Gone Loco Again

Back to the model railway.  While I still haven't made any progress in expanding the layout (due to a combination of illness, distractions and sheer laziness), I continue to accumulate various items of stock - as cheaply as possible.  While most of the stuff I buy comes from a local toy and train fair, I still monitor items on eBay.  While these usually end up overpriced due to crazy bidding by people there, you can occasionally still get a bargain.  My latest acquisition, an ex-Southern Railway N Class mogul, was obtained for around thirty quid  and can be seen below:

I suspect that one of the main reasons that it went for such a low price is that it is kit-built, running on a modified Triang-Hornby chassis.  These can be of varying quality (depending upon the skill of whoever originally built them).  This one is actually pretty good.  I'm guessing that the body and tender are constructed from the old Wills Finecast kit, (they made a whole series of white metal body kits designed to fit on Triang-Hornby chassis - which were available as separate items back in the seventies).  Certainly, the level of detail puts it on a par with the better Triang-Hornby ready-to-run locos of the early seventies, dating it to this era.  The main flaw with the model, which can be seen more clearly below, is that the driving wheels are too small for the prototype, (a consequence of using a proprietary ready-to-run chassis, but which was accepted back in the seventies when there were no alternatives).

I can't say that this troubles me, as it means that the model fits in with the ethos of my layout, which is built around my existing collection of mainly sixties and seventies models, which most certainly wouldn't meet the standards of detailing expected from contemporary models.  

With its heavy metal body, the loco is an excellent runner.  The only modification I'm going to have to make is the fitting of some kind of coupler to the tender (at present it is fitted only with a scale three link coupling).  While there appears to be provision for a Triang-style coupler to be fitted, I'm minded to instead go for the simpler solution of a piece of stiff wire across the rear buffers, (I find that paper clips provide a good source for this).

The real N Class locos were light mixed traffic engines that could be found hauling everything from semi-fast passenger trains on the mainline to branch line pick up goods services.  Most lasted well into the sixties, some until 1966.  The real 31407, whose number the model carries, lasted in service until 1963, so it fits perfectly within the timescale of my layout.  Indeed, it fills a gap in my motive power roster, which tends toward large engines (two of which, a Lord Nelson and a Merchant Navy) can be seen in the background of these pictures.  

There is a ready-to-run model of the N Class available - it was introduced by Bachmann in, I think, the early nineties.  These, however, even second hand, tend to sell for high prices.  The cheapest I've seen one go for on eBay of late was around £75, so mine was quite a bargain.  Sure, the Bachmann model is better detailed and has the correct diameter driving wheels, but this Wills kit has the 'chunkiness' and robust feel that I like in my old Triang-Hornby, Trix and Wrenn locomotives.