A 'friend of a friend' has asked for help to find someone who may be willing to restore a model which he inherited from his Grandfather.
The only information I have is that it is 2.5 inch gauge (fortunately!), has probably never been run (in fact may be incomplete) and is thought to be around 60 years old.
I asked about the boiler construction but he does not know whether it is copper or steel nor is he aware of the fuel for which it has been designed (from the backplate it looks as though it may be coal-fired but the photo is not very clear).
It is quite obviously a model of the famous LB&SCR 'Jenny Lind' but does anyone know the 'pedigree' of the model : Was it built to a published drawing (e.g. 'Model Engineer') and were (are) castings and other parts commercially available?
Ideally, the owner would like it to be restored to working order but a cosmetic restoration for display would be acceptable if that is not possible.
I have warned him that the boiler condition will probably be the deciding factor, although anything is possible.... at a price.
The owner lives at Stotfold, Herts. (just off the A1).
Considering the location I would recommend John Shawe. John used to be very active in Gauge 3 circles as a professional restorer but then started spending more time working on full sized railways, so I'm not sure what he still does, but he would give an honest and expert opinion. He used to live in Welwyn, though I've also seen an address in Hitchin - neither very far from Stotfold.
Mike
LBSC did describe a 3½" gauge Jenny Lind in English Mechanics in 1942 so it is possible that the builder scaled down the drawings etc. from that. The time would be about right. So far as I know, there was not a 2½" gauge version available as drawings or castings. I would imagine the boiler probably is copper and coal fired.
John
Thank you both for the info. which I have relayed to the owner and for which he is most grateful.
Regards,
John.
Just for info the Library I run has a set of English Mechanic (in its many variant titles) up to the early 30s and there are some'Curly' designs therein. As it happens I was speaking earlier today to the Science Museum Library. Much of their stuff has been transferred to a windswept aerodrome outside Swindon with no bus service, though fortunately this does NOT apply to 'Model Engineer' which is on open access and they should have 'EM' available also. It had been cut down to 10 - 5 opening weekdays but has now been extended to 2030 weekday evening and all day Saturdays, but there are no staff at those times and you may have to order stuff in advance. The staff are EXTREMELY helpful and stuff can be got up from Wroughton (not manuscripts unfortunately) at 24 hrs notice which works well.
Hope this helps
Peter D Hingley
Peter,
Welcome to the G3 Forum and thank you for this information which I am sure will be of general interest to members searching for elusive drawings, etc.
Regards,
John.
Peter,
When searching through old magazines I've normally used the British Library at Colindale, which is accessible and a lovely old time-warp of a building! They certainly have old motoring magazines, but some magazines like "The Spectator" are at St.Pancras. I don't know how to find out whether they have ME, EM, or indeed some of the more unusual titles, and if so at which site. Maybe you do?
Mike
Peter,
I should have added - I assume you must be the same Peter D. Hingley who exhaustively researched the family business at Netherton? We communicated a few years back about moving the anchor for Titanic by rail.
Sorry - going way off-topic here!
Mike