I like this engine, a 2 1/2 inch gauge War Department Austerity 2-10-0 completed in 1963. It's come from the late builder's son - he remembers his father running it, although not in the last twenty or thirty years. There are the very dusty remains of a long-extinguished fire on its grate.
It looks like a stretched version of LBSC's "Austere Ada" WD 2-8-0 - I haven't seen a ten-coupled version in this gauge before (but am sure that half a dozen people will now send me in pictures of theirs!)
It's been preserved in good condition, helped by a good coating of oil a long time ago and the pair of purpose-built storage crates for the locomotive and tender. It rolls along freely and gives every appearance of simply having been put back in its box after a last steaming a long time ago.
We have no paperwork for the boiler, however in deference to its age we have made on attempt to test it. The boiler on visual inspection looks in good condition; unusually for this gauge it has both combustion chamber and firebox arch.
Whilst I'm sure that it could be recommissioned for use, I suspect this is one that, after nearly sixty years, has earned retirement to a prominent shelf (likely to one of mine for the next little while).
