WAGR "S 548" Gardner

In 1943 the WAGR placed into service the first 3 of 10, S class steam locomotives designed by Frederick Mills and built at the Midland Workshops.
These 4-8-2 "Mountain" type locos were designed for mixed traffic use, weighing 119t in working order with a 13t axle loading which limited them to use on lines with 60lb rail, seeing them used mostly in the Eastern and South Western areas of WA. They were regarded by the crews to be free steaming and reliable machines which saw them last in service till the cessation of steam operations in 1972.

In 2007 Railwest Models released its kit of the "small tender" S class utilising a Mehano models "Mountain" steam locomotive for the mechanism.
The kit contains all main body parts cast in urethane, with mostly brass detailing parts as can be seen in this view below showing the model prior to painting. Construction of the kit took several months and was completed in May 2008 in time for the AMRA Model Railway Show where it ran well on Murray Hartzers "Parkerville" layout.

As with most of my models, the kit has been superdetailed to the best of my ability, fitted with all pipework, washout plugs, injectors, shaped cylinders, realistic tender coal load and footplate crew. Paint used was humbrol 76 green and 33 black with revell 93 for the visible brass fittings (safety valves) which have then been washed in a black watered down with turps. Pickups are fitted to all wheels except the pony trucks. It is fitted with DCC and more recently a sound chip has been added. It is a good runner and has been seen hauling realistic loads when in use on the exhibition layouts.


These locomotives were all named by the WAGR after mountains in WA and I chose to do 548 Gardner as there were good detailing photos available in existing books etc and to have one of the less obvious choices such as the 3 preserved locomotives.