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A Stuart Turner 5A vertical engine, built around thirty years ago by a man who went on to build many engines, including a Showmans Road Locomotive and Foden steam wagon, both in 6 inch scale, with a Burrell SCC agricultural to the same scale currently nearing completion in his workshop.

When not head down working on traction engines, he spends weekends driving the 7 1/4 inch gauge Britannia he built from a much-modified kit some years ago.

The 5A is somewhat oily and grubby from years of storage, however it was well made in the first place, turns over freely and shows little sign of wear (unsurprising - given the projects which followed the builder would have hardly have had time to run it). The bottom end was well greased up before storage which has preserved the bright parts.

There is a short length of copper pipe screwed into the valve chest with steam valve - the pipe has a crack in it, either wants silver soldering back together or, ideally, remaking with something a bit more robust.

Well worth stripping and repainting, it would make a fine example of one of the largest Stuart Turner engines. Robustly proportioned, with generous bearing surfaces and rated at 5/8 bhp, we've seen them in all sorts of things, from small full-size steam boats to 7 1/4 inch gauge railcars.