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FINE SCALE MODELS |
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Kippilaw Hill |
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FINE SCALE MODELS |
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Kippilaw Hill |
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Information updated 01/01/2006
| Important Information about
"5522" "5522" has ceased trading at the end of 2005. The Highland Railway Kits and the beginners LMS/LNER Van are available from Andrew Copp trading as 'Lochgorm Kits'. |
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"5522" has been making kits since 1984. It was initially intended to produce a few 4mm kits of LMS coaches for my own layout because the offerings in the market place at that time (1983) were rather inaccurate and poorly designed. The first kit designed was the LMS Engineers Inspection Saloon to D2046 and to fill up the sheet two more kits were created, D1719 the rather unusual Semi-Open First from the 1928 Royal Scot stock, and a GWR brakevan to K22. These three sold in reasonable quantities and were followed by three more of the 1928 LMS stock including the very attractive D1718 First Class Diner. Another GWR coach had been put into production (C25) at about this time, but this was the last full kit in the early series. Plans to do more GWR and LMS stock were shelved. |
A new business was begun in 1985 providing the
missing parts to enable the COMET and Jackson-Evans loose sides
flooding the market to be made up in etched brass, since most folk had
realised by now that sticking brass sides on to Airfix and Mainline
coaches didn’t really work. Underframes, ends, bogies and a range
of whitemetal, and later lost wax, castings were developed. The bogies
in particular are fully etched with a reliable and simple compensation
system to meet the needs of the P4 modeller. By the end of this phase
it was possible to build over 90% of LMS coaches from 1923 to 1947 in
brass throughout, by far the best medium strength and appearancewise.
An example using Comet sides is shown here.  A few sets of loose sides also were produced to replace the ones done incorrectly by the mass producers. |
| In 1986 a commission was accepted to provide a kit for a 54ft Midland Railway coach which had formed part of the Pines Express between the wars. This was D470 one of the Clayton style corridor vehicles. The rest of this group soon followed, D560, D467, D475, D571, and D572. For the latter pair a new fully compensated six-wheel bogie was developed and this bogie design is still unique to "5522". A kit for the very long lived 59ft Bain diner to D436 came out in 1988. D436 lasted right into BR times with the last survivor serving on the Far North section of the erstwhile Highland lines. Further MR vehicles include some of the 50ft Joint Stock coaches which ran on the G&SWR and North British and a fret for the very attractive Family Saloon to D599 which came out in 1995. The MR 54ft stock (bodies only) has also been produced in 2mm scale. |
| In spite of having no great interest personally in the GWR, numerous requests from prominent GW enthusiasts led to the production of kits for K14/15/16 and the E140/5 ‘B’ Set. Some 2mm body only frets for the all the above GWR vehicles were made from the original 4mm artwork. |
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The most recent developments in coach kits have been the start of a series of Highland Railway bogie vehicles. The first coach issued was the Luggage Composite to D52 and this was followed by a further late period HR coaches D55, D60 and finally by D57 making a matching group (not that a Highland train ever contained anything remotely resembling a matched set !). A kit for the Director’s Saloon is available and also kits for the Diagram 25, Diagram 39 Brakevans, and the Jones Fish Truck. Some useful HR accessories such as bogies and some signalling and architectural parts are now available. Kits for the ‘Loch’, ‘Strath’ and ‘Duke’ Class 4-4-0s have been produced, all of which are entirely in brass including all castings. Alan Gibson has produced wheels specially for these kits. All loco kits have spacers etc to suit EM and P4. Beginners frets |
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Custom Etching Several well known producers of coach and
wagon kits have had kits designed by "5522" to sell under their own
trademarks. "Caley Coaches" have now a substantial range of CR coaches,
NPCS, and locos most of which are ‘5522’ designs. As an
example here is Caley Coaches kit CC1 |
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Proprietor : A W H L Wright BSc CEng MIMech E |
