Having built Liza Jane she has become part of the family and is running on a regular basis. She even had her first public running at our Bonfire Night party where she performed brilliantly.

I have decided that I need to build something else! Not another locomotive but a Stuart Models Victoria – a model mill engine. The challenge in some ways is a step up form Liza Jane in that this model will be machined by myself rather than being put together from pre-machined parts.

I have become an apprentice again for the purposes of this project to the marvellous and patient Brian Clarke. He has offered to guide me through the process of machining and assembling the engine.

In this blog I will just cover opening the kit.

The kit is a very heavy item that arrived after a few days direct from Stuart Models. I also brought a book “Building the Victoria” to act as a guide. I am glad I did because the kit just contains an exploded assembly diagram with very brief instructions and drawings of each component to be machined.

Along with the instructions comes tow layers of parts (like a chocolate box) of castings, fasteners and bar stock from which the various components will be made and assembled.

I will be back with another blog when I will have machined the first component – the sole plate which you can see at the centre of the image above.