Steve Bennetts dual scale loco

When Steve Bennett of Sidelines and Blackdog mining and producer of the Avalon kits was first investigating the possibilities of kits for Gnine locomotives. He started by reaching in to his supply of kits to see what he could come up with. Inspired by the Roanoke Locomotive used by Wolds Way Lavender. The Locomotve is the Avalon Lines ALD3-9 kit with a cab made up fron styrene sheet. It runs on a Graham Farish class 08 shunter chassis. The ride in tender is a complete scratchbuild using an old chassis from one of his discontinued kits. The coupler block is a standard part from the Blackdog range # M019. If you look at the cruel close up of the cab details in the picture opposite (sorry Steve) you can see the throttle, gear lever and speedo that are all Sidleiines parts.The driver (whom we have affectionately called "Bob" in tribute to the TV presenter Bob Symes) is a 1:20.3 scale figure. That then makes this a 7 1/4 inch gauge loco.

A change of figure, a change of scale

If you were to put a conventional 1:22.5 or half inch scale figure in there. Like we did in the picture below, then this model could then be viewed as a 9 inch or 10 1/4 inch gauge loco. We think both Bob and Jon look right at home here.

Inside the cab

Steve reached into his bits and bobs box and created a superb set of controls for our large scale train drivers.

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