Sold February 2024 Back to Archive

Every now and again a collection of particularly well-made engines comes along - it's always an exciting day when they turn up at the workshop, the very best tending to be collections by a single builder. We're always amazed by how much some men achieve in the most modest of workshops; interesting to see how they have tackled the different aspects of a build.

More often than not we know the builders involved - either personally or by repute. But now and again a collection comes in that's flown completely "under the radar", engines that have apparently been built with few if any other people knowing of their existence; that have either never been run, or only run on the builder's own premises.

This magnificent 5 inch gauge Britannia No.70015 "Apollo" comes from just such a collection, built by a man about whom we've managed to find virtually no information other than some printed letterheads and boiler certificates used as bookmarks in some of his build notes, the style and font suggesting he may have been trading in the 1960s or 70s at the same address from which we collected the engines fifty years later.

What we do know is that, from a pair of small workshops - one for metalwork, one for woodwork - he turned out many fine models, the quality and quantity of his work showing facility in all aspects of model engineering, from machining to platework, boiler making to painting.

The other engines in the collection include a 3 1/2 inch gauge "Jinty" and Stanier 2-6-4T, along with a 5 inch gauge "Maid of Kent" and "Twin Sisters" 0-6-0T. A modest garden behind the workshop featured a long overgrown "there and back" line, no more than forty yards long, which is where the engines were run on occasion in the past.

The Britannia however is new and unsteamed, the last engine left on the builder's bench. The beautifully made boiler has had a twice working pressure hydraulic test and is warrantied sound, the chassis runs on air in both directions.

Fit and finish of motionwork is excellent, platework is neatly formed and rivetted, the paintwork has been done to a high standard throughout.

Finely detailed, the engine has a super backhead, sliding cab windows with wind deflectors, dummy boiler washout plugs, dummy sanding gear, working tender water scoop and dummy chime whistle mounted on the smokebox.

The engine will require minor work to finish including lining out the tender, followed by commissioning work - on test we noted a leak from the wet header joint and fountain which will require their joints remaking.

One of the finest Britannias we've seen in any gauge in recent years, it remains a tribute to the skill of this largely unknown builder. If any readers have more information about the man, we would be pleased to know and share it.