A New 15" Gauge Seaside Locomotive

An interesting new prototype for an O9 model was revealed at the Cleethorpes Coast Light Railway today, on the 73rd anniversary of opening of the first miniature railway at the site.

This brand new 15" gauge diesel locomotive has been specially built by RVM Engineering of Hastings and has seemingly evaded the camera of visitors to the Hastings Miniature Railway for some time (yes, I've been searching...). I'm sure Hastings will be glad to get the shed space back! 

Photo: CCLR

At first glance it screams out to be modelled in O9 using a Farish '08' chassis, I aim to get confirmation of dimensions to see how feasible this would be. Even a version on a Kato chassis wouldn't be too much of a stretch of the imagination...

I have been aware of this build for a while, largely through a CCLR Director making a comment that my MG Models 'Classic' diesel looked rather like something else they knew of. You can see the resemblance in the lines of this new design around the bonnet and cab front windows.

Clearly like model locomotives the choice of coupling is to be determined by the purchaser and they have no doubt got an order in with a lifesize Narrow Planet for nameplates!

Colin

Reet Petite

I've been playing again with mock-ups for the Julian Andrews-inspired O9 scheme. The building represents Petite Properties 'Harpers Yard' with a little extra depth added. I've liked the look of this range of structures for some time and in particular I was impressed with the effects that Michael Campbell had achieved with them in 4mm scale on Loctern Quay.

The manufacturers website says this structure is 17.5cm wide and 20.8cm tall but I could not help feel those dimensions were transposed as it scales out the other way from the photos, and the dimensions of the 4mm version are shown wider than it is tall. Through a request on the 7mm NGA Facebook group Ian Leese kindly confirmed the dimensions as 18.5 cm wide and 15 cm tall, so I could dimension the image of the front accordingly. I must also thank Simon Andrews as he confirmed the doorway height at 49mm so there may need to be an adjustment to get some items on O9 stock through.

I think the next adjustment might be to the inner siding, bringing it closer to the inside of the curve to give more space for the tree... we shall see!

Colin