To welcome in the new year we are delighted to be able to bring you significant news of our next build, the LMS 7P 4-6-0 rebuilt Jubilees, Patriots and Royal Scots, as well as the unique 'British Legion'. We will also make the final Ivatt versions of the Princess Coronation (Duchesses).

Following a great deal of behind-the-scenes work we have developed highly detailed working drawings of these charismatic locomotives and we have been in close contact with our builder in South Korea to confirm production details. We hope shortly to commission the build and announce prices.

The whole production programme has been revised, taking into account the increased costs of making ultra-high-quality model locomotives due to minimum wage regulations in Korea, adverse BREXIT trade agreements, devaluation of the £ and the impact of inflation. All these factors have had a negative impact on demand, so we have adjusted the volume of 4-6-0 locomotives we plan to make to 80 models.

In addition we have added a programme of 30 Ivatt Duchesses representing the last two engines, 'Sir William A Stanier FRS' and 'City of Salford'.

We have also decided to take a flexible approach which allows a greater freedom of customer choice, while at a certain time freezing the programme so that we do not have the problem of fitting or changing names/numbers at a later date. So, unlike previous builds, you will, for the moment, be able to make a completely unrestricted choice of name and number from all those available. When production reaches the stage where we have to give the builder a painting specification, we will have to allocate names and numbers to the models which have not been reserved. After that point it will only be possible to choose from the available locomotives. In short, if you are keen on a particular engine, notify us of your reservation as soon as possible.

These engines will be designed and built to Scale 7 specifications. O Gauge models will be adapted from Scale 7 and be fitted with narrower chassis so that the models can negotiate sharper curves. The models will be fitted with our own helical high efficiency gearboxes, split axles and aerospace grade coreless motors. We shall also fit the new technology features that we introduced with the 68XX ‘Grange’ and 47XX tender locomotives.

Fully updated web pages with RESERVATION FORMS are now live on the site. You can access all the details of the 7P 4-6-0s HERE, and the Ivatt Duchesses HERE.

Happy New Year!
John Borkowski

In the January 2023 issue of Model Rail Magazine (308), editor George Dent has invited all readers to vote for the MODEL RAIL Model of the Year 2022.  We at Masterpiece Models have kindly been entered for three categories: 

• O Gauge Locomotives, 
• O Gauge Manufacturer of the Year and 
• Overall Manufacturer of the Year. 

This is based on the review our Class 52 Western Diesel Hydraulic that received a rave reception in Model Rail 297. 

If you are minded and willing to support our cause, please would you go online to:

www.model-rail.co.uk/model-of-the-year-2022 and vote for Masterpiece Models in the relevant categories. 

It would be good to see a high-quality product secure a few more votes. 

During the year my sound engineer Bryan Robertson and I have visited a number of model railway shows serving different scales and gauges and we can honestly say no diesel locomotive in any gauge on any stand or layout comes near to the looks and detail of our Western. It is simply the finest model that we have ever made.

The closing date for entries to the poll is 16 February 2023 and the results will be displayed in full in Model Rail issue 311, on sale on 16 March 2023. 

I have already voted. The process is simple and if you don’t have an opinion on all categories you can opt for 'don’t know' in the relevant section. 

Happy Christmas to everyone!

John Borkowski
24 December 2022

Delivery of Existing Orders
Unfortunately, this has been a difficult week for us with Ros catching COVID on Tuesday and today, Friday, I also tested positive for COVID. I had hoped to make a few additional local deliveries, but for health safety reasons this has not been possible. Industrial action on the railways, the Post Office and the NHS in the UK still grows and remains a threat to normal activity both business and leisure. As soon as I recover, we will resume deliveries as best as we can.

Rebuilt Royal Scot Locomotives Programme
This last 3 weeks we have been working on the revised Royal Scot Programme Schedules for the website. The work has nearly finished. The objective has been to provide as wide a choice of models as possible within a reasonable programme total volume. We have reduced the Rebuilt Patriot Programme to only 10 engines with the possibility of allocating the 5 additional engines to any of the other programmes including British Legion where there are only 3 slots left. The maximum production remains at 80 7P 4-6-0 engines.

We do not plan to make the original large parallel boiler Royal Scot at this stage, but if enough of you are willing to reserve these locomotives, we could possibly add it to the programme. As an indication we would need at least 30 reservations to consider this option. If you are interested in this option we need to know fairly soon, so please do make contact if you want one of these engines.

Merry Christmas 2022 and Happy New Year 2023
We would like to thank you all for your orders and reservations and especially for your patience in waiting for deliveries of your locomotives. Although our family Christmas is cancelled for us for the third successive time, we wish you all good health, happiness and prosperity for Christmas and the year ahead.

The Guildford Show - Saturday 26 November

This is a short expression of thanks to all of you who managed to attend the Guildford Show. It was good to see you on our stand at the show which turned out to be a very good venue. I know a number of you were unable to come due to the rail strike on the day and obviously competition from the Warley Model Club Show event at the National Exhibition Centre. The news grapevine tells me that the NEC event was well attended despite the rail strike. 

Our next planned show will be at the Swindon Railway Museum (Steam) on Saturday 4 February 2023.

Delivery of Existing Orders

Industrial action on the railways, the Post Office and elsewhere in the UK has mushroomed to such an extent that the programme of deliveries that I had planned for the next two weeks has had to be deferred. These days, especially in winter, I rely on using the UK rail system to transport me and the models to customers more than 100 miles from the London area. This week there are 4 days of rail strikes and next week more industrial action is promised by the Trade Unions. This last weekend additionally reduced train services to and from Reading and London included replacement bus services for part of the journeys. This combined disruption has completely destroyed my plan of deliveries. Today I am off the Glasgow to deliver a Western. Unfortunately, this will have to be my last long-distance delivery before Christmas 2022.  As soon as the industrial disputes are resolved I will re-arrange deliveries. I apologise for this situation, but I hope you will understand that this is completely beyond my control.

Rebuilt Royal Scot Locomotives Programme

Over the last 6 months we have been working quietly with the builders on the Royal Scot Programme. The objective has been to provide as wide a choice of models as possible within a reasonable programme total volume.

Taking into account our existing reservations and expressions of interest, we plan to limit the total volume of BR/LMS Rebuilt 7P/6P 4-6-0 express passenger locomotives to only 80 Models. Until the production programme is frozen, the final choice of livery and detail fittings will depend on your choice of reservation.

The objective is to offer as wide a variety of models as possible so that you individually have the opportunity to acquire a unique or rare model that you would otherwise never be able to have in top quality ready-to-run museum quality form. However, the variations especially on the Royal Scots were so large that we will not be able to cater for every modification and change over the life of every individual locomotive.    

The programme comprises 4 basic locomotives in historic batting order:

Rebuilt high pressure prototype locomotive 6170/46170 British Legion	10 locomotives
Rebuilt Jubilee (Comet and Phoenix)	10 locomotives
Rebuilt Royal Scot	45 locomotives
Rebuilt Patriot	15 locomotives

 

 

 

We do not plan to make the original large parallel boiler Royal Scot at this stage, but if enough of you are willing to reserve these locomotives, we could possibly add it to the programme. As an indication we would need at least 30 reservations to consider this option.

We do have a bonus announcement to make on the Rebuilt Royal Scot Programme, this a plan to build 30 models of the last two Ivatt modified Princess Coronation (Duchess) 4-6-2 Pacific locomotives at the same time as the other locomotives.  Currently the Duchess programme is planned around:

6256/46256 Sir William A Stanier FRS	25 locomotives
46257 City of Salford	5 locomotives

All models (4-6-0s and 4-6-2s) will be available in either Scale 7 or O gauge Finescale as customer choice.

To assist you in making a choice we will provide a more detailed update on the web pages shortly under each locomotive type.

John Borkowski
12 December 2022