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Well "Beattie" 32331 is now completed. It has been a difficult build in some respects, for example. the instructions are really scant. And the design of the kit requires a lot of fabrication on the part of the builder. Rather like the London Road Models K2/2 in that respect and like the K2/2 NOT a kit for beginners! On the positive side, with care it does capture the protype very well and I am just pleased it is available. I notice that Ace Products also list a Drummond/Urie T14 in two of the three versions however it is a 7mm kit! Now if this kit was made in 4mm I think they may sell a good few! "Beattie" images follow Kind regards, Richard B

Hi Norm, Many thanks for the very kind comments. A company called "Ace Products" supply a kit for the N15X 4-6-0. They are in Surrey, England. https://www.aceproducts.org/index The kits are nickel silver and tin plate. The N15X is a fairly difficult kit to build and I wouldn't recommend it for a begginer. It's good though that a kit is available! We go to the US at least once every year but this year will be an exception! Kind regards, and stay safe, Richard B

Hello Jack, Good to hear from you and sorry this thread is buried where it should not be! Thanks for your kind words. Yes agree, sometimes a bit boring building the tender when so much energy has been spent on, in my case, a very difficult build. Struck me that the Hornby tender chassis was fairly accurate and Peter Spares had them available with next day delivery. The remaining chassis parts from the Ace Products tender will come in handy on another build perhaps. good to hear that you are doing well and building kits again. Kind regards, Richard B

Hi Michael, Yes, get your point but it is not wire but a very, very fine etch that distorted very easily. It seemed sensible to centre the etch to ensure that the curved sections were aligned correctly over the largest centre section of the tender coal rail. It seemed to work like a dream and I was expecting a real struggle. As alway, thanks for the tips. Kind regards, and stay safe, Richard B

Further progress with the tender. Soldering the beading along the top of the tender is a bit tricky. Starting from the centre and working outwards is the best approach. The tender body attached to the Hornby doner chassis - goes together well. And if you will indulge me, a few more shots of 32331 in natural morning light. Looks much more to my liking. Kind regards, and stay safe, Richard b

I am a great fan of the LNER and BR (NE) and BR (ER) but I know far more about the ex LSWR main line and its locomotives so the layout will stay in the south. That is not to say that I don't know the North East. When I was an apprentice on the SR I visited Darlington Works way back in December 1963 and it was still very busy with steam repairs, lots of Scottish A4's as I recall as well as BR type 2 Sulzers. I maintained my connections with the town throughout my BR career and still do, being a founder member of the P2 project. It is great that the town maintains its links with its engineering past by building these truly great locomotives. Picture of my current project: Kind regards, and stay safe, Richard B

Hi Norm, Will do re the headcode! Just completing an N15X 4-6-0 build and they also worked these trains from Oxford, Nice to hear from Maine, we have a daughter and her family living in Tennessee. We planned to visit this year and take a trip to Cheyenne to see 4014 but events have changed all that! I share your interest in the locomotives of the LSWR and SR. Kind regards, Richard B

Hi, Just a thought. The Q1's were sheeted with very thin material which was attached to a framework. Rather than riveted the sheets were bolted to the framework which pulled the sheeting in around the bolt head. This arrangement resulted in a fixing that was far less prominant than a rivet. For my Little Engines Q1 (and other white metal kits) I marked out the sheeting joints using a scriber and then used the scriber to indent the white metal for each bolt head. It is not ideal but looks fairly prototypical. I have also used the scriber to indent the white metal creating a raised, but hollow "rivet" head. I have then filled in the hollow rivet head with a filler (Green Stuff or similar). This is quite tricky but works with larger rivet/bolt heads. Hope this helps. Kind regards, Richard B

Hi David, Next project may be building a DJH Thompson A2/3 (Sun Castle, my late brother and I saw it many times on the ECML) so that will be a second locomotive that might get away from all those greasy rails. Unfortunately though, I can't find an excuse to run it on the (imaginary at this stage) layout. I can't see those beasties getting clearance on a cross country train from, say, York to Bournmouth via Basingstoke? Kind regards, Richard b

Yes 97XX why not? Will be interesting to follow. Good luck with the job! My Little Engines built kit. Completed many years ago. Kind regards, Richard B

Still a bit more to do on "Beattie" - fall plate and cab doors but they can wait until the tender is complete. Many of the etches in this Ace Products kit are, I think, tinplate. I am fairly certain the tender sheets are, I have the cuts to proove it! I have not made a tinplate box (which the tender is really) since 1963 when one of the training excercises in Eastleigh Works Apprentice Training school was just that, "today we have the making of a tin plate box with a sliding lid to keep your drill bits in". We used wacking great gas heated soldering irons with large bits and you soon learned about differing heat conduction rates on various materials I really like the way the kit tender side sheets catered for the flared top to the Urie tender, very easy to get the flare shape right by bending the sheet in a small vice. A few pictures: Front of tender base cut away to clear Hornby tender footplate platform. Tin plate "box" complete except for a few details! Kind regards, Richard B

Started weathering/cleaning process. I use washes and powders and then to create the just cleaned look that these loco's often have in the 1950s Pledge Wax floor polish applied with a very, very thin cotton bud thing. It was as I was cleaning using the floor polish that the fireman's side namplate went "ping" and flew away somewhere!! As usual an extensive search of the workbench revealed so much I had lost over the months and didn't now need but eventually and amazingly, if you knew my workbench, the nameplate!! Anyway a few pics of a work in progress. Edit - bit closer to completion. Kind regards, Richard B

Locomotive bogie is now sorted. Just a few bits and pieces to fit and then we are ready for weathering and cleaning back. Kind regards, Richard B

Ian Beattie's book "Southern Locomotives to Scale" published by Bradford and Barton has an excellent drawing of the "Z" class. I can't scan in my copy at the moment, the scanner seems to have stopped working. Kind regards, Richard B

Locomotive is almost finished so started to look at the tender. Hornby tender chassis with the main etched parts for building the Urie tender body from the Ace Products kit. Kind regards, Richard B

Had a bit of a disaster I'm afraid - burnt out the motor while endurance running in the window - overheated and pop! I had an extra coffee should not have done so! New motor fitted and runs event better although gear meshing took a while because I did not wish to disturb the centre wheelset. Moving towards completion - lining etc applied on drivers side. May have to re-apply lining to leading splasher! I will try to re-create the look of Beattie around mid 1957, just before she was withdrawn. Basingstoke seemed to keep all of the class fairly clean so they must have been proud of looking afetr the whole class in their final years. Kind regards, Richard B

Hi, I'm no expert but it may be one of these Or a derivative? My advice would be to research the prototype, clean up the kit and build it! Looks interesting. Kind regards, Richard B

I have taken Michael Edge's advice and stregnthened the slide bars with a couple of brackets. The valve gear needed some tweeking - the coupling rod fouled the end of the axles on the drivers side. I also added wiper pickups to the leading and middle wheels to suppliment the stud pickups on the leading and trailing wheels. All is now well and the chassis runs reliably. Another change involves the tender. I have built a number of Drummond and Urie bogie tenders and I'm not sure I wanted to wade through the Ace Products tender kit so I purchased Hornby Urie tender parts (chassis, wheels and bogie frames) from Peters Spares (Excellent next day delivery!) although I will have to build the tender body. An additional benefit of the Hornby bogies is that they are complete with pickups. Some updated pictures follow. Still plenty to do! Kind regards, Richard B

Quick update. A 4-6-0 at last! Kind regards, Richard B

Hi Jack, No need to apologise, its great that you also have a model of "Beattie". From the research that I have completed, 331 seems to have had LSWR style front buffers and Smoke-deflector stays in every BR picture I have seen. That is not to say that at some stage things may have changed. Lining looks really good on your loco. I shall be using transfers for the BR Mixed Traffic livery. I have kept going with the model, it is diverting in these difficult times. I would love to visit our daughters, but not possible! We planned to go to the US in June to see one of them, who lives in US, and take in a trip to see UP "Big Boy" 4-8-8-4. Ah well, worse things to deal with for many people than a cancelled trip. Have now moved on to completing the chassis and beefing up the motion although it all works fine. Loco body now painted, Etching Primer then black enamel. Firemans side. Sub- assemblies include the cab roof that is way too wide for the cab so I split the cab to reduce width for final fit. Loco bogie was tricky to get square and solder or solder square if you see what I mean! Drivers side. Kind regards, Richard B

I can only really comment on the original Patriot. The Bachmann version is very much finer than the Hornby. Even so, the Bachmann does need the addition of injectors (Comet do a nice pair of castings.) under the footplate behind the rear footsteps. Bit of a glaring ommision. I also have a Hornby rebuilt Scot for which I purchased a detailing kit from Brassmaster (I think, its a long while ago), for one thing the Chimney needs replacing! Sorry I can't help more, I'm sure the LMS modellers out there will offer a lot more advice. Kind regards, Richard B

Happy Easter to all. Its a very fine day here in deepest Wiltshire. I relented and painted (brush) behind the deflectors before fitting. Really starting to look like 32331. The deflector braces seem to be unique to this loco. I have seen a pre-war picture of this loco and it has oval buffers and no braces so these seem to have been a wartime (was 331 one of the loco's lent to the GWR??) addition. Cab backplate details now complete and ready for painting. The backplate and cab floor will be fitted after the loco body is painted. Kind regards and hope you are all well, Richard B

My recollection was that the last 4-4-0's in service, i.e. pulling trains, was indeed the Schools on the Southern although I would be the first to admit I was at that time less aware of the ex LMS 2P 4-4-0's - did they have their last service runs in Scotland? Interesting question. Kind regards, Richard B

Busy on the cab end of the loco. Injectors fitted. Picture shows loco with some of the cab sub-assemblies. I have decided to fit the smoke deflectors prior to painting since I have to fit long support brackets to the deflectors and would prefer to solder these all up before paint! It will make painting tricky. Kind regards, Richard B

What curves? Only joshing, shed yard and fairly strait main line with mostly gentle curves. Some yard sidings are too tight without de-railing - just like the real thing! kind regards, Richard B