May, June & July 2026

Allan is building a 7mm rendition of Cole on the much-lamented Somerset and Dorset main line, just south of its crossing over the GWR Berks & Hants line. The period that Allan is modelling is the late 1940s, hence the white lining to the platform edge. The building paint colours are LMS cream and brown. Purists will be critical of this. It was most likely the colours were SR green and cream (the restored Midsomer Norton station is in these colours) but in his choice to model the LMS he just couldn’t bring himself to see his black locos and maroon coaches trundle through a SR station!

The station building is a replica of the real thing. Now a private house, Allan was able to measure and draw it thanks to the kind permission of the owner. The signal box, up platform shelter, shed and bridges are based on photographs and are near replicas of the real thing

Allan has yet to build more than a placeholder for the goods shed which will be mostly imagined; he has one photo of it just peering above a passing train! It was demolished in the very late 1940s.

Allan’s recent project has been the creation of the very elaborate starting signal, shown clearly in this crop from a well known photo album. And the finished signal below.

Our new Chairman, Richard, has been fettling some truly superb Edwardian Great Western locos in 7mm scale. A particularly nice feature is working inside motion.

3277 was a Duke Class locomotive built in January 1897 for working the gradients of Devon and Cornwall, but these locos were spread around the GWR region in early 1923 when they were replaced by newer locos. In May 1930 the name was removed from the loco when it was rebuilt as an ‘Earl’ or ‘Dukedog’ class of locomotive. 3277 was withdrawn from service in April 1939. The model is from a Finney kit (builder unknown) and was painted by Alan Brackenborough.

The Armstrong Class were a group of four locomotives designed by William Dean and built in 1894 with 7 ft 1.5 in (2.172 m) driving wheels. In April 1915 no. 16 Brunel was rebuilt with 6 ft 8.5 in (2.045 m) wheels and piston valves, having already been fitted with a Standard No.2 boiler. It was renumbered 4169 as a member of the Flower Class. The model is from an MOK kit, built by Bob Merry and also painted by Alan Brackenborough.

The completed Big Bertha (it needed brakes) running round “The Summit” in July. It ran faultlessly and is now home with its owner John, who is very happy with the result. Some details of Dave S fitting the brake gear: Big Bertha Repair in 7mm Scale, 0 Gauge – Part 3

With the Class 156 finished Steve made a start on the build of the Lion Class Stour, from his own design of etches and 3D printed parts. By June the superstructure and chassis were substantially complete and ready for wheels and chassis ready to be painted LSWR Umber.

This is the revised boiler printed on his Mono 4K. It’s much more accurately formed with thicker walls (1.2mm), and was supported on a grid with knife edge supports to start the print properly. It has fixed cutouts for the splashers and variable cutouts for different gauge wheelsets, and as a result it is a much better fit to the etched parts. On the question of unfeasibly tall chimneys, the K’s chimney is a scale 5′ (same as the driving wheel diameter). A photo of the original Lion suggests that this relationship is entirely feasible, and as it happens it’s just a little taller than that on the AW Diseasel.

The chassis has the equalising beams and HLK RoadRunner gearbox built up and fitted. A steel wire has been soldered in as a sprung central pivot to give the crew a more comfortable ride. The grate area has been filled with sheet lead contributing a fair bit of weight. The rear motor shaft still needs to be removed. There will be some scope to add weight round the motor and above the wheels at the front of the rear splashers, as well as in the domes, smokebox and boiler. Seen are the fixed cutouts for the splashers and the additional cutouts needed for EM Gauge wheels which of course are inboard of where they should be. There’s plenty of room for the M1220, but only with the ends filed off the protruding motor fixing lugs. The centre bearing hornblocks and gearbox bearings had to be drastically thinned to get the 0.5mm side play required for a 3’6″ minimum radius curve.

On mature reflection (in conjunction with someone who should know), the regulator has been moved to the middle and two gauge glasses fitted, one a mirror of the other. Whether they should have guards in 1884 is moot. On the left is a JH Beattie version of the revised backhead test fitted in the JH Beattie cab. In the middle the same in 7mm scale, printed with a view to encouraging a friend to build a 7mm scale Lion. On the right a nickel silver version of the smokebox front with handrail and lamp iron rivets set using a less pointed punch in his GW Models rivet press – with that it was much easier to centre the tool in the half-etched holes, thus ensuring that the embossed rivet is accurately placed.

Steps assembled and fitted, and the rear splashers now soldered on. Quite fiddly, but no problems other than the slots being a fraction too wide. So far only 188C multicore solder has been used, carrying the solder to the job to burn off the unwanted resin flux in the process. The forward steps were a later upgrade to the Lions. Rather than cut the second shaft off what turns out to be his only M1220, He ordered an HLK 1219 coreless motor, and removed the M1220 so that the loco could be posed with the backhead in place. The motor is further forward in the Vesuvius and there might therefore be scope for a flywheel needing at least some of that second shaft. The reverser lever has been assembled (foreground). Height of top of the chimney from rail height is 54mm which is a scale 2″ greater than the LSWR loading gauge of 13′ 4″.

Handrail and etched handrail brackets fitted and 0.5mm steel wire loose fitted to confirm alignment (0.35mm wire looked too thin). In this photo something has been fretted out that looks like a reversing crank and rod between the leading wheels, in this case soldered to the outside of the narrow EM frames. The assembled reversing lever has also been soldered to the inside of the splasher in the cab. If this was 00 gauge there would be a temptation to solder it to the top of the splasher in correct alignment with the firebox sides. The cab has also been soldered in and some white Milliput used to fill some gaps, hollows and scrapes. The handrails have been fitted in the slot formed at the rear of the cab splasher and secured with the Milliput. Unfortunately it was very slow to go off and took a week to harden so suspect it’s actually ‘dried’.

As usual it’s a photo (not the mk1 eyeball) that highlights that the smokebox door might not be fully home. 3D printing the buffer beam presented a problem in that it has two fair faces opposite each other, one of which must perforce be peppered with supports. Steve’s solution was to print it in two halves with a knife edge support at the bottom of each support and the fair faces printed at 20°. Both halves had to be thinned to compensate for ‘additive kerf’. A nice sliding fit was required for the AG buffers the shank of which was 3/32″ or 2.4mm. The housing was printed at 2.5mm diameter internally and that gave a perfect fit, but that took a couple of iterations to get exactly right. In the process Steve has been able to thin the walls of the housing to a nominal 0.34mm. As before the supports were added via Blueprint Studio and it was sliced in Anycubic Photon Workshop.

Also seen is his attempt at a copper capped chimney. Not being a GWR modeller Steve had no idea how nasty copper was to machine, but with files and cordless drill he eventually got somewhere close. The later Beattie chimney had a sloping top to the flange unlike the earlier ones, and Stour would have had that later chimney. Steve needs to cut chimney and cap square losing 1.5mm of height in the process, and that will be his next task, followed by painting wheels and frame LSWR Umber ready for assembly.