Sorry to those who may like regular and frequent reports but I’ve been using the facilities offered by our excellent NHS and, the accordingly much reduced modelling time has given precedence to getting in the library to research; the drawing office to sketch and design loco parts; and the workshop to get my hands dirty, rather than to come spouting-off on here.

I made a start on my scratch-built Q4 on the demo stand at Manchester MRS show but, not feeling much like starting such demanding work in the two-three weeks after the show, I made a start on an extremely ancient Kayser kit for a SR PMV. This must date from the start of Kayser using plastic, (early 1950s?) and proved to be a very basic kit which included wheels and axles that were bound for the scrap bin!

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That’s it! And the instructions were equally sparse, no more than an ‘exploded’ diagram

The underframe was going to be all down to scratch building and, the vehicle not being of GC or LNER origin I had absolutely no information on which to build said underframe. Hang on a bit! Yes I have; what about that Parkside kit for a SR PMV?

Inspection of this, and close comparison of the two kits, showed the Keyser was probably intended to represent exactly the same type of vehicle as did the Parkside.

Accordingly I set off to build both kits side by side.

If you are a regular visitor to these pages and my meanderings, you will have registered that Bill Bedford’s sprung ‘W’ irons normally provide the guts of my underframes, these being built onto a central spine which bolts to the body via an internal ballast weight. Effectively this results in a three part construction: - body, cosmetic chassis (or under-frame) and working chassis or under-frame).

I’m adding a series of pictures taken as I progressed through building the K’s kit and hope that’s these are self explanatory but come back and ask if that assumption is incorrect. Final comment for this time: I needed to make the braking system and came up with a standardised design for which I made a profile master, and I can now profile mill a one unit, either-side brake hanger and shoe which can be used on many other applications in future. Luckily the Parkside kit includes two vacuum cylinders when only one is needed so the K’s kit pinched the spare.

Both kits are finished bar painting and are currently on running trials on Bowton’s Yard and on Birch Vale.

Pictures of the Parkside version may appear some time, they’re not taken yet!

Dave