Sold February 2023 Back to Archive

A 3 1/2 inch gauge 0-4-0T locomotive to LBSC's "Juliet II" design, the Baker valve gear variant of his original Stephensons gear "Juliet".

The engine was one man's project, built in spare time he had at weekends over a 22 year period. One of the finest examples we've seen, fit and finish of machined parts is to the highest standard.

Motionwork and valve gear have the tightness of new, finely fitted parts, the chassis is silky smooth to turn over by hand, with neither hint of tight spots nor slack in any of the pinned joints.

The silver soldered boiler is, we think, by the builder. It's stamped up on the backhead with the 180psi shell test pressure and comes with a test certificate date 1989 from Norman Spink, recording the shell test. Finely made, we would warranty as sound.

Work remaining includes provision of smokebox door and associated furniture; cab; boiler fittings and pipework.

Complete with building stand, a large amount of documentation including annotated drawings, copies of the original construction articles from 1946, the builder's notebook and various other pieces of paper containing sketches and calculations.

A fine piece of work - we love the little details like the lubricator tucked away between the frames with extended filler neck.

There is the potential here to produce an excellent example of this popular design, requiring little further expenditure to complete.