• Peter Clark Kits, 92 Durham Road, Bromley, Kent, BR2 0SR
• Tel: 020 8464 0696
• Email: peterbclark205@gmail.com
• Web: peterclarkkits.com
• Price: £12 per set of four

I inherited one of these jacks in its built form as part of the scenic items on the Diesel and Electric traction layout purchased from my late friend's estate. At Telford in 2017 I got talking to Peter Clark and he told me that they were used in multiples of four. He was very helpful and agreed to sell me three more to make the set. The whitemetal items were put loose into a plastic bag together with a brass etch, which had enough parts for all four jacks, and photocopy of the instructions. I already had a photo of the assembled one, which appears on his website, amongst my friend's box of bits. I thought this would be useful for the assembly process.

The instructions comprise a simple sketch with notes on the drawing and very few written instructions. Most of the build is very straightforward and can be carried out in almost any order. Hard brass wire 0.7 or 0.9 mm and single core copper wire of 0.5 mm diameter (telephone cable) will also be needed.

However, having been involved in engineering maintenance for most of my career I was intrigued to know exactly how the jacks looked in their working environment. I finally found what I was looking for on the Strathspey railway website in a blog about removing the wheels from the Caley 0-6-0 no. 828 in January 2016. Although 10 ton jacks are shown, the general arrangement of components is largely the same. It became apparent as I studied the photographs that there were errors in the made up kit I had and the kit supplier's website photo.

In order to correct these it became obvious that the best way to build the new jacks kit was to make each of them in two major assemblies, the main frame and the lifting bed. This also had the added bonus that I could paint each piece and then assemble them after the paint had dried. The top of the frame was initially only fixed to one side to enable the sides to be sprung apart when fitting the lifting bed assembly. The transit wheels and their respective frames have been left off as they are not needed with the jacks positioned around the item to be lifted. They were assembled and painted anyway but will be stored in the depot out of the way as some of the workshop clutter.

I elected to solder most of the kit, but used superglue for fixing some of the copper wire representing the electrical conduit and the gear rack ('Ratchet Strip' on the drawing).

Photographs of the 10 ton jacks lifting CR 828 will show how the lifting bed fits in the frame, they also show that the handwheels (Control Wheels) are dished. This was simply done by drilling a depression in a piece of card and pressing the brass wheel into it using the rounded end of a suitable sized twist drill. They look much better with this detail incorporated. The side handwheel shaft should be supported through an extension to the lifting bed side plate but, as it is only cosmetic in this case, I decided not to model this part.

I followed the kit's drawing when it came to the electrical conduit routing as he 10 ton versions were quite different, and try as I might I could not find photos of the actual jacks. The connections to the motor at the base of the jack frame were not visible in any of the photos so the ends were tucked under the motor housing, which will be covered by the lifting bed, and will not be normally visible.

I have yet to build the control panel to which the four jacks have to be wired but this seems to be a big box on wheels and should be a straightforward scratch-build.

A final tip on painting is to prime the assemblies with white primer or undercoat to minimise the number of yellow finishing coats in order that the details do not become obscured. My overall impression of the kit is good. The castings have some imperfections but generally fit well and the brass etches are very good. Assembly was fairly straightforward even though the build instructions were mainly pictorial. I would recommend this kit for any layout or diorama depicting a carriage works as they are probably too light for large loco lifting.