This is the box and the contents.......
More seriously, at this years Great Southern Steamup in Melbourne, I noticed on the Argyll stand that the price of the Aster Krauss kit has been substantially reduced since it was introduced a couple of years ago. For about the same price in Aust. as a Roundhouse Billy, you get a kit with a lot more detail and a more sophisticated design. More fragile and not as controllable though, I think.
All parts are painted and finished and I'm reliably informed they go together with little or no fettling. It comes with working outside Stephenson valve gear, water tank, axle pump, hand pump, gauge glass and a gas fired boiler. Aster only make them in 45mm gauge though. The English instructions are comprehensive, with each assembly step accompanied by closeup photos. The grammar is a little quaint in places, but quite understandable. All the parts are separately bagged and labelled to match the instructions.
This is what Aster intend the box contents to look like when assembled.
While I think these little Krauss locos. are as ugly as a robbers dog, there were a lot of them imported into Australia for mining and other industrial use around the turn of the 19th/20th centuries.
The Aster kit is based on a loco. preserved in a park at Matsuyama in Japan. It seems to be a Krauss Type IV which was the common Aust. one and while it's a bit big for the more common 6 1/2 ton ones, it seems close enough for the larger 7 1/2 ton version built in the early 1900s.
One of these larger Type IV locos. ran on the Rubicon Timber tramway in Central Victoria and this photo gives an idea of what the model will look like when I've finished with it. The photo dates to the early 1930s and shows the crew having smoko while the loco water tank is being filled.
With 250 parts, plus another 250 odd fasteners of various types, this should keep me occupied for a while, although it won't be started until the current loco project is completed. I'll also have to finish off the train of timber bogies that I started a while back.
Graeme
I will follow with great interest.
