Steve Cook
Flying Squad
After a month of talking about and running my first G1 live steamer, I've decided its time to start the next one Moving a bit further up the challenge scale, this kit is from Barrett Steam Models and arrived in my hands as a complete set of parts. Normally one purchases a kit engine from Barrett in stages, but I was lucky enough to get this one with all stages present from a very nice member of this forum. That was back in Feb 2011 and I've been waiting since then to have gained enough confidence to tackle it.
It all came down from the loft last week, but today was the first time I have laid all of the parts out to see what is present.
It all looks like its there and I have every faith in the original owner, but then I'm not going to be surprised if the odd fixing is missing. There is a lot of stuff in the plastic bags, everything from detailing parts and castings through to fixings and crank axles.
Age wise, I'm pretty sure the kit is around 13 years old as the boiler was tested to 200 psi in June 2000 according to the instruction manual. Speaking of which, the kit comes with a instruction manual containing written instructions and photographs whilst I also received a Locomotives Illustrated as a further reference.
The kit falls under the title of 'Advanced Model Makers Kit' which means you aren't just going to be screwing it together, there will be some soldering (both soft and silver), some forming, some fettling and fitting as well as painting to do. I have a minor advantage in that another friend within my local group is almost at the air test stage on their kit, if I get stuck I've already been granted permission to poke around their chassis to see how it goes together I have a minor disadvantage in that said friend is very good so I've already been warned that my efforts will be compared...
Its a bit too nice to be indoors mucking around with a kit so this afternoon I sat out in the garden and read the manual, essentially to work out what I was going to need to build the kit. In terms of what I haven't already got, the silver soldering stuff I knew about and the rest of it is pretty minor so I reckon I'm good to go.
I will of course be ignoring the suggested build order, but thats because the first jobs are silver soldering the chassis together and I haven't got the kit for that yet. Instead, I shall be attempting the front bogie and will report back when I have something to show.
Steve