That looks like a nice loco to me. We wouldn't have a problem with the compromises. We've enjoyed watching your review. My grandson (12) has recently acquired small england loco Princess, and he's about to start building his own 009 layout. He's intending to film his progress for his Dylington Model Railway channel as an occasional series. I expected it will be slow progress due to school and will only be worked on at weekends and school holidays when he stays with us. He's been doing some filming for it, but I guess the first video may cover the houses he's been building, as he's not put down any track yet. Keep a look out for the first episode, possibly this weekend... Cheers James 🙂👍
Great, I will have to keep an eye out for it! Progress on my own layout is rather slower than I'd like too, probably because I spend more time editing videos than making models!
The only time you really saw the difference between Small and Large England's was back in the early days of the Ffestiniog railway. The first four locomotives Princess, Prince, Mountaineer and Palmerston were smaller with square water tanks and no cabs. They later had iron weights put on the top of the tanks and boiler to improve traction. Then later Welsh Pony and Little Giant arrived and with the exception of a cab, looked like they do today. They were a big step up from the Small's and over time the small England's were rebuilt with the round top tanks and cabs and looked just like the large England's. Till the Double Fairley "Little Wonder" arrived they were the mainstay of the line. Still impressive that 4/6 survived and they are making a replica Mountaineer to look as originally built.
Great comment, I deliberately didn't go too much into the history as the video was already too long; but as you say the differences between the rebuilt small locos and large ones are not immediately obvious, particularly at 1/76 scale!
I am modelling Queensland steam era and a few of the first ones survived. Over 160 years they got painted various colour. So the colour determines the years of operation. The original colour was called "Invisible Green" apparently.
Aha, yes a valid point I'd already considered watching it back. It actually looks worse on camera as it has no sharp edges, and would require considerable force to do any damage. It also looks like it's making contact more often than it actually is due to the angle! But yes, I will be using something else in future
