Two products I have used recently which may be of interest to members of our S scale group are locomotive number plates from Narrow Planet and hand-rail posts for hooded diesel locomotives from A-Line in the USA.
Narrow Planet is a company in England that makes kits and bits for the narrow gauge enthusiast.
I recently ordered and received some number plates for two of my steam locos and for three Y class diesel locos. Steve at Narrow Planet is very helpful. You can order up to two sets of 3 number plates for 4 pounds sterling delivered to an address in Australia which is a very good deal. These are etched brass oval number plates, as appeared on all WAGR steam locomotives and on the B, M, MA, Y and Z class diesels.
Steve at Narrow Planet makes them to order for you. They are exquisite and very reasonably priced. They come in a standard envelope through the post once your order is finalised to your satisfaction. Payment is by B-Pay. They are listed on the Narrow Planet Website with the other 4mm scale number plates under the heading Western Australian railways. Steve originally did the artwork for an order from Andrew May who recomended them on this very blog. They are however made to S scale, not 4mm scale. You just need to remember to order 3 plates for steam locomotives (two for the loco and one for the rear of the tender) and two for the diesels which had oval number plates. This needs to be done with the order in the section where you can write in your special request which goes as an email. Steve answers all emails and orders fairly promptly. the plates arrived in about 3 weeks. The three sets of Y class loco number plates can be seen below. They cost 9 Pounds or about A$25 delivered.
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| Y class number plates. Artwork is sent to the customer prior to final order being made up. |
The second product, metal handrail posts, were first brought to our attention by Richard at the December 2014 meeting of the S scale group. These are made by A-line but are best ordered from Walthers on-line store. A-line do not deliver overseas. I recently ordered 2 packets of the medium handrail posts for my two A class locos, my C class DE loco and my MA DH loco. Richard was the first to use them on his D class loco. You get 35 posts in each packet so I calculated that I needed two packets. I ordered the medium or 5/8" ones which worked out well. I used 0.5mm brass rod for the actual handrails which thread through the eye of the posts quite easily. the smallest dab of super-glue keeps them rigid once you have fitted them. These are also delivered in a small padded envelope by normal overseas mail. They say to allow up to 6 weeks but I think they arrived in half that time.
Happy Modelling.
