King of Scarlets – A Quarry Hunslet
As a modeller, you just can’t beat a good set of photos to work from. At Statfold Barn last week, they had the King of Scarlets on display. It’s an Alice class Quarry Hunslet from Dinorwic. I have a 16mm kit to build plus an OO9 kit so I’m really keen to get some great photos to model from.
The loco is in the condition she (are locos shes? This one is a king!) came out off the quarry. They slapped on a coat of red paint and serviced her but otherwise she has been across the Atlantic to Canada but basically been in storage since 1962. That’s a long time but as she is unrestored you can see the enormous bend in one footplate and all the dents and scratches. One side of the cab is incredibly scratched, the front is bent and the cylinders are really bad! It’s all great modelling fodder.
Modelling Thoughts
There’s a number of caveats to modelling King of Scarlets though.
- I want to model the Pen Garret level and she wasn’t there, she was on Duffryn level just below. Can I cope with this anachronism? I really like Pen Garret and Duffryn is quite boring by comparison.
- The frames are different so to do her properly I’ll need to redo the frames which are etched brass. The kit frames slope up and have different cut outs. This frame is squarer. This is my first etched brass kit so is that just being daft?
- The chimney is a few inches shorter so would need changing on the model. I guess I can cope with that but it’s part resin, part brass.
However, on the plus side, I have some amazing photos! Historic photos are hard to find of any of these as cameras weren’t that prevalent on the side of a Welsh mountain in the 50s and 60s. This loco is in the original state as it left the quarry, dents and all.
If I’m going to do a 16mm engine (that’s 1/19 scale), it becomes the star of the show so all these dents become important. The actual kit is Rough Pup and I could go to Tywyn to get some equivalent photos but I like the idea of modelling this one.
I’ve been really inspired by this thread on RMWeb so if you want to know more about the kit, check this out.
Photos
Apologies that there are so many but hopefully if you are ever looking for details, you’ll find them here.
