My choice of Castle was down to the fact that I spent many afternoons on Temple Meads Station platforms in the early 60s train spotting and had lived for 14 years in Bristol - so what else would I want to do?
But of course this castle was involved in a game of hide and seek as in 1952 Windsor Castle was due to pull the funeral train but was in Swindon for heavy overhaul. As Bristol castle was available it had its plates and numbers swapped and stepped in. Afterwards it was intended to swap the plates etc back again and apparently this did occur for about 2 weeks but then they were swapped back again. So Windsor castle became Bristol Castle and stayed as such. Hence this is why its an early loco with a later number.
The kit has been sitting on my shelf for a couple of years, (along with several other kits), but I finally got around to starting it. Having built several other locos before from a range of suppliers, I am looking forward to building one of Warren's kits.
As this might be a long project I have divided it up into the following parts, (click on each to go to that part of the project):
1. Building the Locomotive chassis
2. Building the Locomotive body
3. Painting the locomotive and Tender
4. Building the tender chassis
body kit
tender kit
motor and gearbox
DCC chip
loco figures
nameboards
extra castings for
bogie, oil feed injector
Cast iron insulated wheels