Background

The final Castle in the fleet (for now at least) is 5071 Spitfire.  As with 5029 the start point was a Hornby Wellington, although this time there was no convenient other loco with which to swap the Hawksworth tender.  Instead this time I ended up buying parts from eBay to cobble together a new tender from a Hornby body and chassis with scratch built frames (utilizing a set of Finney castings).  This tended then ended up being swapped with the BR tender from my Star and was rebranded in the usual way with Microsol.   The loco has been renumbered with Modelmasters name/number plates, and has a Lenz Gold decoder in the tender.

Usage:

As with the prototype, these are probably the most useful locos in the fleet.  Suitable on the vast majority of the trains in the fiddleyard.  The main focus will be for the milk, TPO and Sleeper, along with the North West set that is not currently in the fiddleyard.

Remaining Work:

The loco still requires a fair bit of work, it needs either a coat of Klear or satin lacquer to sort out the flat Hornby paint, weathering, a crew, lamps, new couplings and the tender coaling.