The USRA Heavy Pacific that my castings are all about establishes a locomotive layout, as in frame, wheel dimensions, trailing truck, and pony truck.

This casting oozes nostalgia, and establishes a strong base for a replica locomotive but also offers tremendous reproduction rewards for a freelance model of your own conception.

I don’t sell castings and drawings, I sell a locomotive design based on a 4-6-2 Pacific or a 4-4-2 Atlantic, and I have tenders to go with them at 5 ft long, along with thousands of rivets, twin axle truck or triple truck, and even a centipede truck – how good is that!

My main direction is to supply machined components for a locomotive so that more enthusiasts can enjoy this field of engineering expertise – and, quite simply, that is what it is all about.

If you are purchasing components from me for either a 4-6-2 or a 4-4-2 then you are purchasing a locomotive, because everything I make is compatible to those designs. Basically a 4-4-2 is 1 wheel short so it is 10.5 inches shorter than a 4-6-2.

I have the plans, the castings, the tolerances, the castings that can reflect true scale era of design and importantly the locomotive boiler complying to the AU code and I provide, in my opinion, the best in Australia’s ongoing customer support because I have experienced what is currently out there.

The fact is that my 2.750 bore castings with 3.500 inch stroke may not be compatible with, say, 6 inch wheels because the design format is with 10 inch wheels. BUT, I can supply smaller wheels and a more suitable steam chest that will allow greater clearance between the rail and your steam valves under your cylinders in the event of a derailment. But that is a different locomotive.

Ultimately if I can help you to be involved in this simply captivating interest, to have a 7¼ locomotive that impresses (and there are not many that don’t) then give me a call and we can talk about what you want to do and how we can achieve it.

Ron Slender