More On The Peckett

Himself is continuing to make rapid progress with our RT Models kit of the Statfold Barn Railway - ex FR, ex Harrogate Gas Works - Peckett.

I mentioned previously that this is a mixed media white metal and brass kit and the cab is one of the main brass components.

Himself has pressed out the rivets, as you can see, and soldered it together, as is his way.

It's worth mentioning that this cab is a recent addition to the locomotive. When it was bought, and then sold on by the FR, it had a very squat and round-topped design which was required to fit the loading gauge at the gas works. It made the footplate accommodation on the England Engines look positively palatial.

This more typical Peckett design was added by the Bredgar and Wormshill Railway, who first restored it to steam, and it was interesting to note when I saw Harrogate at Dinas this month that even with this taller cab it still sits lower than that of Prince.

There would have been scope the FR to have fitted an even larger cab had they concluded that the rest of the locomotive - its chassis and boiler / firebox in particular - was ever a realistic proposition for adapting into a mainline machine.