Finding myself between model boat projects this summer, I decided on building something completely different, a little relaxing ‘side project’. Having recently achieved a significant milestone, the biblical ‘three score years and ten’, I am resolved to only build stuff to which I have an emotional and cultural connection, (hope that doesn’t sound a little bit pompous!).
This year is the 200th anniversary of the world’s first passenger railway, the Stockton & Darlington Railway, and I was born near the Stephenson Railway Museum, which is on Middle Engine Lane in North Shields. Although having lived in North London for decades, I regularly travel back to home turf, where I stay on Forth Road in Newcastle, where the Stephenson Engineering works were originally based, in the ‘Stephenson Quarter’ of that fair city. I think it’s fair to say that the ‘Rocket’, built in 1829 was the transportation device which changed the world, a new age in the history of transport.
Well, that’s enough history, let’s move on to the kit. It’s 1/24 scale from ocCre, short for ‘Ocio Creativo’ Spanish for ‘creative leisure’, a Barcelona based artisan kit manufacturer. The first photo is of the kit, well presented, and well packaged. It’s a real builders’ model, not the ‘stick Part A to Part B’ type of kit. The main parts are CNC accurately cut plywood, and then there is strip wood, metal rod, and a few white metal fittings. The second photo is making a start on the build, the boiler, locomotive chassis, and the firebox. More photos to follow in due course.
Cheers,
Mike
