Drawings for LYD now available.

See Drawings page.

Construction Notes for LYD now started

See Construction Notes

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The Association have had some special badges produced to celebrate it's recent 50th Anniversary. These are free to fully paid up members. These will be posted to members as they renew their subscriptions

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Please note that the castings have now been taken over by Robin Ward

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Photos of Peter Wardle's William Francis added

Link to photos

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New Page Added -

'Forthcoming Designs'

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At the National Rally held at Rugby on Sunday, 12th June 2016, LBSC's Ayesha took to the rails once again after not having run for nearly 50 years. The locomotive completed half a dozen laps with no problems until the blower became blocked and she had to return to the steaming bays.

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This page was last updated on 05/01/2026

The Association is now having to pay Bank Charges on all transactions.

We are now charged 50p for every cheque that is paid in, so, if possible, please try and make all payments online, either by PayPal or Bank Transfer.

We appreciate that this may not be possible or acceptable to everyone.

When using a Bank Transfer or PayPal please remember to put in the reference section exactly what you are paying for e.g. Castings, Membership etc. to avoid any confusion!

Following concern about the availability of plans, castings and tracks on which locomotives could be run, Paul Wiese arranged for a meeting in May 1975 to which all interested parties were invited. The result was the founding of the Association, the stated aims of which were to promote interest in the gauge.

• Drawings and construction details of most of the published designs are held in our library and can be viewed on request. Some of these can be supplied in either printed or 'soft' form.

• Hundreds of different castings (including a very large range of wheels) are now available, enabling almost all of the existing loco designs to be constructed.

• Drawings for a number of new locomotives have been designed, including an easy to build beginner's type (called Toby).

• Locomotive rallies and meetings are held regularly in various regions of the UK.

• Members now receive a journal (Steam Chest) printed in colour throughout 4 times a year.

The Association now looks forward to the future knowing that the interests in this historic scale are safe.

You can download our 'Aims' leaflet here.

Sometime around 1900 a set of track gauge standards was formulated. Thus tracks with a dimension of 2.500 inches between the inner rail edges were designated "GAUGE 3".

At that time, this gauge was fairly popular for garden or scenic model railways, with the engines using clockwork or meths powered. Certainly none of them were capable of hauling the driver, let alone a driver and passengers ! Such capabilities arose from the work of (arguably) one man, Lilian (Curly) Lawrence, who wrote under the pen name of LBSC.

Initially, the scale used for standard gauge locomoltives was half inch, but this was changed to 17/32-ins. (13½mm) very early on. A typical loco and tender is 3ft long, and looks very large when stood next to OO or O gauge models.

Narrow gauge locomotives are beginning to become popular and drawings for such designs as the Lynton & Barnstaple Manning Wardle engines are in preparation. Electric powered locomotives are becoming popular and these too have been or are being developed.

The Association has promoted two coal-fired locomotive designs suitable for beginners.