Tuesday, August 30, 2022

Lewin loco

 

When my friend Earl dropped a load of collectables (Triang Giraffe car, 3-rail loco) he also brought along a part-built kit for which he extracted a small amount of cash. 

At the time, he said it was one of the early MRJ scratchbuilt models. This appealed to me as I think I bought the last set of brass castings for this project, as it's long been on my to-do list. I remember the series, even haunting WH Smith to get a mag with the latest installent of the Wantage No.5 build. 

Now, I knew this wasn't Wantage No.5, but the article included a few variations, and I assumed this was one of these. 

Yes, I can be a bit dim. 

What I actually have is an Impetus kit of Stephen Lewin's Seaham Harbour locomotive. The clue in on the home-made box, although in my defence, the label wasn't stuck to it at the time. 

Anyway, in the box is a nicely made body, and a chassis that appear to be a bit "got at". 

It's built with OO frames, but the wheels are set to EM thanks to a load of washers. The cyliner rods are attached, but not the connecting rods for the wheels. Given some power, the motor works sweetly enough. 

So, all I need to do is regauge it back to OO, and re-attach all the bits, which I've checked, are in the box.


2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Those are like hen’s teeth! I worked on the real thing mid nineties and recall seeing her in steam at Seaham about 1968

Phil Parker said...

Most Impetus kits are hens-teeth rare. I didn't have the funds to buy them when they were readily available and now they have been sold to someone to tuck under his bed. The Double-cab Sentinel is high on my want list.