Another new restoration project sourced from eBay for the bargain price of just under £30 will add an Oxford Rail Dean Goods to the loco fleet.

The source model is the later release (with single flywheel and coreless motor), has had a very bad respray (along with some damaged detail parts) and was sold as a non runner because the seller was confused about the loco - tender coupling and DCC.  In fact it is just a standard DCC ready release and once loco and tender are connected runs nicely.

Dean Goods were not exactly a common sight in 1947 Devon, however I have seen mention somewhere of a Dean Goods getting to Laira in 46/47 on a freight.  This is something I find quite plausible having previously found a photo of a Dukedog on a Bristol – Laira freight, though my most likely use will be that the loco ends up pinched to run on a local freight while it was in Devon.

Work will involve:

Finding a suitable loco which matches the core details (boiler/cabside cut out/ cab width) of the Oxford model, other details like the chimney, tender dome etc can be rebuilt).  Preference is going to be for a Bristol sheded loco.

Strip down and full respray, I am tempted to do the respray with body and chassis joined together in order to hopefully reduce the impact of the gap between upper and lower boiler.  The intention is to save Oxford’s cab interior. 

Add missing washout plugs (Gibson)

Potential changes to chimney and tender dome (Coastline Models via Shapeways)

Repairs to model: It needs a new smokebox dart, castings on the tender and tender handrails

DCC

Etched plates (Narrow Planet)

Dingham couplings

Finally the chassis is missing the brake linkage from one side, hopefully Oxford will sell a spare for this (do they even do spares?) else it will need fabricating.

The start point…