Purchased, built and reviewed by Mark Horley

I saw the LNWR Boiler Trolley on the Majestic Models stand at Telford 2004. It looked an interesting wagon and having enjoyed putting together kits from the same stable I bought one for which at time cost £28. Since 2004 George Dawson, the proprietor of Majestic Models, retired but this kit became part of the Gladiator models range.

The kit was packed in a large plastic bag with the etches taped to thick card along with a bag of white metal castings and some brass wire. The kit was supplied without wheels. The instructions ran to some 9 pages of A4 including scale elevations showing the positions of lettering in three liveries, 3 pages of assembly diagrams, two pages of step by step assembly order and a diagram showing component positions on the etches.

First stage of assembly was building up a frame work of six longitudinal beams and ten cross members. Although a rather complex interlocking structure I found all the components fitted together well with tab in slot location easing alignment. The solebars have a half etched facing overlay through which split pins and pre-formed load securing rings were fitted. The brake gear was then assembled at each end before creating the end platforms. These were formed from several sections with tab and slot location. Care was needed to get this square so the eight slots on the top platforms would fit over the locating tabs. Once again there were half etched overlays for the side beams with more split pins and securing rings.

Trolley, basic frame assembly

The buffers were solid white-metal castings and the draw hook is intended to be soldered to the back of the buffer beam. I decided to convert the buffers to be sprung with a transverse wire behind the buffer beam. First I separated the heads from the stocks before drilling out the stocks with a 2mm drill. Suitable brass rod was cut to length and retaining collars from brass tube were added with a slot cut across to locate the springing wire. After threading through the stocks the cast buffer heads soldered on. Returning to the buffer beam, the half etched overlay carrying the detail and etched baseplates for the buffer stocks were sweated together. A length of piano wire the internal width of the wagon piano was then soldered to the draw hook. This assembly was then fitted to the wagon without the buffers to avoid melting the white metal buffer castings. To finish the tops of the end platforms half etched detailed plates were soldered in place. At this stage the wheels were added and the bearings soldered to the wagon while standing the assembly on a flat surface to get it all square. Further overlays with rivets pressed through were then sweated on to give the raised detail to the frames around the axles. Finally the cast buffers and axleboxes were soldered in place.

The wagon was painted with a car spray primer then airbrushed Railmatch LMS grey, although the colour difference between this and the primer was very small. The lettering was a mixture of transfers from old waterslide sheets. The wagon was airbrushed with a dirty paint mix to weather the finish. A load representing a large section of cement kiln was made from a mastic tube with ribs cut from rivet embossed Plastikard sheet.

Overall this kit goes together very well with components fitting neatly and easily. There are very good instructions. However, it is quite complex and the underframe structure involves some four inch long folds to create the longitudinal beams. I would recommend it to anyone who has built a number of etched brass wagons and wants something more involved to build.

LMS Boiler Trolley, fInished and loaded

A copy of this review was sent to Gladiator Kits.