The prototype and a little history The 1840’s was a very interesting period with a rapid  development of steam engines from Stephenson's innovative Rocket of 1829.  These very attractive Scottish Caledonian 2-2-2 express passenger engines built between 1847 - 1849 with 6 foot (1.82m) driving wheels. The Chief mechanical Engineer of the Caledonian Railway at that time was Robert Sinclair. Fifty five 2-2-2 engines were built between 1847 - 1879 for the company some were later converted to a 2-4-0 wheel arrangement. The Caledonian  Railway was is existence from the 1845 until1923 when it was was absorbed into the London, Midland, and Scottish (LMS) Railway in 1923. They must have looked beautiful in their blue livery, this was the starting point for my inspiration to build the model. Sadly no example of this loco exists today. This style of locomotive originally designed by Alexander Allan became popular with many companies in the 1840's becoming know as the "Crewe Type". (see picture above) These locomotives were characterised by massive double frames, inclined cylinders, single safety valves and large sand boxes above the firebox all show on the model. The Meccano Model The model is based on ModelPlan 118 designed in 1999 by the late John Ince. It is built to a scale of about 1:14 based on the 5.5" diameter of the hub discs used for the driving wheels. John Ince's original was constructed with 1950's red and green parts when I saw the model plan I straight off thought I just had to build it in blue the colour used by the Caledonian Railway.  I have used 1978 dark blue constructional parts and 1973 mid blue perforated and flexible plates. The mid blue colour was not used in the UK for metal flexible plates but only in plastic so I had to strip and spray in a matching blue where I needed metal plates such as the boiler, firebox and tender sides. I used plastic plates for the inside of the tender and the cylinders this was to get the shapes I wanted. In my construction of the model I deviated somewhat from the ModelPlan although following its main principles. In places the text and pictures were in conflict but as I worked through the build I altered and rebuilt several areas. My thought was always to just build the loco for how it would  look rather than the operating model the plans called for. The draw back of running the model is the lack of flanges on any of the wheels! Therefore I left out the motor and micro switches as unnecessary for a static display model. I did however make a short length of track to display the model on more in the style of an early plate way, a primitive precursor to railways. My model has operating pistons, valve gear and screw down brakes on the tender. The latter though is not entirely correct, in my version as the screw brake should be on a  diagonal through the tender. This took a lot of thought to make it work without filling the tender with the mechanism. In the end I opted for a vertical screw down type frequently used on other locomotive tenders of the 1840's.Shown on the left. I was very pleased how well the colours worked out and delighted with the final appearance. It would be nice to have been able display it but with Covid-19 restrictions quiet impossible so I hope you can enjoy it here. My thanks to Graham Jost from Melbourne who built a model from the draft written plan and supplied me with helpful pictures of his build. There is short video showing additional pictures of the construction and the completed model click on the YouTube logo. I was delighted when my model was featured on the front cover of the April Club des Amis du Meccano magazine 154 and as a feature in the June 2021 155 edition. references: Hamilton Ellis Pictorial Encyclopedia of Railways. John Ince MODELPLANS 118 published by MW Models Brian Haresnape Railway Design since 1830 Volume 1 Wikipedia, Locomotives of the Caledonian Railway February 23 2021 revised 12906/2021