Stirling Single Spotted!

Jan 10, 2005 27 Replies

In January 1999 Railway Modeller..... apparently made by UK company AUTOCOM LTD.



Does anyone have an email address for this firm please? I tried to find one but it appears they may either be out of business or not connected to the net (which these days amounts to the same thing eventually)



If they don't have an email address, could someone kind enough to do so, please enquire as to whether they are still trading and if the model is still in their range and if so, how much?



Many thanks



Steve Kilmore, Victoria, Australia


"mindesign" wrote

Probably a kit. I've no recollection of this being ready-to-run, even in very limited numbers.

John.

That subject caught my attention!

On 10/01/2005 20:49, mindesign wrote,

Unfortunately you've misread the page. The 3 photos on the right are from Autocom. The Stirling Single comes under the "Alan Gibson" heading where it says "Simon was in the middle of scratch-building the Stirling Single". Simon being Simon Hill, who is one of Alan Gibson's colleagues.

You mean except for the famous Triang model?

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(kim)

"kim" wrote

That's NOT a Stirling Single!

John.

Doh!

This is:-

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(kim)

No. That is the Caledonian Railway.

The Stirling single was Great Northern. Outside cylinders, domeless boiler.

For the last 37 years I assumed they were one and the same!

(kim)

The Stirling single is the second one sown in the right-hand column:

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Yres, I already found and posted a Gauge 1 image in response to John Turner. Here is another:-

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(kim)

sorry Kim - different loco

:)

Steve

ps.

I will scan the image in mag. and post

bugger :(

oh well..... the hunt continues

Steve

Drummond by Neilson, not Stirling.

company

There *was* a Kitmaster model of the Stirling single, though. Andy Kirkham

In message , John Turner writes

Exactly, I mean that heap from Donny doesn't look nearly as good as a Drummond single...

I'd doubt that. The only Drummond singles - his engines for the NBR during his first years there, based very closely on Stroudley's early singles - were pretty enough things, but no more so than Pat Stirling's 7' and 7'7" inside-cylinder engines (the 8' engines were a bit of an aberration in Stirling's later career, being close relatives of his early express engines for the G&SW). The one Drummond-era Caledonian single - 123 - was a private venture by Neilsons and is described by Ahrons as a Neilson design, not a Drummond - though it used a boiler and machinery which were very close to standard CR Drummond-era practice. Whether Drummond built any singles himself after the NBR ones depends very much on whether you count the L&SW double-singles, but they'd win no palm for beauty.

Back to modelling - didn't one of the gauge 1 manufacturers do a 7'7" Stirling single some years back, or was it a one-off?

yup - after 3 weeks back in the hobby I have 3 plus a Dean

:)

Steve

The best looking single: Dean Great Western

Worst: Philadelphia and Reading Railroad, Camelback Vauclain compound

I presume you /don't/ mean No.9, in any of its forms :) Nor the convertibles in their uncoverted form.

Naa. 'John Stevens' of the Camden and Amboy - an easy win.

That said, the Stevens was not without a certain perverse appeal. Mike Sharman rated it highly as a modelling subject (in 'The Crampton Locomotive').

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I knew there was a picture somewhere. It's the valve gear above the boiler line which sets it apart. That and the cab. And the tender. And.. oh, the rest of it.

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