Reviewed by Mark Horley
Photographs by the author
Originally published in Gazette May 2020

The NER was an early pioneer of electric traction around the beginning of the twentieth century. The EF1 was built for the mineral traffic on the Shildon line in 1914 and worked this route until the infrastructure became life expired in the mid 1930s. As the infrastructure was not replaced, the 10 locos were placed in storage with a view to being re-used on the Woodhead route as banking engines. In the event only locomotive No11 was rebuilt in 1941 to become class EB1 with the rest of class being scrapped around 1950. No11 was sent South to work the Ilford carriage sidings as class EB1 until finally scraped in 1964. The class is covered in Yeadon’s Registry of LNER Locomotives Volume 50.

I purchased this kit by mail order from Judith Edge in 2014 for £150. It arrived in a flat rectangular box which is sized to fit the etches rather than be a home for the completed model. The etches are appropriately grouped and neatly wrapped in tissue paper. The etch components are identified by numbers engraved in the scrap etch frame. Three resealable bags hold a set of resin castings and nuts, bolts, bearings etc. Wire and strip sections are taped to the bottom of the box. Instructions are three pages of text with attached CAD drawing of the prototype and views of the modules making up the full model.

I decided to follow the manufacturer’s recommendation for the power units so two Mashima can motors, gear boxes and stated length of Delrin chain were purchased from Branchlines, costing approximately £70. Slaters 4ft 12-spoke carriage wheels were purchased for a further £18. This gives a drive onto 1/8in axles, rather than the more traditional ₃/₁₆in found in O gauge.

Assembly starts with the footplate module. After pushing out rivet detail (not mentioned in instructions) the solebars are tack-soldered in half etch lines on the underside of the footplate. The ends and cross braces are then tack-soldered into recesses before ‘clipping on’ the bottom flange plate. Remarkably, the half-etched recesses in this plate did engage with the components first time so this was again tack soldered into place. The whole was then fully soldered up on a scrap of melamine chipboard to keep it flat.

The footplate module forms the flat base on which the body is assembled as a separate module. Using the ten supplied 12BA nuts and bolts, the body baseplate is attached to the footplate having eased the holes to accept the screws. The instructions tell you to grease the underside of the baseplate to stop solder fixing the two components together. Being a bit ham-fisted I also added a layer of scrap tissue from the kit wrappings as an additional barrier. The nuts were soldered to the baseplate. The cab ends were then tack soldered into their half etch lines, keeping them vertical with a small square, and the body sides lined up and tack soldered on. Again, this all fitted perfectly so I fully soldered the joints, periodically checking I could still separate the body from the footplate.

There are several window frames, hatches and doors to be soldered into the appropriate half etched recesses on the body sides and cab ends. The two bonnets require bending around a circular dowel to achieve the profile of the nose. The curved section is half etched with ribs to make this reasonably easy. Once fitted, further panels are soldered on in half-etched recesses to form various vents. The small end vents have half-etched rivets which need pressing out but are not mentioned in instructions. There are two half-etched plates with raised rivets numbered 18 which I could not find in the instructions. From the diagram I concluded they should be sweated on the bonnet tops by the whistles. The whistles are located in holes in the bonnet tops but I noticed there is a hole in the cab end behind the whistle. I could not determine what the hole was for but eventually added a piece of wire to form an operating pipe for the whistle.

The curve of the roof is very slight, so I simply eased to shape with my fingers before soldering on from inside the cab. On top of the roof are four rails supporting the pantographs and some cross ribs which butt up to the rails. I found soldering on these components troublesome as the roof is a considerable heat sink and some parts very small. At various points I used a resistance soldering iron and a mini blow torch and still ended up with considerable bad language and cleaning up with wire brush in the mini drill. Although part of the pantograph final assembly, I added the support yokes and insulators to the roof rails at this stage as I thought it would be awkward with the pantographs in place. My approach to this fiddly job was to bend up the U-shaped yoke, cut a length of wire fractionally longer than the final required width and push this through the roof mounted rail. The insulator discs were then threaded on the rail, I could only fit three discs each side of the roof rail, and then springing the yoke over the ends of the wire. I mention I could only fit three discs: each forms half an insulator so I think there really should be four but this is too big for the yoke. With all parts in place I applied solder at each end of the wire and where the yoke touches the roof rail to secure.

I felt the instructions were a little vague about equipment layout on the cab roof so I contacted Judith Edge Models by email and had a prompt response from Michael Edge. Michael very helpfully shared some pictures and drawings of the prototype he had collected while researching the kit as well as photos of his completed 4mm and 7mm models. From this I concluded there was a degree of conjecture and some compromise over detail to achieve working pantographs, so my model is best described as my interpretation of the drawings and photographs. I also happened to visit the Dresden transport museum and found an electric locomotive from the same period in their collection with electrical equipment by Siemens which gave some further insights, particularly the flimsy nature of the prototype pantograph. From studying photographs, I thought the etched U-shaped insulator supports were too narrow so I fabricated my own from scrap etch wide enough to get two insulator discs either side of the busbars. Photos and the drawings showed some coils on some busbars which I represented by wrapping and soldering fuse wire around the busbar. Similarly, the mini cable termination on one corner of the roof was achieved by coiling more fuse wire around the brass wire and flooding with solder. I fitted all the busbars before adding the pantographs.

I thought the cab steps looked flimsy but once assembled they proved quite rigid. For each side I cut four 25mm lengths of wire and soldered the two on the outside of the solebar, protruding about 1mm above the bottom flange and taking care to get them perpendicular to the footplate. I then added the two inside wires. The top step was threaded on, aligned using the drawing, and one corner soldered. With judicious use of the soldering iron I then made sure the wires looked square with the footplate before soldering the other three corners of the step, making sure the step was parallel with footplate. The bottom step was added in a similar way trimming off the excess length of wire.

Photos of the EF1 show a couple of features attached to the solebar. There is a junction box close to the steps which is supplied as a resin casting. I felt this protruded too far so I filed down the depth and then drilled a hole in the side to accept the associated cable trunking fabricated from wire. The other noticeable feature is a small protuberance on the centre line of each bogie which I think may be a lubrication filler. I represented this with a short stub of square brass rod attached using resistance soldering iron.

The bogies consist of an inner frame carrying the wheels, motor and brake shoes with an outside frame carrying the sandboxes and axleboxes. Additional parts are included to compensate the bogie on the rocking axle principle. These are mentioned later in the instructions as an addendum to the original kit design. I chose to make the bogie solid, judging that the short wheelbase would not necessitate compensation. From reading the instructions I concluded the design intention was for the whole assembly to be soldered up solid. However, I decided I wanted to make the cosmetic outside frames removable to give access to the wheels and drive mechanism.

The inner fames were assembled first. I found the holes for the bearings required opening up to insert the bearings, which I did with a triangular file not having the correct size reamer. The central spacer was soldered in place joining the two inner side frames with the wheels inserted and standing on a piece of glass, to get basic assembly all square and level. To make the outer frames removeable I created two new L-shaped inner end spacers from spare brass soldered between the inner frames, flush with the side frame edges. I clamped the supplied end spacers in place and drilled through the top surface allowing a 12BA screw to be fitted in both ends. The outer frames were soldered onto the supplied end spacers creating a wrapper that could be detached from the inner frames by removing the 12BA screws.

The bogies are fitted with clasp brakes on all wheels which hang between the two frames with pull rods on the outside. The brake hangers are arranged on the fret as four sets in order from the outside end of the bogie, to ease identification because they are different shapes. The shoes were laminated onto the hangers while on the fret, remembering that half were on the back to get the opposite hand. With the exception of the outer end, the upper suspension wires were pushed through the holes from outer frames through the brake hanger and into the inner frame, soldering to the outer frame. The outer end wire was treated similarly but was aligned with the hole in the inner frame but pushed into the inner frame. Below the frames the four cross rods were cut overlong from 0.7mm wire and pushed through the lower ends of the brake hangers, with the longitudinal pull rods on the outside of the hangers but inside the sanding pipe supports. I aligned the brake shoes with the outside edges of the wheels to maximise clearances and then soldered all in place. Once soldered solid, a slitting disc in a mini drill was used to cut off the upper suspension wires from the inner frame and then trim back the rods under underneath.

Buffer beams are laminated from no less than five etched layers. I assembled the front face onto the buffer stocks, then sweated on a layer at a time. The buffer shanks were chemically blackened and fitted after painting. I used some 3-link couplings I had in the spares box, with a little reduction in the length to cope with the limited space between the inner frames and the buffer beam.

The instructions give a general arrangement for the motor, gearbox and Delrin chain in each bogie which I followed. I added a cross member from scrap brass for anchoring the motor with elastic cord and two 10BA bolts on the frames to attach squares of PCB for mounting phosphor bronze wiper pickups bearing on the top surface of the wheel tread. Wires threaded through the body connect between the pickups on the bogies and then feed back to the two motors in parallel. For the future I installed an 8-pin DIL socket in the cabin in case I want to convert to DCC. I found it difficult to get the correct tension on the Delrin chain so after talking to Andy at CovGoG I glued 7mm plastic rod between the frames to form an additional chain bearing to take out some of the slack.

The instructions outline the complex assembly of the pantographs starting by attaching the reinforcements 41 to lower arms 40 and 40A (total of 8). As I could only find only four parts 41, I fabricated an additional four from scrap etch. Each pantograph head has two contact strips joined by two spacers to which two triangle brackets are soldered “outside the half etched spacers” according to the instructions. Finding locating holes in the contact strips which matched lugs on the ends of the triangles, I used these as locators and soldered up solid. Later looking at pictures I wondered if the design intention was to solder the two ends of the triangle at the locating holes and then remove the spacers. However, by the time I realised this it was too late to go back. The upper arms of the pantograph are bent from 0.7mm wire with the aid of a jig in the etch to get the correct length and bends at each end. The ends form the pivot points by flattening the wire ends once inserted through the etched components. In some places I opted to use short lengths of tiny tube I had in stock which I then soldered on the wire ends instead using paper washers to stop solder running into the pivot joints. Assembling of the parts was done with components taped to a pantograph drawing included in the instruction sheets. An X-brace was created from more 0.7mm wire using the pantograph drawing as a guide for length, shape and position. I cut the two wires for each X shape to the same length to ensure evenness, before butt jointing to the outside upper pantograph arms. After soldering, where the wires crossed, I then parted one with a slitting disc which created the correct size gap to allow the wires to be soldered in a butt joint at the centre. Prototype pictures showed a transverse rod at the knee point of the pantograph, which is not shown in the kit instructions. I created this with more wire using slightly longer lengths of the thin tube to solder into the tube at the pivot points.

Fitting the pantographs to the roof rails turned out to be very fiddly. Each pantograph mounts on two wires through the roof rails. Between the roof rails an etched plate provides spigots for springs and stops to limit the fully raised height of the assembly. I fitted these before adding the pantographs which then meant I had to get the plates inclined at appropriate angles before soldering on the pantograph arms. I ended up using assorted bits of wood to support the pantographs in a raised position during soldering. In the finished model I have limited maximum height of the pantographs by pieces of ‘invisible’ clothes-mending thread looped between the support rails and the V frames on the head.

The various sub assemblies were cleaned with an old toothbrush, sink cleaner and lots of water. All were then primed grey and then painted satin black using aerosols. The original North Eastern black livery was lined-out in red. However the lining was discontinued soon afterwards according to Yeadon’s book but it is not clear how much repainting of the class was done during their lives. A photograph of No11 in 1935 shows traces of lining while No5 went for scrap in the 1950s, apparently still in NE guise! So, I decided to line out my locomotive with a single red line around the panels. I did this with Humbrol gloss red thinned with lighter fuel and applied using a Bob Moore pen. This was my first use of this pen and it is fair to say I got better with practice. Lettering is from an old Pressfix sheet with a dab of postal brown glue to get them to stick. The whole was then aerosol sprayed with Humbrol satin varnish. The real locomotives were used on coal trains and most photographs show them in a quite dirty condition; so I lightly weathered with a grey/brown mix applied from an airbrush.

Overall, I found the kit well designed and with very good fit of components. The instructions were easy to follow although I felt that there were one or two omissions requiring a bit of thought from the builder. The main changes I made were to modify the bogies to allow for maintenance and I added cross-members to the pantographs based on photographs. As the instructions acknowledge, the pantographs are fiddly requiring care and patience to assemble but are moveable counteracted by the supplied springs. This last complexity makes me think the kit is not recommended for a beginner but personally I found the kit a pleasure to build and I am very pleased with the results.