12 inch Barclay

Barclay Kit bits
Originally uploaded by Phil_Parker

I've been asked to build a Barclay steam locomotive on 4mm scale, OO gauge. This isn't much to shout about normally but just to make things more interesting, it's the 12 inch version that is required. And no one makes a kit for this version.

The nearest kit is Mercian's 14 inch Barclay. One for the smaller prototype (the 12 inch refers to the cylinder diameter by the way) is in preparation but as is the way with these things, the gestation period is long and the deadline short.

Fortunately Barclay were keen on standardisation so I'm hoping that many of the 14" parts can be used so I'm sitting looking at the parts supplied for this model along with a few extra bits Trevor chucked in to help out with the obvious detail differences. With photos and plans to hand my job is to produce as close a replica as I can.

Looking at the chassis first it seems I'm in luck. The wheelbase is exactly the same but the frames need to be shortened a bit. The cylinders to be used will be those in the kit as the difference is a fraction of a millimetre. Some of the body parts might give me more trouble but we'll see.