ACL CLASS R-1


An early U.S. contract from the American Locomotive Company, for a model at the 1915 Panama Exhibition, was a 3


⁄₄″ scale Chinese State Railway


2-8+8-2 displayed so its drivers turned by an electric motor could be observed in a mirror below it. A small 1926 freight set consisting of a rather bare 21


⁄₂″ gauge Pacific with Frisco mark-


ings, boxcar, gondola and caboose was presumably made on order for that road. The loco lacked details such as classification lights and air pump , nor had it cab window framing and only piping from the sand dome. Handsome- ly proportioned, it lacked the sort of de- tails given others. Another, from 1925, was an anonymous American Gauge III Pacific. Why or for whom it was built remains a mystery. It, too, was simply detailed.


A 1940 Smithsonian Institution com- mission for a display model was built by Victor M. Hunt, a freelance model maker who supplied Bassett-Lowke with his entire output in the late, trou- bled post-war years before it closed its retail trade in 1964. He had been tu- tored by Stanley Beeson, reputedly the finest builder of O scale models in the world. Hunt’s work is impeccable. It was a static Gauge III Atlantic Coast Line, Baldwin-built class R-l, 4-8-4, No. 1805. The 1938 prototype was the ulti- mate in dual service power and in its heyday pulled the prestigious Florida Special. It proved a bit too powerful, for


its reciprocating machinery was


over-counterbalanced and at high speeds pounded rails mercilessly, push- ing them out of alignment, a problem never adequately resolved. The model is truly superb, with none of the short cuts required for produc-


RAILROAD MODEL CRAFTSMAN


On the web at: www.carstensbookstore.com


91 The NEWCarstens Book Store!


tion runs, faithful to every nut, rivet and valve, some details so fine, even in Gauge III, it would preclude handling as an operating model, a magnificent, superdetailed model of a late steam- era locomotive perfectly realized in miniature.


Bassett-Lowke’s world-wide reputa-


tion for fine models, hobby or commer- cial, was well earned. This is but the tiniest portion of its production for the Canadian Pacific Ry., the Smithsonian and other railroad clients. It was a great twentieth century model-making company which left a rich heritage from so many sources.


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68  |  Page 69  |  Page 70  |  Page 71  |  Page 72  |  Page 73  |  Page 74  |  Page 75  |  Page 76  |  Page 77  |  Page 78  |  Page 79  |  Page 80  |  Page 81  |  Page 82  |  Page 83  |  Page 84  |  Page 85  |  Page 86  |  Page 87  |  Page 88  |  Page 89  |  Page 90  |  Page 91  |  Page 92  |  Page 93  |  Page 94  |  Page 95  |  Page 96  |  Page 97  |  Page 98  |  Page 99  |  Page 100