Ebay Electric.

Something a bit different from my usual type of blog entry. I prefer this blog to feature the 'this is what I'm making' rather than 'this is what I've bought' type of post, except of course when talking about tools, but then tools are important for making stuff with!

I found the subject of this entry when browsing Ebay. Now I have a soft spot for boxy electric locos, and this one caught my eye;

It was described as a 'HOe?? kit built electric loco'. To my eye it looked to be scratchbuilt, to a good standard, rather than kitbuilt, confirmed when it landed in my hands. I put on a bid before leaving for work, the last bid was for £30.02, I bid £31.02 then logged out expecting to be outbid several times. Needless to say I won it, to my suprise as I expected it to reach at least £50.

As can be seen the body is made from styrene, rather heavily braced inside. The chassis is I believe from a Poole era Farish 37 and is a tight fit in the body, being held by friction. The mechanism needed some attention, lubing and wheel cleaning, so out it came. This turned out to be rather difficult, and resulted in some minor but still regrettable damage to the inner frame, note the chip about half way along one side. Before refitting the chassis I filed the sides down, now its still a tight fit but can be removed easily when required. It is quite a noisy runner, the body acting as a sounding box amplifying the noisy motor. But I don't mind, it just adds character.

The bodywork is built to a good standard and hand painted, as is the data panel. To me the loco looks closer to 4mm scale than HO. A lot of thought has evidently gone into putting this loco together, for example both of the pantographs are wired up and could be connected to the motor, and windscreen wipers are fitted. Some TLC is needed, particulary on the combined handrails and footsteps, and the glazing is missing from one of the bodyside windows, but for now I'm just happy to run it along a short length of Peco Silly Track.

The loco looks like its based on a prototype, the bodyshape and grill panels somehow look 'right', but then it could also be a very convincing freelance design. Perhaps someone with more knowledge of European narrow gauge electrics could comment?

I have absolutely no idea what I'm going to do with it. I'm not someone who usually buys anything RTR, let alone something that someone else has built, I like my models to be my own work rather than from anothers hand. But I rather like it so for now at least it can stay.

Paul.