Hercules is seen here in the grimy environs of Kilgrammie Colliery yard. He started out as an EFE standard green 0-6-0 saddletank. I've owned a few Austerity models and have always been slightly dissatisfied with them, from the first one which was a rather crude Dapol offering, to the last one, A Hornby "Harry". After a while, I sold them on Fleabay. But you can't have a colliery without an Austerity (or two) so when I saw the loco heavily discounted at my local model shop at Betws y Coed, I pounced.
I'd heard that the EFE model was not very detailed, and that it didn't run well. Oh, well, thought I, it can just be there to give an impression, or perhaps it can sit about and look fascinating. It's a smooth runner, actually. Crawls nicely, but since the loco is perversely very light, it won't pull much more than five wagons. Slips like "Stanley" trying to get 50 sixteen tonners over the canal bridge at Astley Green Colliery. In that sense, it's quite prototypical, at least, although it was snowing that day.
Some commentators mention that the model is not as detailed as it could be. I suppose for the RRP of £180 I would expect whistles and bells, but I only paid eighty quid. And it's better detailed than the other Austerities I had bought. In any case, you can always add the detail yourself, it's an enjoyable exercise! I filed down the cab edges a little, and the bunkers. I think I will replace the steps with the RT models etched brass ones, as the steps on the model look like they are cast in concrete. I did buy a detailing kit from RT models, so the loco will probably benefit in stages as the mood takes me. I gave the loco a good weathering, looking at photos of the real "Respite" and "Harry"- whereupon it immediately looked finer and heavier. Some new plates were ordered from Light Railway Stores- I chose a fictitious name which, as it turns out, is a bit ironic. The plates are wonderful, although I was upset when one of the Vulcan Foundry plates "pinged" off as I was fitting it. Lost forever in the carpet jungle.
I bought a set of injectors from RT, they are nice lost wax castings, but then I saw that the model has a better detailed set fitted, it's just that the exit pipe is way too thick. So I spent half an hour carefully filing the existing pipes- I'm happy with them now. I was going to fit a geisl ejector, but after reading an interesting article about them perhaps I won't. Apparently, they did transform the loco's steaming qualities, but other locos were fitted with Lempor devices and Kylala gadgets, all of which also worked wonderfully better. So it was a case of anything would be an improvement... bit of an achilles heel, really. There's my excuse for the slipping anyway... I like the chimney, too. Except for the blooming great screw in it, how crass is that?
I've just purchased some "Liquid Lead" and am going to try and stuff the saddle tanks with it... although the model is a beast to disassemble, needing care if you are not to damage something. But despite all this grumbling, I am very happy with it and it really looks the part.
Incidentally, if you haven't seen them, Jonathan Guilbert's videos (as Gandy Dancer) are priceless. Epic scenes of Lancashire colliery railways filmed on good equipment for the time and sensitively, too.I love his sets of Manchester Victoria, somewhere I also used to hang out as a lad. It was a very exciting time with the visceral sights of an 8F on a long train of fulls going up Miles Platting bank, (Miles Plating, we used to call it) helped by a black five on the back. There aren't many advantages to being bloody ancient, but seeing that spectacle is one of them.
Gandy Dancer's films of Colliery Railways in Lancashire
I've just seen that the excellent Sam's Trains has done a review of the loco, titled as one of the worst locos of the year (!). He reviewed the yellow and blue version, which I was tempted by, weathered it would have a definite Polkemmett vibe as they painted an AB 16" in that scheme... I just wasn't brave enough.
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| Hercules before detailing. You can see what I mean about those injector overflow pipes! |
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