For Sale: Unique brass and steel handbuilt Kitson Meyer with LGB power units.

Sold for 950.00 GBP
(inc. 0 GBP donated to website)
NOW SOLD!

Another day, another essay-length “For Sale” posting….! ;)

I’m continuing the thinning out of my collection by moving on some of the “oddities” that I’ve acquired over the years, so that I can concentrate on my core interests of Harz/Saxon/Austrian stuff.
Up for sale this time is what I believe to be a unique, hand-built loco; the body is brass and steel, around a massive steel pipe boiler, and it runs on a pair of 6-wheel LGB power units that appear to be the cut-down chassis of two U-class 0-6-2 locos.

Kitson 7.jpeg

Kitson 4.jpeg

Kitson 1.jpeg



The design is patterned on the huge Meyer articulated locos built by Kitson in Leeds for hauling immense nitrate trains in the Andes mountains in Chile - I don’t think it’s an exact scale copy of a single specific loco (though I could be wrong), but it certainly captures the overall look of the prototypes.
Although this is a loco that was used in South America, being British-designed and built I don’t think it would look out of place on many British-style garden lines!

I bought it second-hand many years ago, in a rather dodgy electrical state, in analogue form with the whole of brass body acting as a common return for the motor wiring. :(
I stripped both power units off the model, re-wired them for DCC and isolated everything from the body, then rebuilt it with both units wired to a Massoth XLS sound decoder and speaker mounted in the rear bunker (under a dummy coal load). The decoder sound files are those used on the LGB 0-6-0+0-6-0 Mallet, and work just fine for this loco.

Kitson 11.jpeg


Kitson 6.jpeg

At present the head and tail lamps - which were originally run from a PP3 battery I think - are NOT connected to the decoder because I never got around to it, but this would be a very simple job for someone to complete. Each power bogie unit now has a 4-way plug and socket connection to the wiring loom so that they may be easily removed for servicing if necessary.
There are two G-scale crew in the cab (Preiser, I think?), one with cigar butt and a very natty sun hat - and the cab interior is very well detailed with controls and general gubbins. All four brass-rimmed spectacle glasses swivel! :)


Kitson 13.jpeg

Kitson 14.jpeg

This is an enormously heavy loco with incredible adhesion and pulling power, just like its prototype - when visiting other lines with it, it has coped with heavy trains up massive gradients that had stopped almost all other locos, even multiple-headed big US diesels.

The loco comes with a very nicely built heavy board storage box, as seen in some of the photos. Given its weight and value, I would much rather it was either collected or delivered by hand than to trust it to a courier, and I would be prepared to travel a reasonable distance either to deliver or to meet halfway for a personal handover; if that is impossible then I would consider shipping, fully insured, at cost - but I’d rather not have to do that. If you’re at all interested, please talk to me and we will see what we can arrange. For collection/meeting purposes, I’m near Colchester in North Essex, just off the A12.

Kitson 9.jpeg

Kitson 10 book.jpeg



NOW SOLD!

Jon.
 

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Oh, and my track needs weeding, nothing has run on it for a year now.... :(

Gonna put that right soon, if all goes well!

Jon.
 
NOW SOLD!

Another day, another essay-length “For Sale” posting….! ;)

I’m continuing the thinning out of my collection by moving on some of the “oddities” that I’ve acquired over the years, so that I can concentrate on my core interests of Harz/Saxon/Austrian stuff.
Up for sale this time is what I believe to be a unique, hand-built loco; the body is brass and steel, around a massive steel pipe boiler, and it runs on a pair of 6-wheel LGB power units that appear to be the cut-down chassis of two U-class 0-6-2 locos.

View attachment 272624

View attachment 272621

View attachment 272618



The design is patterned on the huge Meyer articulated locos built by Kitson in Leeds for hauling immense nitrate trains in the Andes mountains in Chile - I don’t think it’s an exact scale copy of a single specific loco (though I could be wrong), but it certainly captures the overall look of the prototypes.
Although this is a loco that was used in South America, being British-designed and built I don’t think it would look out of place on many British-style garden lines!

I bought it second-hand many years ago, in a rather dodgy electrical state, in analogue form with the whole of brass body acting as a common return for the motor wiring. :(
I stripped both power units off the model, re-wired them for DCC and isolated everything from the body, then rebuilt it with both units wired to a Massoth XLS sound decoder and speaker mounted in the rear bunker (under a dummy coal load). The decoder sound files are those used on the LGB 0-6-0+0-6-0 Mallet, and work just fine for this loco.

View attachment 272628


View attachment 272623

At present the head and tail lamps - which were originally run from a PP3 battery I think - are NOT connected to the decoder because I never got around to it, but this would be a very simple job for someone to complete. Each power bogie unit now has a 4-way plug and socket connection to the wiring loom so that they may be easily removed for servicing if necessary.
There are two G-scale crew in the cab (Preiser, I think?), one with cigar butt and a very natty sun hat - and the cab interior is very well detailed with controls and general gubbins. All four brass-rimmed spectacle glasses swivel! :)


View attachment 272630

View attachment 272631

This is an enormously heavy loco with incredible adhesion and pulling power, just like its prototype - when visiting other lines with it, it has coped with heavy trains up massive gradients that had stopped almost all other locos, even multiple-headed big US diesels.

The loco comes with a very nicely built heavy board storage box, as seen in some of the photos. Given its weight and value, I would much rather it was either collected or delivered by hand than to trust it to a courier, and I would be prepared to travel a reasonable distance either to deliver or to meet halfway for a personal handover; if that is impossible then I would consider shipping, fully insured, at cost - but I’d rather not have to do that. If you’re at all interested, please talk to me and we will see what we can arrange. For collection/meeting purposes, I’m near Colchester in North Essex, just off the A12.

View attachment 272626

View attachment 272627



NOW SOLD!

Jon.
This brings back memories!
I can tell you that this loco was built by a good friend of mine, Peter Janes of Newton Abbot who sadly passed away some years ago, he was a prolific builder of 'one offs' which he usually sold via GRS.
This particular loco was made about twenty years ago, the 'simple electrics' sounds just right for Peter who's philosophy was that these things run in the garden, make them robust with no complicated works inside them.
I remember this one as I delivered it to GRS along with another model when I was visiting relatives in that part of the world.
Glad to see it's still around and doing what it was made for!
 
This brings back memories!
I can tell you that this loco was built by a good friend of mine, Peter Janes of Newton Abbot who sadly passed away some years ago, he was a prolific builder of 'one offs' which he usually sold via GRS.
This particular loco was made about twenty years ago, the 'simple electrics' sounds just right for Peter who's philosophy was that these things run in the garden, make them robust with no complicated works inside them.
I remember this one as I delivered it to GRS along with another model when I was visiting relatives in that part of the world.
Glad to see it's still around and doing what it was made for!

Hi Alcash - that's great info, as I had never known anything about the provenance of the loco in all the time I've owned it! I purchased it a good ten years ago from someone who had, I believe, himself acquired it from an auction - so it came with no information or history whatsoever.

I put it up for sale on here a week or so ago as I'm trying to reduce my loco stable to a more manageable size, and had decided to sell on several things that didn't fit my preferred themes of Harz and Saxon lines; after not getting any takers on here straight away, I had to go over to GRS last week to meet up with a fellow forum member to deliver some other things he'd purchased from me, and just on the off-chance I took the Kitson along to show it to Matt.... he made me an offer for it that was really not far off what I'd been asking for it on here, so I was more than happy to conclude a deal with him and leave it there. :)

While I was there, Michael Adamson turned up at the shop and was having a good look at it - both he and Matt were sure they'd seen it before, and Michael did mention Peter Janes' name as the possible builder but he couldn't be totally sure.
Anyway, long story short, it's now off my hands at a deal that I was happy with, and it should be going back up for sale at GRS in due course!

So, thanks for your posting - it's great to know something about the loco, even though I've now passed it on - I've had some great running from it over the last few years, it's virtually unstoppable on even the most ludicrous gradients! :D

Let's hope that somebody now buys it from GRS and gives it another good home....

Jon.
 
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