GWR Royal Train in 4mm

This is a seven coach model of the GWR Royal Train, circa 1890, modelled in OO by Robert Tivendale. Robert never finished the set as he changed to 7mm in the meantime, so it has now been sold on. If the new owner happens to pass by here, I'm sure we'd all love to see these coaches painted in all their glory!

The "old" Royal Saloon, originally built for the broad gauge. Apart from this the Royal train of the 1890s consisted of two Passenger Brake Vans to Diagrams V2 and V5, the "new" Royal Saloon, a bogie First Class Saloon, a 4-wheeled First Class Saloon & a 6-wheeled First Class Saloon. Some excellent photos of the train can be found in Russell's "A Pictorial record of Great Western Coaches (Part1: 1838-1913)"
6-wheel first class saloon. With the exception of the PBVs, the carriages have been constructed from brass etches produced as a very limited run by Ron Cadman in the late 1970s. The underframes have been scratchbuilt, the bogie coaches running on Mallard models GWR Dean 6'4" bogies.
4-wheel first class saloon. The underframes of this and the six-wheeled saloon utilises Ratio and D & S Components. The roofs have been formed from styrene sheet.
The "new" Royal saloon. All the vehicles in the train are fitted with turned brass buffers, B&B couplings and finescale 00 gauge wheels.

Quite a train set. The two painted PBVs are a V5 van built from etched brass sides with a Ratio underframe, and a V2 van built from a Colin Waite etched brass kit.