Sold February 2015 Back to Archive

We sold this one back in 2010 - it's recently come back due to a change in the owner's circumstances. Much the same as it was four years ago, although it has sinced acquired one of Polly Engineering's detailed brass tender body kits. Words and pictures below are from 2010, it looks the same today - it remains one of the finest Kings I've seen in any scale, there is the potential here to make an absolutely superb engine.

A 7 1/4 inch gauge Great Western "King", built to Trevor Shortland's painstakingly detailed design, derived from works drawings. The work of a professional model engineer, this was one of a pair of engines in progress when he died nearly twenty years ago. I first saw it in the summer of 2002 and have tried to buy it ever since. I think the engineering is immaculate throughout - there are over fifty pictures below showing the quantity and quality of work to date.

The builder logged over 5000 hours on the project to get this far - the closer you look the more you see: the petticoat assembly which is silver soldered from four castings and includes a blower ring and vacuum ejector exhaust, sparing a builder none of prototype's detail, connecting rods fluted out back and front (even the inside pair), eccentric straps tenoned together.

The chassis is pretty much complete, the tender chassis well-advanced, with much of the brasswork formed to finish the tank. Platework for the locomotive is largely done bar cab. There is a large quantity of part-machined and spare parts for the engine (some of which, I suspect, were from its sibling, separated from it back in the early 90s). The beautifully made boiler is by Trevor Tremblen of Swindon Boilers, copper construction with TIG-welded barrel seam, remainder all silver soldered - it had a twice working pressure hydraulic test last week and a new certificate issued, it will require a steam test when complete.

The finished locomotive with tender is almost nine feet long, it will weigh something approaching quarter of a ton. Reeves still stock the castings for "King George V" - an unmachined set to build the engine, along with a commercially-built copper boiler and brass tender kit would currently cost in excess of £17000.

Complete with a set of drawings and two sheets of Swindon general arrangement drawings.