Long ago, in the mists of time (April, 1994), a lad named Tony Geary wrote an article for BRM describing how he built a DJH A1 kit in OO gauge. That loco, 60114 WP Allen, is still doing yeoman service on Stoke Summit (indeed, it'll be running at our Peterborough show, October 18 and 19). At the end of Tony's piece there was a description, by Mark Allatt, Chairman of the A1 Steam Locomotive Trust of how the trust was going about building a brand new A1.
So, why another article on building an A1 from the DJH kit, and not just one, but two? It's over 18 years since Tony Geary's A1 article appeared in the April, 1994 edition of BRM, and that's long out of print and unavailable. My methods of construction are different in many ways from Tony's and, one hopes, several newcomers to kit-building have emerged in this new century. Finally, and the most important reason for presenting this account, in 2008 we should see a brand new, twelve inches to the foot scale A1 running in Great Britain, 60 years after the first one appeared on the newly-Nationalised railways. Obviously, one of the A1s I build will represent Tornado, and the other, Bongrace, hopefully to show the visual differences between the two siblings, born (or perhaps that should be completed) 60 years apart. And the reason for building one of these kits as 60163? The A1 Steam Locomotive Trust is to be congratulated on the most astonishing achievement in building the 50th member of this wonderfully reliable and economical class. By way of supporting the Trust, this model of Tornado is to be the subject of a sealed-bid auction at our forthcoming Peterborough show, or by post, the highest bidder securing the model, with all proceeds given then to the A1 Trust. As mentioned, the model will be built from a DJH kit to professional standards (I used to build locos professionally), guaranteed for my remaining lifetime, painted by Ian Rathbone and be as accurate (given the 'constraints' of the kit) as possible. I hope the blokes who own the 20+ DJH A1s I've built down the years will testify to the model's potential 'quality' (as with all the other ex-LNER 'big stuff' it's been my pleasure to put together in the last quarter century for customers world wide). Full details of how to 'bid' as it were will be found at the end of this article. And Bongrace? I'll keep that to run on Little Bytham - you can't have too many A1s for a latter day ECML steam depiction can you? Especially as 60128, under Grantham's 'Curly' Royce's command, achieved the highest power output by a member of the class, charging over Stoke Summit and topping 90 mph in record time, with a full weight train behind the tender! Truly, in terms of day-to-day reliability and performance, the A1s were unsurpassed.
How to bid
If I were building on commission today, it would cost over £1,000 - inclusive of materials, my time and Ian Rathbone's painting. Bearing this in mind, a minimum starting bid of £650.00 is expected. To make your bid via post, please send it to Tony Wright at the Editorial address, clearly marking the envelope A1 Trust Bid. Please include your full name and postal address, and telephone number/E-mail address as well for preference. Alternatively, you can leave your sealed bid at the BRM stand during the National Festival of Model Railways, at Peterborough, over the weekend of October 18 and 19 next. The model will be displayed on the BRM stand during the show, with the occasional run on Stoke Summit over the weekend. The deadline for the sealed bids is 4.00 pm on Sunday October 19, an hour before the Festival closes. The plan is then to open the bids, and the highest bidder presented (if present) with the locomotive on the BRM stand. So, if you think your bid will be successful, and then make sure you're at the show on the Sunday afternoon. A member of the A1 Steam Locomotive Trust will be present. If there is more than one top bid, then lots will be drawn. All proceeds will then go to the A1 Steam Locomotive Trust.
This is a unique opportunity to acquire a professionally-built and painted OO FS locomotive. It has a definite provenance, and is signed by the builder. In time, its value should increase.
Happy bidding!
