5 inch gauge Shay 0-4-0 + 0-4-0

An exceptionally finely made 5 inch gauge Shay, winner of a Silver medal and the Crebbin Cup at the London Model Engineer Exhibition.

The work of a talented engineer who built models over a forty year period, including locomotives from gauge 1 to 5 inch gauge as well as boats, cars, hot air engines and road steam vehicles.

He won his first medal at the Model Engineer Exhibition in the 1950s for a model of The Great Exhibition constructed from cereal packets - his last was for the Shay forty years later.

Scaled up from the highly-regarded 3 1/2 inch gauge design by Kozo Hiraoka, the engine was built over a four year period, completed in 1989.

The locomotive has spent much of its life in a glass case and condition reflects that - it remains in excellent mechanical and cosmetic condition. It's always very satisfying when a finely made engine goes as well as it looks; this one runs like a sewing machine, there's some video of it running on the rolling road here.