PLEASE NOTE: Please allow a 6-week lead time on this kit due to a delay in sourcing parts.

This is not a kit for the faint-hearted and will require skill and patience to assemble the valve gear.
There is a version available with dummy, 3D printed slidebars and crosshead for people who want to build a simplified model.

This kit requires the Dapol/Hornby J94/Austerity as a donor and reuses the chassis, motor, wheels and lower half of the body.

2 body versions are being produced.
As-built - covers all 3 locos when built by Bagnall and in industrial service. Also covers ‘Vulcan’ in preservation.
Victor as preserved - Victor as running on the Lakeside & Haverthwaite Railway has extra steps on the saddle tank, and the cab side shutters have been removed.

Huge thanks to Adam White for designing the body, Mike Edge for his work on developing the valve gear, Jack Dibnah for help with prototype info and Kyle Humphries of TRS Trains for building the prototype loco and writing the instructions.

DOWNLOAD THE INSTRUCTIONS HERE

Price includes UK postage.

PROTOTYPE INFO

The 400 class were 0-6-0 saddle tank locomotives with outside cylinders and valve gear, built by W. G. Bagnall & Co. to works Nos. 2994, 2995 and 2996 for the Steel Company of Wales. Weighing 55.5 tons and boasting 4’3’’ driving wheels with 18’’x24’’ cylinders. Due to the nature of their work, these engines were built with roller bearings and hardened rods. Each locomotive had a tractive effort of 25, 250ftlbs and were described as ‘The New Standard 18”’.

The class were originally designed to compete with the upcoming diesel shunters. Although replacing some smaller 0-4-0 steam engines that worked at The Abbey, they were built for SCoW to see if steam would be more practical than diesel. They compared reliability and performance, as well as ease of maintenance. Ultimately the decision was made in favour of diesel and by 1957, all 3 engines were replaced at Port Talbot by the Brush Bagnall Bo-Bo diesel locomotives, which still serve the works to this day.

2 members of the 400 class are preserved. 401 and 403 were sold in 1957 to the Austin Motor company for use at their Longbridge plant in Birmingham. 401 received the name ‘Vulcan’ and 403 ‘Victor’, names taken from cold war bombers. 402 was sold to a South Wales scrap merchant, later working at NCB Oglivie before being scrapped in 1967.

Vulcan and Victor spent most of their industrial working life with Austin (later to become British Leyland), until finally being replaced and placed in store at Taunton. Victor was the first of the sisters to return to service and worked passenger trains on the West Somerset Railway after its reopening in 1976. Vulcan followed suit a year later. The class were never designed for long trips and due to their rough riding earned the nickname ‘Camel class’.

In 1986, Vulcan was sold to the North Tyneside Steam Railway with its roller bearings in a bad way. Since moving up North, it has been overhauled twice and now proudly wears its original SCOW livery and number 401.

With train lengths growing on the WSR, Victor was sold in 1989, spending time at both the Strathspey and Great Central (North) before being sold to the Lakeside and Haverthwaite Railway where it currently operates.