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Brass Siphon G in 00


cessna152towser
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I recently acquired a part built 00 guage Siphon G as part of a job lot.    The bodywork is brass, with beautifully etched sides.   Only clue as to maker is a logo "CbA" and date "1972" on the underside.

Does anyone know what make of kit this would have come from?

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I think you'll find that the lettering on the bottom is a monogram reading GA. As far as I can remember this kit was issued by a George Alan and the date seems about right. I think I bought one in about 1974 for approx. £5 - £6 but never made it. I wasn't even in my teens at the time and I realised it was beyond my skills to build. If I recall correctly I swapped it for a couple of K's wagon kits.

 

Dave R. 

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GA was later bought out by Mopok or Kemilway if I remember correctly. I had a couple of these kits in 1973 but couldn't complete the. I never got the hang of using their superglue. 

 

I think Adrian Swain done the castings for them. the vacuum cylinders certainly look like his products.

Edited by roythebus
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  • 1 year later...
On 11/04/2019 at 00:52, roythebus said:

GA was later bought out by Mopok or Kemilway if I remember correctly. I had a couple of these kits in 1973 but couldn't complete the. I never got the hang of using their superglue. 

 

I think Adrian Swain done the castings for them. the vacuum cylinders certainly look like his products.

I've always soldered them. Just about to start 2 more.

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An old friend was the sales rep. for GA.  State of the Art when they first appeared, many people were in awe of them and some even quite afraid:o

 

They also made a footbridge that was, shall we say, not uncomplicated..............:unsure:

 

Edit - just had a recollection that in the early days of such kits they weren't always described as 'etched' but as 'chemically milled'.

Edited by 5050
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35 minutes ago, 5050 said:

An old friend was the sales rep. for GA.  State of the Art when they first appeared, many people were in awe of them and some even quite afraid:o

 

They also made a footbridge that was, shall we say, not uncomplicated..............:unsure:

 

Edit - just had a recollection that in the early days of such kits they weren't always described as 'etched' but as 'chemically milled'.

I've got the GER footbridge kit. Ill never build it since it doesnt fit in with my interests. Will no doubt appear on Ebay in due course.

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38 minutes ago, 5050 said:

An old friend was the sales rep. for GA.  State of the Art when they first appeared, many people were in awe of them and some even quite afraid:o

 

They also made a footbridge that was, shall we say, not uncomplicated..............:unsure:

 

Edit - just had a recollection that in the early days of such kits they weren't always described as 'etched' but as 'chemically milled'.

Even earlier were the engraved kits. I've got a couple of Sayer Chaplin ones in my round2it stash.

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On 11/04/2019 at 00:52, roythebus said:

GA was later bought out by Mopok or Kemilway if I remember correctly. I had a couple of these kits in 1973 but couldn't complete the. I never got the hang of using their superglue. 

 

I think Adrian Swain done the castings for them. the vacuum cylinders certainly look like his products.

It was the association with Mopok/Kemilway/George Alan that encouraged Adrian to go full time into casting and when they went bust because of the severe financial downturn of 73- 74 he brought out some of his own similar coach kits. I still have 4 unopened BR suburbans. Despite Adrian always being very dedicated to detail accuracy he was quite happy to provide Triang-Hornby bogies for coaches requiring BR1 bogies.

 

By the way, the George Alan footbridge kit is considered to be the first full use of etching for our hobby. Superglue and very fine plastic rodding (used in dentistry) were introductions by Mopok - but their technique of using a clear plastic former and sticking pre-coloured sides to them was introduced by PC Models - but they used it for pre-group coaches that didn't really need flat sides (but had very detailed lining). Whereas the technique worked well for steel sided coaches were the difference between the glass lights and side were infinitessimal when reduced to 4mm - an 1/8thor 1//4in doesn't scale very well for 4mm:ft.

 

Paul

Edited by hmrspaul
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I had about 6 PC coaches and none of them had a plastic shell to fix the sides to, that is a new one to me. All mine had a tin angle to glue to the floor with the other edge slightly curved for the tumbleholme. Which the side was glued to. There was no support for the sides until the top edge was glued under the roof. 

 

Garry 

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Sad to hear that Adrian Swain has died. He cast most of my range of GS Models bus kits from late 1969 through to the early 1980's when he bought the patterns and rights from me. 

 

I couldn't get the hang of his coach kits, very finely detailed but nothing on earth could stick the printed sides to the plastic body shell.  i gave up with them in the end. Most ended up in the bin, but I still have quite a few cast bits around and a couple of complete built kits.

 

 

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