These three workhorses were all built by Ted Kanas to 7mm O Gauge finescale. They are painted in the BR black livery, which suits them rather nicely.

Here's another batch of Ted's BR-liveried locos in 7mm scale. All were built and painted by himself, but the lining was done by hand by Phil Coutanche.

Ted writes: This loco is no. 1506, built to 7mm Fine Scale standards from an Oakville Kit. This was realy a labour of love - parts not fitting, distorted castings; a real difficult one to say the least. It necessitated a lot of scratch building and parts from other manufacturers such as Springside, Warren Shepherd, Microcast, Slater's to mention but a few.

The loco took 6 months but a pleasing result ensued. A "chunky" heavy loco like the prototype, though the model is more a representation than a scale model due to its kit parentage.

This one is 9452 (of which I have the cab side plate). The origins of this are an Oakville kit. This kit was a lot better than the 15xx Oakville kit, though still a lot of modifications and scratch-building was necessary with a lot of items from Springside, Just Like the Real Thing & Premier Components.

The loco is finished in BR (W) black which I think suits the heavy look of the engine. The cab is fully detailed but I never like putting in a crew as I think that this obscures the fine detailing.

In contrast to 9452, these are views of 9401 which I built about 4 years ago. This is almost a pure Springside kit build apart from the coupling rods. Believe it or not these are Oakville etched brass rods blackened with 'gun blue' - this gives a nice steel effect.

Here's the next loco that has just come out of the workshop. It's a ROD that the GWR bought at a knock down price from the Government after the First World War. It was brand new at the time and because of this lasted into the mid '50s before being taken out of service by BR(W).

The loco was built from a Gladiator kit and went together reasonably well. I feel that it captures that chunky heavy freight feel.

Ted writes: Here's a new loco from my workshop. It's 6627 of the 56xx class - an 0-6-2 loco that was shedded at Reading (81D). The kit was from DA Model Engineering, costing at the time £89.70. In addition to this there were Slater's wheels, Mashima motor, gears, and bits and pieces from the spares box etc. All in all a reasonable kit at a very reasonable price that went together fairly well and I think stands up reasonably when compared to that deluxe kit from JLT.

The model has been finished in BR(WR) black with the early BR totem on the tank sides. As always it demonstrates my preference for that early BR period.

Final view of the Warship

In addition to the standard kit, the cooling fan in the roof has been made to operate.

GWR Horse Box Dia N5, also a 7mm Colin Waite kit

GWR Mica B - built from a 7mm Perseverance kit

Auto-fitted 64xx Class No. 6412 in 7mm, built from a Springside kit

The 70' Auto Coach - built from a "Just Like the Real Thing" 7mm kit

Alternative side of No. 2867. I saw this loco way back in the early '60s during my train spotting days in Wolverhampton.

A view of the tender. The loco finished in late BR livery as outshopped from Stafford Road Works.

Generally an excellent kit that went together beautifully with all parts fitting accurately and giving the appearance and feel of that sadly neglected Hawkesworth 4-6-0 County

'Dukedog' No 9004 built to 7mm fine scale, from a Gladiator Kit.

The Dukedog is powered by a Mashima 1833 motor, running on Slater's wheels.

The loco has been finished in a grubby matt black. An addition to the loco was the boiler top feed which was placed on a few of the class by BR.

Ocean Mails 'slip-coach' No 837 to Diagram M8 in 4mm scale. This was built from a Hayes Production kit that I bought off Pete Waterman many years ago when he was still running that modelling company.

Opposite side view of No. 837.

A view inside the cab. Regrettably I don't ever recall seeing this loco as it was one of the first Castles to be scrapped in 1958, probably due to an accident that it sustained with an LMS built 8F in the early '40s.

It need not be said the quality of these kits is excellent and it went together very well

Whitemetal does have the drawback that there is some surface porosity but with a bit of work this can be filed & flattened down and so mostly smoothed. With the addition of some extra bits it can be made into a very presentable representation of the prototype.

No. 6771 runs with this attached shunting truck. They make for a nice pair, though in real life I don't think that they would have been paired together as the loco was located in South Wales and the shunting truck was in Bilston in the "Black Country".

7mm scale 14xx No. 1466, constructed from a Springside kit with some modifications and personalizing

Also in 7mm scale, here is an 0-4-0ST Peckett No. 1151 (GWR No. 779). This was built in 1907 for the contractors Powesland & Mason and eventually absorbed by the GWR.

Alternate view of this smart little Peckett. This is also a Springside kit.

No. 7800 "Torquay Manor" in BR green with the later lion totem

Collett Goods 0-6-0 No. 3205, built to 7mm scale from a Springside kit.

Close-up of the Collett Goods - plenty of daylight under that boiler!

'Great Western' was built in 1837 for the Great Western Steam Ship Company in Bristol, for use in the transatlantic trade. At the time she was the first true ocean-going steamship, and the largest of its kind in the world.

The ship later sailed on the Southampton to West Indies mail route under the Royal Mail Steam Packet Co, and was also used for troop transport by the Admiralty, including to the Black Sea. She was scrapped in 1857.