This passed by my nose in the last few days. I believe it's a Stewart Riedpath 'Gnat' possibly marketed by Hamblings just post WW2. Heavy does not describe it. With a whitemetal body, possibly a lead chassis, and two bits of brass strip bolted to the bottom, it weighs more than most of Hattons Bachmann stock put together. Apparently it still runs well once warmed up.
I have a feeling that John Ahern used this chassis under at least one of the Madder Valley locos. I wonder how many of todays current crop of RTR will last seventy years?
It was passed to a friend of mine for disposal and has a boxed 0-6-0 companion should you be interested in this piece of model history.
I saw this on Saturday and was very tempted as I've got a few early 00 items. It really is heavy! Pretty well detailed and proportioned though, especially given its age.
ReplyDeleteI suppose it would be nice to attempt a layout using (as far as possible) material from, say, the '40s and '50s.
In the early days of narrow gauge modelling, this loco used to be used to be used to build 00n3 locomotives by pairing the body with a TT gauge chassis either Tri-ang or home made. It cropped up quite regularly.
ReplyDeleteChris K
I was tempted by this myself, but persuaded my hoarding self that I really didn't...
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