Kettering Saturday Show 4 March 2023

Just to remind everyone that we will be attending the Kettering Show on Saturday.  If you would like us to bring your locomotive or rolling road for collection, please contact me by phone or email by Thursday at the latest as otherwise you may not receive your model/rolling road at the show. Our carrying capacity is restricted, so I only have a limited space for collection locomotives/rolling roads. If you have already contacted me your locomotive or rolling road is already booked.

 We look forward to seeing everyone at our stand. 

 John Borkowski

Swindon Show 4 February 2023
Thank you very much for everyone who came to the Swindon Show. It was a bit quieter than normal when the show was at Reading, but it was good to engage with you who came to the stand as we had a large number of our locomotives on display.

LMS/BR Ivatt Duchesses
As of today (14 Feb) we have reservations for 24 of the 25 Sir William Staniers, so we have transferred an additional 5 slots from the general production programme to this locomotive. If all these slots are taken up by the time you want to make a reservation for this engine and there are still spare slots for 46257 City of Salford, then please use a 46257 slot and say you want 6256/46256 in the notes. We will switch the slot to Sir William Stanier. This means that there are slots for up to 9 more models of 6256/46256. It is great to see the support for this programme which is so close to our heart. If only the real 46256 had been saved for the scrapman’s torch!

CLICK HERE to go to the Duchess reservations page.

I wish you all a Happy Valentines Day!

John Borkowski
14 February 2023

To welcome in the new year we are delighted to be able to bring you significant news of our next build, the LMS 7P 4-6-0 rebuilt Jubilees, Patriots and Royal Scots, as well as the unique 'British Legion'. We will also make the final Ivatt versions of the Princess Coronation (Duchesses).

Following a great deal of behind-the-scenes work we have developed highly detailed working drawings of these charismatic locomotives and we have been in close contact with our builder in South Korea to confirm production details. We hope shortly to commission the build and announce prices.

The whole production programme has been revised, taking into account the increased costs of making ultra-high-quality model locomotives due to minimum wage regulations in Korea, adverse BREXIT trade agreements, devaluation of the £ and the impact of inflation. All these factors have had a negative impact on demand, so we have adjusted the volume of 4-6-0 locomotives we plan to make to 80 models.

In addition we have added a programme of 30 Ivatt Duchesses representing the last two engines, 'Sir William A Stanier FRS' and 'City of Salford'.

We have also decided to take a flexible approach which allows a greater freedom of customer choice, while at a certain time freezing the programme so that we do not have the problem of fitting or changing names/numbers at a later date. So, unlike previous builds, you will, for the moment, be able to make a completely unrestricted choice of name and number from all those available. When production reaches the stage where we have to give the builder a painting specification, we will have to allocate names and numbers to the models which have not been reserved. After that point it will only be possible to choose from the available locomotives. In short, if you are keen on a particular engine, notify us of your reservation as soon as possible.

These engines will be designed and built to Scale 7 specifications. O Gauge models will be adapted from Scale 7 and be fitted with narrower chassis so that the models can negotiate sharper curves. The models will be fitted with our own helical high efficiency gearboxes, split axles and aerospace grade coreless motors. We shall also fit the new technology features that we introduced with the 68XX ‘Grange’ and 47XX tender locomotives.

Fully updated web pages with RESERVATION FORMS are now live on the site. You can access all the details of the 7P 4-6-0s HERE, and the Ivatt Duchesses HERE.

Happy New Year!
John Borkowski

In the January 2023 issue of Model Rail Magazine (308), editor George Dent has invited all readers to vote for the MODEL RAIL Model of the Year 2022.  We at Masterpiece Models have kindly been entered for three categories: 

• O Gauge Locomotives, 
• O Gauge Manufacturer of the Year and 
• Overall Manufacturer of the Year. 

This is based on the review our Class 52 Western Diesel Hydraulic that received a rave reception in Model Rail 297. 

If you are minded and willing to support our cause, please would you go online to:

www.model-rail.co.uk/model-of-the-year-2022 and vote for Masterpiece Models in the relevant categories. 

It would be good to see a high-quality product secure a few more votes. 

During the year my sound engineer Bryan Robertson and I have visited a number of model railway shows serving different scales and gauges and we can honestly say no diesel locomotive in any gauge on any stand or layout comes near to the looks and detail of our Western. It is simply the finest model that we have ever made.

The closing date for entries to the poll is 16 February 2023 and the results will be displayed in full in Model Rail issue 311, on sale on 16 March 2023. 

I have already voted. The process is simple and if you don’t have an opinion on all categories you can opt for 'don’t know' in the relevant section. 

Happy Christmas to everyone!

John Borkowski
24 December 2022