Sold May 2015 Back to Archive

A 5 inch gauge Great Central Atlantic to Don Young's elegant "Jersey Lily" design, serialised in "Model Engineer" in the early 1970s. We think this engine was started some time in the 1980s, passing to a new owner in the 1990s in its current, unfinished state - possibly on the demise of the original builder.

Work to date is to a good standard, the engine runs beautifully on air. There is a large box folder of paperwork including a set of drawings, photographs of full-sized engines, builder's sketches and correspondence with a variety of people, particularly in regard to the livery once paintwork was in prospect. The letters are lovely - I got quite nostalgic for the time when people thought hard about what they wanted to say, then sat down and wrote out a carefully punctuated letter, longhand. I suppose nowadays you can get fifty texts or emails off in the same amount of time, although possibly conveying a fifth of the information...

Length
Locomotive 43 inches
Tender 25 inches