Fairlie Firebox

So far lockdown has resulted in us cracking on with a number of projects which have been on the back burner for years.

Following on from our Princess Himself has suggested we action a long term ambition to create a Livingston Thompson.

Just like with Princess we’ll be portraying the loco at its nadir, when the rusting superstructure spent a decade and a half hidden away in Minffordd Yard.

I remember clearly the first time I saw this in a full colour picture in the FR magazine and it was like discovering a mythical lost engine, and it’s fascinated me ever since.

LT did eventually escape when it was towed to Glan y Pwll in 1985 for cosmetic restoration - which never started - and then back down the line again at the end of 1987, and so that’s how we’re going to have our model finished, as a tow-along on ambulance bogies.

For the model we’re going to use a Langley white metal kit for LT which was kindly donated many years ago.

I’m conscious, however, that a white metal engine of this size is quite heavy so I’m going to try to keep the weight down.

The Langley kit includes two chunky castings to replace the Bachmann diesel chassis block, and the bit where the motor goes also doubles as the firebox detail you can see in the cab.

These two pieces alone weigh 67g, so my cunning plan is to cast a resin copy, not of the whole chassis but just the bit you can see in the cab.

To this end I have crudely chopped up the white metal blocks and glued them into a mould box which I have covered in RTV silicon and cast copies from.

The combined weight of the two resin castings is 6g, which shows you what a no-brainer it is to make these copies.

What I will do now is glue them back to back into a unit which can be inserted into the cab area.