Prepared by: Stewart Ingram
Originator: Bob Bunker

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Proudly sporting an “Aldgate” headboard, and despite the lack of conductor rails, Metropolitan Electric no 10 “William Ewart Gladstone” stands incongruously bathed in tropical sunshine and surrounded by exotic plants on my garden layout here in Hong Kong.

“Some corner of a foreign field / That is forever Metroland”

Made from a Ken De Groome kit, this has given a lot of fun, and was a real pleasure to make. “A kit that almost assembles itself” – it is very straightforward to make up – the sides are mainly laminations, and so can be pinned to a flat board and then run around with a soldering iron – and the curved ends are pre-formed (without rolling equipment it would be difficult to get the curvature right.) Instructions are straightforward and comprehensive, and everything fits perfectly.

Ken is also a most helpful chap, and a pleasure to deal with.

Tamiya maroon in a spray can seemed pretty well the right colour, and the lining was done with Fox strips. That bit is very fiddly, but if you don’t want to do it, there are plenty of livery variations without lining to choose from. Transfers were from Radley, and nameplates from Guilplates.

Not perhaps one of the prettiest locos ever designed, they are however imbued with great charm, and have been favourites of mine ever since we lived in England and I commuted from Rickmansworth.

The model is set up for radio control, with the receiver mounted up in the resin roof.

I have fitted one of Peter Spoerer’s amazing soundcards, which gives electric whine synchronised with the motor, plus air brakes, a whistle and a trundling compressor, and the centre windows are unglazed for the benefit of the internal speaker.

A kit that I can wholeheartedly recommend.
Bob Bunker - Hong Kong

When I heard Ken de-Groome was planning a kit for the Metropolitan Vickers Bo-Bo locomotive I ordered one straight away. I have been fascinated by these locomotives nearly all my life. In the 1940s I used to stand on the over bridge at Wembley Park Station and watch the Aylesbury bound trains hurtling through platform 1 without stopping. They were hauled by a Metro Vickers Bo-Bo loco wearing their grey war time livery. At Rickmansworth the electric locos handed over their trains to a steam locomotive, a scene I witnessed when I made excursions into the Chilterns.

The etched brass kit comes virtually complete, but since I was building mine to Scale 7 I bought the wheels separately. All the etches were very clear and crisp. In addition there are numerous white-metal casting which are also very crisp. The roof and the louvres are resin castings.

The instructions are very full and include numbered photographs of the various stages of construction. There are also two A4 drawings. All the different castings and nuts and bolts are contained in little plastic bags, which are all numbered. The instructions include a list of these numbered bags with a description of the parts in each bag. So if you are looking for the screws to fix the roof, you look on the list for roof fixing screws and it will tell you which number bag they are in. It is a good system; I even put all the instructions in their own ring binder, which for me was an uncharacteristic bit of organization.

In my opinion the kit goes together well and very closely captures the character of these locomotives, it may not be the kit you should choose as your first etch brass kit. However if you have built a few brass kits you should have no problems. Even if you are experienced it is important to carefully read all the instructions and study the photographs referenced in the instructions. All the information is there.

When building the chassis I soldered the buffer beams onto the underside of the floor first and then filed the end of the solebars so that they fitted exactly between the buffer beams. Each window has a droplight and a spacer. I used solder cream to do this. It is important to ensure that every thing is lined up correctly.

There are quite a lot of nuts that need to be soldered in position so that parts can be joined together using the small machine screws. This can be fiddly, but I developed a system to make it easier. Where the nuts have to be soldered I hold them in place by putting the screw in place and tightening it up. Prior to this I cover the screw with Vaseline and I put Vaseline inside the nut. I then solder it in place and as soon as the solder has hardened I undo the screw to ensure it has not been accidentally soldered in. In my case this did not happen.

The first part of assembling the body is considerably helped by the fact that the two ends come already bent to the correct shape. This is very important since the shape of the ends is what gives the character to the loco. How to fix the cab ends and the internal roof are very carefully described in the instructions, and it is very important to follow them very closely. It is important to note that the roof fits just inside the body, with the outer edge of the roof lining up with the inside face of the body. I did not initially realize this and it was only after a quick word with Ken that I was put back on the correct track. Some very slight fettling of the shaped ends of the brass plates that fit into the ends and the inner roof to conform to the shape of the resin roof will help make a perfect fit.

The parts for the two bogies are well made. I made up the nonpowered bogie and it is important to keep it square. Since I was making to Scale 7 dimensions I had to thin down the white-metal cosmetic bogie side. This was not difficult once I had worked out what to do. This will not be necessary in a finescale model. There are in fact two parts to the bogie; part one is the brass frame in which the wheels run and part two is the white-metal cosmetic bogie sides and ends. Part two is soldered to a brass strip which is fixed to part one by screws. It is important to screw the brass strip to part one and then solder part two to the strip ensuring the cosmetic bogie sides are clear of the wheels.

I cheated a bit because I used an ABC gearbox and bogie for the powered bogie and all I had to do was alter the chassis so that it fitted. This involved a bit of surgery with my Dremel with a cutting disc and was a lot easier to do than I thought it would be. I then had to make modifications in order to fit the cosmetic white metal sides, which again had to be filed thinner to clear the wheels because of the Scale 7 dimensions. This would not be a problem in finescale. If anyone wants to build one to Scale 7 I will be happy to discuss what I did. I can be contacted via the Scale 7 Group or via the Gazette Editor.

The kit contains all the parts to make the powered bogie including the motor and gearbox driving both axles. Even though I did not build this one I built a very similar powered bogie that Ken made to drive one of the Chesham coaches. It went together very well and the system for getting a good mesh with the gears is quite easy.

All that remained was to fit the detail to the body and chassis. The plumbing on the outside of the solebars is described in detail in the instructions and needs to be followed carefully. The two sides are not quite the same. Fitting the three headlamps on the two cab ends brings the model to life. The louvres are cast in resin and Ken advised me to rub them down on wet and dry to remove the backing. I think I used 600 grit and finished off with 1200 grit; I used it dry. Needless to say I tried trimming the first one with a scalpel and it did not work so I reverted to what I had been advised. The louvres need to be lined up carefully. I used a steel rule to get them in line and because I used araldite there was plenty of time to do get them right.

I was very pleased with the resulting model, which I believe reflects the true character of the prototype. I consider the kit to be good value for money.

Ken de-Groome at Ken’s Profiles has seen this review and is content with it; although “a little surprised at the use of an ABC gearbox when, as Peter demonstrated, the use of the item supplied in the kit worked so well.”