Commission: SAR Class 91 in 16mm/ft…

The South African Railways Class 91 are 20 locomotives that were built in 1973 by General Electric. Retired from ‘mainline service’ at the end of 2ft gauge railway operation from 2009, several have been preserved, including 91-016, owned by my customer in this instance…

That’s quiet a challenge then, to build a model of a prototype owned by the customer! The model is a heavily reworked and modified Bowaters 16mm/ft kit fitted with on board rechargeable batteries, working directional headlights and LocoRemote control. I developed a number of 3D printed and etched metal components to raise the detail levels and will discuss these here, as an example of how my ‘one stop shop’ can give you a custom model with real character.

A model’s face is so important in capturing the look of the prototype, and here I have added extra hand made detail to the pilot and nose. You can also see the custom designed headlight housing, wipers and door hinges to good effect. The horns were from SLR models, and decals are home designed ones sourced from my usual supplier who did a great job with these larger than usual examples! On the cab sides I had to fill and smooth some of the laser engraved spurious detail and then modified the windows to allow an etched metal surround to be designed and fitted after painting.

The model features legible works plates based upon the real locomotive, etched in nickel silver and positioned below the radiator grill on the long hood these are lovely finishing touches that I’m glad I spent the time to recreate. The radiator side grills lacked relief so these were made up from triangular styrene section which recreates the peculiar folded perforated steel pattern of the prototype.

Working with the short comings of the Bowaters model has meant some compromises including the profile of the long hood roof, modelled flat rather than the subtle curve of the prototype (although I did rework the roof). As some compromise I looked to increase the detail, so the Bowaters radiator grill which sits inside the 3mm shell had some fake rad elements added to it, and then my own custom made etched grill applied over the top. The exhaust panel (and doors along the side) were added in thin styrene as he laser cut outlines on a flat sheet of acrylic just didn’t look right in the large scale. The lift rings on a General Electric are quite distinctive so I designed here and had them etched to add some detail to help disguise other shortcomings. The result is pretty effective.

This side on shot shows the truly wonderful door latches I designed, these circular etches are fitted over a hole simply drilled into the body with a suitable bit leaving the hand hole behind the latch. You can also see the benefit of adding the doors in styrene, giving some relief to the otherwise slab sided body. The photo is really focused on the trucks however, and he basic acrylic side frames that form the basis of these are not at all the right shape so the axle boxes and brake assembly I created in 3D are a compromise to work with what was supplied. I hope the addition of some heavy relief in this area fools the eye into thinking it sees what is expects to see, and in general it’s such an improvement on the kit that it was time and effort well spent. The wheels also had plastic discs applied to hide their spoked origins and some brake shoes were also added. I’m really pleased with how the brake pipework came out, added in brass and styrene. Unfortunately the bogie drive design and the general under frame detail is quite poor, and luckily a lot of this is in shadow. With a bottomless budget I would have completely redesigned this area of the model, adding true framing and a revised power system.

The overall result is pretty impressive. At 58cm long and nearly 20cm tall it has real presence. What you can’t see is that the cab roof is removable allowing access to the scratch built interior and the air intake behind the cab is also removable allowing access to the on/off switch, electronics and charging socket. The result is a usable machine, one with real character. Choosing which elements were essential to capture, which needed re-work and what could be ‘left’ at a lower detail threshold has been a real challenge and frustrating at times but seeing the result sat on the tramway in the garden makes that all worthwhile and it’s been a great journey. If you have a prototype you’d like to recreate in any scale or gauge, get in touch using the contact form in the menu, Facebook or the forums. Until next time though, more soon…

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