At last the small batch of Excelsiors are finished. Most of the delays were due to life getting in the way of the the workshop - only to be expected as the years go by!
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| Wrightscale 16mm Bagnall Excelsiors 2017 - finished at last! |
The engines are very small, probably some of the smallest ever built. They are the epitome of Victorian British design and use, built for a Welsh gentleman who wished to modernise his Mid-Wales estate.
The model in this iteration is improved. It now sports a blow-down and boiler-level-valve.
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| Left side of the Bagnall Excelsior |
The paint work is the result of a search to find a heat resistant finish. Up until now, our models have been painted first with etch primer then with Halfords car paint for the finish. Alas, the formulation of Halfords paint has changed and with one exception (matt black) softens and becomes "sticky" at 80"C. Next, I tried 2-part car paint but had no success. It was too thick and the finish was not reliable. The search ended with Humbrol enamel. It goes on well, tack dries in about 30 minutes and 24 hours later is dry. At this point it is baked at 80"C for 30 minutes and it does not soften.
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| The small size of the prototype is clear. The distance between the footplate and the cab roof is about five feet six inches. |
The colour is close to Bagnalls standard green and I think when lined in yellow/black /yellow will look just like the illustration drawn by Roy Link for the cover of Narrow Gauge and Industrial Railway Modelling Review #53. (No 53 is out of print, but sometimes available second hand)
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| Phil Copleston sourced the original photograph that allowed Roy Link to produce a drawing and this beautiful rendered picture. |
This was the volume that contained the drawing from which the model was built.
The drawing itself came about due to the research of Phil Copleston. The story behind the drawing is well worth reading. I am lucky that others find this prototype irresistable too.
