Garden Railway Forum

In Suffolk there were (looking through history books) quite a few beam engines sitting in shed pumping water up from bore holes and the like and pumping sewage about, so when I saw an airfix kit for a beam engine in the Mid Suffolk Light Railway shop the other day I couldn't resist. I have been cutting and filing and painting today so I'll get some photos for you tomorrow. Has anyone else built one of them?
It builds up so you can turn the flywheel and watch the eccentric valve gear and parallel motion in action.

and you can motorize it

Just found some on ebay. Bertie495. Buy it now 10.49. Incl post. 7 left!

Thats jolly good, mine cost 14 quid!

Yes. It took me till 1 am to find it on ebay but it was worth it!

In answer to your question, Mr Bond, I have built one!

It is a nice addition to the scenery on my layout and sits in an area which is supposed to show 'vintage' machinery as part of the Museum Collection. This is not designed to work.


Behind it is another scratch-built beam engine which does work and is controlled by a variable speed controller.


For the sake of the photographs I put the kit-built engine where the weathering is easier to see.... it doesn't usually sit on the track!

i got the same kit at the weekend too il make mine next week

All done save for touching up over the inevitable and unavoidable paintey finger prints.
I really rather enjoyed the build and its good to watch all the motion. The timing isn't set right however and there is no way of building the kit with correct timing which is annoying. I think it looks rather nice - I put on extra red lining to liven up the green a bit


The piston, ports and slide valve are revealed from behind a removable casing

Rather nice parallel motion

The back

It all turns freely. Now I've got to build a building for it!

How durable do you think it will be Zach?

I don't know, I'll put it in a removable building and it won't be running all the time so should last a good long time hopefully. If not then it can be "awaiting repairs" or sitting silent in a shed gathering dust just waiting to be preserved. as far as motorization goes I think I may power it off the belt drive hub, that is to say make the thing it drives motorized so in fact it is driven by the load.

Tidy...as they say here in Wales.

Looks good with the red lining.

I was tempted to do it blue with red lining but thought that might be too predictable...

... and you'd have to fit a white roof

That has come out looking very nice Zach. Well Done.

It is a great pity that when Hornby decided to re-issue these 1960s Museum Series kits they did not include a motor & gears, yet still provide the motor housing. The alternative hand crank handle is well oversized.

If you get the right size gears and driveshaft they can be motorised similarly to the 1960s version - http://airfixtributeforum.myfastforum.o ... ne#p121662 & http://airfixtributeforum.myfastforum.o ... eam+engine

Chris Cairns.

Bought me-self another one of these kits the other day at the Mid Suffolk Light Railway, its a model of Richard Trevithic's "Pen-y-darren" It goes together quite simply with all working motion (apart from the valve timing). So to keep me busy and as a nice Cambridge/Woodbridge transition project I decided it would be much better if it were in full GER livery. (I am SO, SO sorry...) After many hours and struggle with the paints I have gained a lot of respect for the loco lining people like Tony and Matt, its very difficult, all my lining has a certain amount of wobble to it, their work is beautiful!
Without further ado I present to you Pen-y-hamilton...




So many lines...


It IS 45mm gauge but flange less, I was going to build a small bit of flanged track in the quarry and maybe have an electric wagon to push/pull the loco along.

Wrong on so many levels, but GER livery does look good on everything it seems!

I've looked at this kit many times and considered getting one - now you've told me it's the CORRECT gauge

GER livery DOES look great on a lot of things! The kit is actually 1.32 (although looking at it with a 1.32 scale person next to it it looks slightly too big) scale so its encouraging that the wheels are 45mm apart, be warned though - the wheels are flangeless so some special track will be needed.

Model zone were trying to get rid of the beam engine kits... at £2.99! so I got three!

AndrewGVT:85395 wrote:Model zone were trying to get rid of the beam engine kits... at £2.99! so I got three!

You did very well with that! Modelzone sadly went into administration on 26th June  http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2013 ... -jobs-risk