Lickham Hall / Lifford Hall

Hi there,

Does anyone have any experience with building LBSC's Lickham / Lifford Hall? Any major design errors or construction problems to be aware of?

This is the design which LBSC produced directly for AJ Reeves.

Many thanks

Steve

Steve,

While I cannot help directly and noting no one has so far replied, so maybe bumping this back up to the top will help!

One of our members many years ago built a 5" gauge Hall. I have a vague recollection he may have used the LBSC drawings you mention, scaled up to suit. Sadly I can't ask him as he is no longer with us. The finished engine was a nice thing though and ran very well. It has been sold in recent years I believe, it was named "Sparkford Hall" I guess it's out there somewhere still!

Paul.

Thanks Paul,

I suspected that very few have been built - a couple of part-built examples have shown up at Station Road Steam over the years and there's a 3 1/2" Hall on Youtube in the guise of the Harry Potter loco which may or may not be to the LBSC design.

Now that the big Hunslet is finished I have been thinking about what to built next. 3 1/2 inch gauge has the appeaI of portability and is a size more suited to my workshop equipment. It has the added appeal that it's the only gauge common throughout the USA and the UK, making it a portable choice in all respects.

A chap in the US has a full set of Lifford Hall drawings and castings for sale that have lain under a bench since the late 60's. The apparent rarity of models built to this design is also appealing, so I am keen to understand if there's a specific reason for the lack of popularity other than the design wasn't serialized through Model Engineer magazine and hence may not have been well known.

Best regards

Steve

Hi Stephen

If I remember correctly ( and if I'm not I'm sure somebody will correct me!) the design was briefly published in M.E as Ivy Hall with an oversize boiler and was a bit of a caricature. But then offered by the old A.J Reeves as Lifford Hall with a much more scale appearance.

Not sure about any problems with the design, it would be worth setting out the valve gear as per the late Don Ashton's book and website, but there was one to the Reeves design used to visit the Welling club some years ago that seemed to go well, it certainly looked good. I think the owner was a member of the North London club.

Always nice to see these older designs running.

Just looked at Brian hollingsworth's LBSC book and Ivy Hall was published in 1955 as a modernised Hall at the request of the then editor of M.E, and is stated to be one of the things that led to LBSC's resignation. The more to scale design was marketed by Reeves as Lickham Hall originally.

Dave

Edited By Dave Wootton on 18/11/2020 09:27:03

Edited By Dave Wootton on 18/11/2020 09:28:58

Edited By Dave Wootton on 18/11/2020 09:34:19

Edited By Dave Wootton on 18/11/2020 09:35:17

Many thanks for the research and additional info Dave.

Best regards

Steve