Sold July 2008 Back to Archive

A 5 inch gauge Britannia, a classic example if ever there was one of several sets of hands working on a project until its completion, with widely different abilities.

The engine appears to have been built to LBSC's 3 ½ inch gauge "Britannia" design, scaled up to 5 inch gauge. The chassis has been well made, with piston valve cylinders, Walschaert's valve gear and reverser gearbox in cab. The fit of the motionwork is good and it shows little sign of wear, other than one loose driving wheel. The boiler is copper, fitted with a substantial combustion chamber, twin safety valves, feed by injector and axle pump with auxiliary hand pump in tender.

The superheated copper boiler looks well made and is sound on hydraulic test at twice working pressure. The chassis runs well on air. The paintwork is dire, platework pretty grim, especially the firebox cladding and the detail work is either sparse or wrong, depending on where you look - the sight feed lubricator sitting on the offside running board is particularly offensive.

That said, I think this would be a worthwhile project. A decent repaint into at least the right green would improve things 100%, the cab needs a refit (the pressure gauge thankfully doesn't work, so no need for a conscience when binning it).

Weight with tender estimated 250 pounds