form. A museum piece.

Tony

 

[Anthony Richards]

Those are absolutely magnificent - thank you for taking the trouble to share them.

The Beattie looks beautiful too in its unpainted form. A museum piece.

Tony

 

[Anthony Richards]

Apols - inexplicable double post and, for some reason, it could not be edited.

Tony

 

[kevsmith]

Thanks Anthony.
Writing this has brought back many happy memories.

This was my last magnum opus. The DB BR 41 2-8-2 in oil firing form

This had a tender drive with both bogies powered by Johnson can motors. The loco was free rolling and had roller bearings on the main axles. It took forever to add all the detaills and the valve gear as everything had to be scratchbuilt. seen here semi complete on John Tomlinsons garden layout

Kev

 

[kevsmith]

You can see by the figures and the locoshed on Mardy what a big dog this was. The tender bogies were home made resin castings over profile milled side frames. I had to be careful if the loco was not coupled to the tender as it had a habit of rolling away when I was not looking!

My mates on trainboard.com have been sending me PMs asking about the unfinished projects still lurking about and I've got a bit of enthusiasm to get a couple of things finished so spent a couple of hours in the loft finding all the bits for the last Austerity 0-6-0ST. This was the one I started the same time as the Lampton cab one which never got completed

seen here are the bits I found

I also found the original patterns for the coupling rods but still need to find the backhead which I have seen somewhere recently!

In the background you can see some etched frets that have also surfaced

These are some original frets designed by Pete Prydderch for the LMS/BR 20T Coke hopper which are dated 1990 on the etch! That's how long they've been up there.

Kev

 

[kevsmith]

The last Austerity

So. Over the Christmas break I decided to get some gauge 1 projects sorted out. No point having half started stuff festering in the loft and there was nothing pressing in my Z scale as the layout was all ready for the January shows

The final Austerity 0-6-0ST had been sidelined since 2000 and I had to spend a couple of days finding all the bits.

I had to tweak the siderods as the pantograph engraver had got them slightly out on holes centres but the chassis has gone back together O.K

Cab roof is done but I can't find the backhead so I'll have to make another I supect

I'l post a pic of the it finished. I have the nameplates 'Beeson' for it to celebrate another of my Railway modelling heroes and fancy doing it in the Wemyss private railway Maroon livery

progress so far

I'l probably put it up for sale after that as it really won't fit in with anything else I'm doing now

Kev