It's arrived!

The Kingscale 5" gauge BR Standard Class 4 tank loco arrived this morning in a big wooden crate, all 15 stone of it. Once the rain stopped and I could wheel the motorbikes out of the garage (I needed to use the motorcycle lift) I could begin unpacking it.

The delivery man used his tail lift and pallet truck to unload it, and we got it onto one of my hydraulic trolleys so I could wheel it into the garage out of the rain. I used my electric drill to remove the many screws holding the lid down, observed the crate to be full of plastic foam 'squares' for packing and the loco invisible under a thick polystyrene sheet covered in shrink-wrap plastic. It was packed just as my Jubilee had been.

Bikes outside, end removed from packing case, ready to mate the hydraulic trolley to the (red) bike lift.

After lunch with the rain stopped I filled three bin bags with the plastic foam squares from inside the packing case, then as I had with the Jubilee, used a big claw hammer to lever off the packing case's external battens at one end, bashed the end off the packing case. I got the bikes outside, raised the bike lift platform and the hydraulic trolley to equal heights, removed the shrink wrap etc from the loco, and carefully maneuvered it out of the packing case onto the bike lift.

Shrink wrap cut, polystyrene sheet removed, and loco carefully maneuvered out of packing case onto the lift.

The edge of the packing case was overlapped with the bike lift to obviate the packing case and hydraulic trolley tipping as the 15 stone weight of the loco was moved out of the packing case onto the lift. The removable section of the lift (removable to allow a motorcycle's rear wheel to be dropped) made a good bridge between the case and the lift.

The packing case was then completely demolished flat so I could fit the bits into the car to take it to the tip later, and the 4MT was wheeled off the bike lift onto the hydraulic trolley for a good checking over and some photos!

 Job done! The 4MT on the hydraulic trolley where it will live when not in use.

 We even got a smidgen of sunshine to illuminate this lovely loco!

 Cab roof and back are removable (visible on the right, next to the loco) for driving and firing. The coal bunker is in the foreground (no coal in it yet) beneath which is the bunker water tank to supplement the water supply in the side tanks.

These are handsome locos!

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