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Built using works drawings to exhibition standard by A.W.G.Tucker, one of finest model engineers of his time. Twice winner of the Duke of Edinburgh Challenge Trophy - the highest accolade in the UK for model engineering - there is further information about this remarkable man and his lifetime in engineering here.

Words are largely superfluous for this one – the pictures opposite tell much of the story, workmanship is to an impeccable standard throughout.

Fit and finish of the motionwork and valve gear is excellent, with no trace of wear. Platework is finely formed, the boiler and firebox cladding a work of art in its own right, perfectly capturing the profile and curves of the prototype.

One of the those models where, the longer the look at it, the more you see, from the prototypically correct hollow driving axles to the working water scoop on the tender.

Probably the finest Britannia ever modelled in this scale – if there’s a better one we’ve yet to see it – and possibly the finest in any scale. We rate the workmanship in the same league as a small handful of engines we’ve had in the past, which include Ron Martin’s 9F, Louis Raper’s 14XX and Black Hawthorne, Andrew Robelou’s Standard Class 2 and the Black 5s by Frederick Robinson and John Adams respectively.

In his review of Bill Tucker's career and models, published in "Model Engineer" magazine in 1964, W.J.Hughes wrote of the locomotive:

Mr Tucker has recently completed an engine which is regarded as his masterpiece - a 3/4 inch scale Britannia class locomotive... (which has been) built from official BR drawings, and is complete to the last rivet in the most hidden corner of the chassis. Much of the really intricate detail will never be seen...

The engine runs on roller bearings throughout, with the axleboxes connected by cannons. She is mounted on laminated springs, and there are working sanders to the driving wheels. The double-acting pump is driven by an eccentric immersed in an oil-bath.A combustion chamber with vertical water-tubes is fitted to the firebox, which also contains rocking firebars in stainless steel. There is a lever control by which the bars can be rocked or the fire dumped altogether.

On the tender we see a working water pick-up and a water-level indicator. Water for the pump and injectors is drawn from the filter boxes, which are correctly equipped with filters, and with proper mud doors for the sediment to be removed. There are steam brakes on the tender as well as on the engine herself."

The engine is now just over sixty years old – in excellent condition with bright, unblemished paintwork featuring hand lined finish and signwritten cabside numbers.

In deference to its condition, provenance and age we’ve made no attempt to test the boiler nor steam the locomotive, an important part of model engineering’s history in the latter half of the last century.

Of the seven locomotives built over a fifty year period, few have ever come to market, remaining in private collections from whence they rarely emerge. We consider it something of a privilege to have had this one in the works - one cannot fail to be inspired by it.

Tucker's 3 1/2 inch Garratt was sold at auction in 1971, the year after he died, for 1500 guineas. Two years previously, my parents had bought a large detached house in Stamford for £6,250...