Peter Smith

John Smith and I have been exhibiting our French loco shed layout Eu Depot for some years now and I was becoming a bit frustrated that we were pretty much restricted in what we could run. Either MTH locos or Sunset 141Rs which are all wonderful. However, I fancied something a bit more exotic but the trouble is the price of French O gauge locos tends to be eye-wateringly astronomical. So I took the plunge a couple of years ago and built a 140C from scratch. Having realised that the chassis was pretty much identical to that of a Stanier 8F, even down to the wheel diameter, I bought an 8F chassis kit from Gladiator and built the rest from plastic card. After a bit of tweaking No.38 has been running happily on the layout ever since. Having proved to myself that I could build locos I now have five more.

Four of them were built when the first COVID-19 lockdown hit in 2020 and they are all built from plastic, including the chassis.

My first loco had to be 140C No.38 as we rode behind her a few years ago, but my model isn’t quite as clean as she looks now. The 8F chassis was built up very much as intended and the rest was added to it using plastic card.

The boiler, cut from a length of plastic drain pipe, lifts off leaving everything else in place. The fittings are a variety of castings meant for British locos. If it looked right, I’ve used it. It was sprayed satin black from an aerosol can and then heavily weathered with Railmatch Paints brushed on. The DCC decoder is in the tender, the top of which lifts off to gain access. It runs really well and I’m very pleased with it.

This was my second engine built, simply because I like it. It is all plastic, including the chassis and apart from a brass cab roof. As I use brass hornblocks the plastic structure is perfectly strong enough. Again, the fittings are from an assortment of UK locos and the valve gear uses parts from Premier Components. Despite only picking up from the driving wheels she runs well as there is plenty of lead weight in the boiler. Unlike the 140C you can’t get a sound decoder for a 'Revolver' so I used the 140C sound chip again.

This one was John’s idea and one of the first built during the lockdown.. I wouldn’t have thought of building it but now I really like it. Clearly it is much more ambitious but it was built in just the same way from plastic, including the tender, apart from the bogies which were cast in resin from an MTH sideframe. It’s a big brute of an engine and it certainly has presence. All the big locos have the sound of a 231E Chapelon Pacific which seems appropriate. The valve gear and coupling rods were sourced by finding something the right size in the Premier lists and mixing and matching, which worked out surprisingly well.

This was the one I really wanted to build but wasn’t sure if I was biting off more than I could chew. When I felt discouraged I looked at the price of the French kit and that got me going again. It is built in just the same way as the others with a drainpipe boiler which lifts off to leave everything else in place on the chassis. I made the splashers a bit too big but I’m not changing them now. The valve gear above the footplate is dummy. I’m afraid I drew the line at making all that lot work. Not surprisingly she is not keen on curves so I may have to do a bit more work on her before we can run her on Eu Depot. On the other hand, as she won’t fit on the turntable it might not matter.

These were the biggest locos to work in Europe on standard gauge track so anything else I tackle should be simpler.

This is another favourite ever since I had a ride behind the real thing on the Nene Valley Railway many years ago. This is the same loco shown in the construction photos. This is quite a complicated loco to model but hopefully I have captured the look of her. I use Tamiya JN Green for SNCF green, brushed on, and the lining is from Fox Transfers, including the brass boiler bands. Bogie swing is very restricted so again she may need tweaking to allow her to run on the layout.

Having built the 230 I fancied having a go at an Atlantic. These Nord engines with their fine valve gear are a real challenge and at the moment this area is incomplete. Frankly it may remain so as the loco runs nicely as it is and I don’t want to mess it up. Space under that footplate is very restricted indeed. The other difficult part was the oval coal space in the tender which I ended up making from brass sheet as it keeps its shape when you bend it, unlike plastic.

I have a list of other engines I’d like to have a go at but it’s time for a pause as hopefully exhibitions will be opening up again before too long and there will be a chance to run the locos, rather than just looking at them. I got so frustrated with this last autumn that I put a track around my back garden. Now, whenever the weather is warm enough, it's playtime.