Here we have a 5" LNER 01, certainly one of the very first model made to the well respected 'Nigel Gresley design by Martin Evans to be started, if not ultimately finished, (as so often in model engineering) until many years later! The machining work is lovely and crisp, and everything is still very much like new, the model having seen very little use so far.
The boiler is silver soldered copper, and beautifully professionally made by Alec Farmer. It is fitted with a thermic syphon so it ought to steam extremely freely! The boiler was actually purchased new from Reeves back in 1969, Martin Evans serialised design being published in the Model Engineer the previous year. As always she can come with fresh hydraulic boiler tests and a fresh steam test.
Test steamed on completion, the model then spent the following thirty years or so on loan to a museum before ultimately being sold in 2019 as essentially a brand 'new loco'. Since then she's been well looked after, and is currently fitted with an injector, as well as a hand pump in the tender, and also an axle pump with bypass valve on the tender too. Clearly at some point there was a second injector fitted as the steam valve and plumbing is still there, so refitting a second injector if you fancied it wouldn't be too big a job. Lubrication is mechanical and fitted under the front running boards.
The model was built by the late Frank Goodman. Born in 1905 he was unable to follow his father into the railways due to colour blindness. Instead he joined the 2nd Battalion Coldstream Guards, taking part in trooping the colour. In later life, he served for 25 years as a police officer in Leicester. Upon retirement he moved to Norfolk, spending his time either gardening or working on the locomotive in his workshop. Virtually complete, although unpainted when he died, the locomotive was finished by a family friend and steamed for his daughter. It was subsequently loaned to the Holkham Hall Bygones Museum where it remained until the museum was closed in 2015.
As with most of our models, what you see isn't necessarily what you get!
We often photograph models pretty much as they come in to us, and then when someone phones to say they are interested we pull the model into our workshops and make sure everything is tested, sorted and ready to go. So if you see the odd model photograph with a fitting missing or a return crank in the wrong place, that's just how it came in and certainly not how it will leave.
For any more information please don't hesitate to give us a bell on 07816 963463
Stock Code: L051185
