Steve Johnson    Modelmaker

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18000

18100

GT3

GT3 English Electric 4-6-0TE

KR Models GT3 straight out of the box

GT3 was the third type of Gas Turbine locomotive to work in this country. Delivered to British Railways in 1961, it was built by English Electric. It differed to the other Gas Turbines by having mechanical transmission and a 4-6-0 wheel arrangement similar to a LMS Black Five. BR policy was to operate Diesel-Electric type locomotives and the project was abandonded. GT3 was returned to English Electric in 1962. The locomotive rather resembled a steam engine and was painted with a chocolate brown body and pea green frames.

The first kit I bought of this locomotive was a Q Kits white metal kit. I didn't make much progress with it, but then another kit was produced. This time Golden Arrow Kits produced a resin bodied kit with etched and white metal detailing parts. Designed to fit on a modified Hornby Black Five, I have yet to start construction.

The years have moved on and a crowd funded model to be produced by KR Models was announced at Warley in November 2018. Although I was interested, the company was initially woefully lacking any details of specifications etc. and a good deal of speculation surrounded the project, not helped by the then recent demise of DJ Models. This has changed over the last year and KR Models appeared at the 2019 Warley Show with a very good looking working engineering prototype. As with all EP's, there are a few detail alterations to be made, but nothing major. After a bit of a wait due to the 2020 Covid Pandemic, the model finally appeared in March 2021.

So, what do we think? My version is the DCC Ready model, without a decoder fitted. It certainly looks like GT3, but on closer inspection , there are a few niggles. Firstly, I must say it has a first class paint job. The Beech Brown looks just right and has a really nice semi-gloss sheen to it. A pity some other manufacturers can't manage this sort of finish. The obvious fault is the wayward buffer beam steps at the front. This is caused by the two holes on the the top of the beam not lining up with the vertical part of the handrails and so pushing it out. KR Models have stated they will be sending out replacement beams to correct this problem. If you look closely, you will see that that the guard irons are at the rear of the pony truck, rather than the front. Again, KR Models have acknowledged this problem and are going to send out replacement pony trucks. You can't really say fairer than that!

On my example, the right hand side checkerplate on top of the running board has lifted slightly. Annoying, but should be able to be put back with a dab of Glue'n'Glaze. Amongst the parts contained in the bag of bits are the green roller bearing covers, nicknamed 'hubcaps', for fitting later. I will do this as time permits along with the screw coupling, brake and heating hoses.

However, there are a few other problems mainly centring around the lighting and electrics. The model does have a working cab light, however, for some reason it is red! It should be white, preferably a warm white. The front tail lights, situated below the lower outer headcode discs are white. They should of course be red. In addition, they seem to be on all the time. The should not be on when the locomotive is travelling forward. The other lights work as expected. The cab light might be switchable once I have added a decoder. My guess is that this is a mix up in communications with the factory in China.  My decoder of choice for this will be a Zimo MX638D 21 pin. Once I have fitted this, I will be able to see what is going on. I will still need to replace the red cab light and white tail lights of course. A wiring diagram seems to show discreet feeds to the lights, so hopefully minimal rewiring of the PCB will be needed. I will probably re-map the decoder so that I can have switchable tail lights and turn the rear tender tail lights off when hauling a train. I will update this page with what I have done.

My verdict is generally favourable. I didn't think I'd see a RTR GT3 and it has saved me a lot of time kit building. An impressive effort by KR Models for their first venture into the RTR market.