Rosebud Kitmaster by Keith Wills R
osebud, no, not Citizen Kane’s boyhood sled, but a line of mold- ed plastic model train kits, circa 1960 from Rosebud Kitmaster Ltd., Northamptonshire,
England. In the
states, the company had a showroom lo- cated at 200 Fifth Avenue, Manhattan, New York’s Toy Center where numerous manufacturers maintained sales rooms. Here it was known as Rosebud Plastics Corporation of America. Handsome, well detailed British and international prototype kit models were 4mm OO/HO scale for 16.5mm HO gauge track. They had European wheel contours and gauge standards, not the NMRA’s and, while able to run here, lo- comotives and coaches would have had difficulty passing through switches. Ads for them first appeared early in 1960 and ran to 1961. They were pock- et money kits. There were thirteen un- powered, free rolling locomotives and three coaches ranging in price from $1.00 to $3.00. Locomotives were a wide diversity from early historic pro- totypes such Stephenson’s Rocket to the newest 2-10-0 Evening Star freight locomotives, the very last made in Britain and outshopped in March 18, 1960. Among British prototypes, there were the 19th century Stirling 8 Foot Single 4-2-2, School’s class 4-4-0 Har- row, while others such as an American 4-4-0 General and one each of Swiss and Italian origin, totaled 13 by 1961. To assemble them required styrene
glue, with close attention taken not to freeze the locomotive’s free-rolling parts. They required painting, not sup- plied in the kits, but had decals which required special care.
Three coaches, corridor composite, corridor second and corridor brake sec- ond, were molded in British Railway’s
Decal Set,
Solvaset or flat varnish tended to de- stroy them. When wet, the carrier film became milky, which cleared when pressed firmly onto the model. Some hobbyists found the locomotives could be made to run by putting a power drive with metal wheels in a tender bogie, but weights would have been necessary in the boiler and tender to keep them from derailing with a con- sist in tow. The lead photo here of a tank locomotive reveals a heavy tin- plate-like, loop-and-pin type coupler, as these were mainly to have been col- lector pieces. If modelers here wanted accurate British link couplers, it would have meant fabricating or importing them.
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Standard deep red, and later green, with black roofs and ends. Other no- table details were the diaphragms, truck frames, wheels, detailed under- body, floor and sheet metal weights which brought the car’s weight to four ounces for layout use. Plastic wheels in plastic frames assured free rolling. The cars were better suited on a layout than the lightweight locomotives which would have needed additional work to make them operative. Plastic-base paints were needed for many of the locomotives’ multi-colored liveries and details such as pop valves, whistles, coach door handles, etc. The line was taken over later by Airfix and in the late 1990’s was still available from Dapol. This was a rather long
manufacture life of classic prototypes. I am unaware if they are still made. While handsome, the locomotives were really meant as collector pieces than to have been fully operational. For a powered Kitmaster locomotive to pull a rake of coaches or consist of vans, weight was essential to hold the rails. British Airfix also made a range of inexpensive, lightweight, all-plastic freight cars, later continued by Dapol. Perhaps a powered locomotive could have hauled a consist of them. This is a little known line, for being
foreign it primarily produced proto- types unfamiliar to modelers here. While oversized at 4mm, British load- ing gauge was a bit smaller than ours and possibly they could have been
TWO PHOTOS (BELOW AND OPPOSIT) ASSEMBLY INSTRUCTIONS FOR “DUCHESS OF GLOUCESTER”
JULY 2012
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