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RAILWAY OPERATING DEPARTMENT

  
 

CAPITAL WORKS

  
 

GUEST MOTIVE POWER

  
     
  LANCASHIRE & YORKSHIRE RAILWAY ASPINALL CLASS B7 0-4-0ST  
     
 

Although Capital Works primarily provides an arena for my collection of 4mm scale short wheelbase rolling stock - dominated by private owner coal wagons built by The Gloucester Railway Carriage and Wagon Company Limited - much exhibition attention has been focussed on the motive power used to move these vehicles in and out of the North London based engineering firm of Morland and Anderson.

 
     
  Although Capital Works primarily provides an arena for my collection of 4mm scale short wheelbase rolling stock - dominated by private owner coal wagons built by The Gloucester Railway Carriage and Wagon Company Limited - much exhibition attention has been focussed on the motive power used to move these vehicles in and out of the North London based engineering firm of Morland and Anderson.

As discussed on other pages on this website, six coupled steam locomotives such as Great Western pannier tanks, LBSCR "Terriers", Austerity saddle tanks and even an ex North British J83 are regularly used although the one example of the Bachmann Class 04 Drewery diesel mechanical shunter I once tested proved too weak even to clear the points! This could have been a one-off sub-standard model and I would be more than willing to repeat the experiment, but while I was displaying Capital Works at the Gloucestershire and Warwickshire Steam and Vintage Gala on 11 and 12 October 2008 I was kindly loaned the Dapol model of the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway's Class B7 0-4-0ST.

This came from my good friend Roger Webb, who was displaying his working model fairground in the model tent at Prestbury and had previously contributed an RE single deck bus to my display of Bristol aircraft and vehicles and had gone to considerable trouble to allow me to photograph his model of D0280 "Falcon". On this occasion however I was able to thank Roger for reuniting me with a model that had always worked well on a layout I had built at home in the 1980s and if anything worked even better now.

Like the example that I now regret selling, Roger's Dapol "Pug" carried BR black livery with the early "lion on a bike" crest and was numbered 51241. Although the markings were too late for the private owner wagons, it provided a perfect substitute for the Brighton A1X in terms of sure-footedly taking stock out of Capital Works and drew much attention from younger visitors - not least because it was barely bigger than the trucks!

  
     
 

Like the example that I now regret selling, Roger's Dapol "Pug" carried BR black livery with the early "lion on a bike" crest and was numbered 51241. Although the markings were too late for the private owner wagons, it provided a perfect substitute for the Brighton A1X in terms of sure-footedly taking stock out of Capital Works and drew much attention from younger visitors - not least because it was barely bigger than the trucks!

  
  Suffice to say I am now looking for an example of my own either pre-enjoyed or - if anyone with authority is reading this - as newly reissued! As well as a BR liveried model, I would also be interested in a B7 in LMS and pre 1922 Lancashire and Yorkshire markings. If these formats could also include different numbers I might even stretch to six examples and let them take over the layout!

Apart from being such a steady slow-speed performer, my main memories of Dapol's "Pug" from the 1980s was that this 1891 vintage design built at Horwich Works was finally available as a ready to run model. Before that, a friend and I had even considered motorising a BR guards van and letting that run permanently coupled to the plastic kit version of John Aspinall's saddle tank.

In fact it was the Rosebud Kitmaster model ( with moulds later passed to Airix and then on to Dapol ) that would spread the fame of this tiny 21 ton 5cwt locomotive. Not only was the plactic representation of 51212 small enough to fit the same Series 1 box as the Presflo and Cattle Wagon but - as chassis, boiler/tank and cab were all assembled separately - it was to form the basis of many conversions to other small steam locomotives.

As was the case with Airfix's Schools, Bulleid Pacific and 9F kits, there were also a number of preserved examples of the real "0F" B7. Perhaps the best known of these is 51218 ( LMS number 11218 ), built as Horwich works number 811 in 1901 and first turning its 3' 3/8" disc wheels on the Keighley and Worth Valley Railway in 1964.

With covered-in slide bars next to their two outside 13" x 18" cylinders fed by steam at 160 psi, the 57 strong B7 class eventually offered 11 335 lb of tractive effort as far afield as Agecroft and Speke Junction while 51218 made it all the way to Swansea!

  
     
  With covered-in slide bars next to their two outside 13" x 18" cylinders fed by steam at 160 psi, the 57 strong B7 class eventually offered 11 335 lb of tractive effort as far afield as Agecroft and Speke Junction while 51218 made it all the way to Swansea!