Hi All,

I have just joined the 2.5" Association and this forum after coming
back to model engineering after a long, long break. My late father
started building the Don Collin/Paul Wiese Flying Scotsman which I
have inherited and intend to finish. I have just ordered the rest of
the castings needed and also the materials to build a new boiler as I
am not happy with the existing one.

The subject of this post is to try and gather information on a
'mystery' loco chassis and various bits that I recently bought off
Ebay.

I have uploaded some photos in a new Photo Album called 'The Great
Bear'

At first I thought the chassis etc. was for a Princess Royal class
loco as it was 4 cylinder, 4-6-2 and the cylinder layout and frames
suggested this. This was surmised before I received the bits and was
based on some poor quality photos on the Ebay listing.

Having received the bits I am now almost sure that the chassis is
intended to be a model of the ill fated GWR Pacific 'The great Bear'

The workmanship on the chassis is very good and whoever started it
obviously meant it to be an accurate scale model. The frames are only
1/16 inch steel with stretchers etc rivetted. The cylinders look as
though they may have been machined from solid steel rather than
castings although I am not sure of this. They are 5/8 inch bore and
possibly 1 inch stroke with 3/8 inch diameter piston valves. The
motion backets and slide bars are castings.

The leading bogie has fully working steam brakes fitted and working
leaf springs.

The driving and coupled wheels that came with it are from another loco
I think and also the trailing bogie.

The boiler is a bit of a enigma and is only the outer shell. It is
actually steel fully rivetted. The chap I bought it off thought it was
a 'dummy' meant for show but I am not sure. The workmanship and
rivetting is superb and I suspect that it may have been intended to be
a working boiler, possibly with a copper firebox and tubes?. The few
fittings that came with the boiler are all fully working.

The other item is another mystery. This is a short set of frames with
a bogie mounting stretcher underneath and what the seller thought were
cylinders and valve gear. This is almost certainly not part of the
main chassis. The 'cylinders' are actually 3 pumps operated through
long levers, probably from eccentrics on the driving axles of the loco
for which it was intended. The centre pump is intended to be a feed
water pump with the stroke variable through an expansion link type
drive. The two outer pumps do not appear to do anything although they
are fitted with spring loaded relief valves.

Well, that's what I've got. If anybody out there recognises the loco
or can give some ideas with regard to its origin I would be very
grateful. Was it a published design or a one off project? Whatever,
I'll try and get hold of some drawings with a view to perhaps
completing it at some future date.

Cheers,

John