Background
The original plan was to construct a Welsh slate railway at a scale of 16mm to the foot scratch built as far as possible as a retirement project. As retirement and the move to Wales was a couple years away the project started with some coaches which, once the long dormant modelling skills had been reawakened, proved to be pretty successful.
The next step was a live steam locomotive based on a typical quarry Hunslet and this is where things started to go awry. I made a start using parts based on the Mamod model, which had a chassis and boiler of about the right dimensions. Whilst I got the loco to run there was no way that I could get all the radio control equipment on board. This was essential for the planned railway, as it would require control on gradients and for shunting. At this point I all but gave up on the project. The coaches and the loco, as far as it had got, sold on eBay and I started looking for another project.
Whilst attending the Welshpool and Llanfair Railway Gala one wet weekend we decided to take shelter and visit the Garden Railway Show. In a blinding flash it became apparent how manufactures managed to get the radio gear into there models based on small prototypes. They only called their models 16mm they did not actual work to it as a scale! In fact they did not appear to use the same scales for length, width and height!! To me this was totally unacceptable but it did provide a possible way forward.