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Old 3rd February 2013, 13:44
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Toddington Ted Toddington Ted is offline  
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Join Date: Jun 2008
Location: UK
Posts: 272
A King at Andoversford!

Many years ago I bought a Lima King George V and, because the project to rescue 6023, King Edward II, was in the news at the time (the loco had recently been rescued from Barry Yard) I changed the identity of KGV to KEII and tried to tidy the loco up a bit to make it look a little more like the real thing. I'm not a fan of tender drive locos (for one thing the driving wheels often slip due to insufficient weight) but, with the addition of suitable weight in the boiler and a clean up and lubrication, the model now runs perfectly well on my layout. It doesn't like gradients much and is much less powerful than the 2-8-0s I have run on my layout and I had thought of selling it on as it doesn't fit into the layout pedigree at all (Kings of course had a very restricted route availability and my layout represents the GWR Red route as a maximum and even that was pushing it!)
I know that many modellers think that its about time a decent ready to run "King" was available, both the Hornby and Lima examples being a little "basic" when compared to some of the newer ready to run releases. However, I can't bear to part with it so its staying for now. It needs brake rigging detail and stuff but isn't too bad. I think the badge on the tender is not the correct GWR badge for the period but I'll need to check that. The safety valve bonnet is not good and I need to replace this with a metal one which won't be too difficult. Any one else had a go at improving their King? Any comments? (Apart from the obvious that I should have finished it in early BR Blue!)
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File Type: jpg 20121230-Lima KEII_2.jpg (97.3 KB, 12 views)
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