LEIGH’S LOCOS

Each month, veteran model railway expert CHRIS LEIGH presents a model locomotive with an interesting back story

MIDLAND & SOUTH WESTERN JUNCTION RAILWAY 4-4-4T No. 17

It seems a bit strange to be proud of a model locomotive that has never worked but I certainly am proud of this one. I became interested in the Midland & South Western Junction Railway following an exploration around Savernake in 1964. This place, with its forest and collection of villages, boasted two stations. However, while it was the Low Level station that initially caught my interest, the High Level station, already disused and derelict, was fascinating, too.

The MSWJR Cheltenham to Andover line was built piecemeal. It was not completed in its final form until 1896 when its independent Marlborough-Savernake High Level route finally enabled it to escape the stranglehold of using the GWR branch line between those two locations. Now able to run faster through trains, the MSWJR invested in two 4-4-4Ts built by Sharp, Stewart in Glasgow.

I was hooked on the MSWJR 55 years ago, and my local model railway club was looking to build a layout based on Savernake. I had never built anything more complex than a K’s whitemetal kit, but I bought a soldering iron and set about scratchbuilding a 4-4-4T. I had little idea what

I was doing. I used brass that was much too thick and my soldering iron was inadequate. I soldered the larger parts by heating them on top of the paraffin heater, which was used to warm my bedroom in the depths of winter in the days before central heating.

The chassis has never worked. I’m not sure all the wheels even touch the rails at the same time! However, with no suitable transfers available I hand-lined and lettered the model, including the elaborate script MSWJR, and that’s what I’m really proud of. I’ve never done any hand-lettering that good since then!

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