LBSC (1883–1967)

LBSC was the pen-name of a model engineering writer usually known in private life as "Curly" Lawrence (he seems to have gone under numerous other names at various times), the name being taken from the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway, the company he had worked for as an engine cleaner and possibly a fireman for some years around the turn of the century. His articles on model steam locomotive construction, published in Model Engineer from the early 1920s until his death in 1967, are a legend in model engineering circles, and his designs still seem to be very influential half a century later.

"Tich", a simple two-axle tank engine intended as a project for beginners, is one of the most famous, and this posthumous compilation brings together his articles from the 50s and 60s describing how to build it. Sadly, the book economises rather on the illustrations, omitting a lot of the sketches he used to illustrate tools and techniques in the original articles, but it does include some entertaining period photographs of intrepid modellers driving their completed engines, including a Mrs Daltry of Rugby ("There is no reason why the ladies should not build model locomotives," as the caption rather unnecessarily points out).

There's a lot of nostalgia-inducing period atmosphere in the text as well, including anecdotes about "young Curly" improvising precision tooling out of hatpins and tram tickets and a rich selection of what would then have been routine racist remarks at the expense of hypothetical Irish, Scottish, female or Jewish characters (LBSC was at least half Jewish, and his wife was born in Edinburgh of English descent but invariably referred to as "a Scottish lassie", so he probably didn't "mean" any of this...).

Once you get beyond this surface stuff, the advice all seems to be very straightforward and practical, clearly aimed at newcomers to the hobby who don't have more than the basic minimum of tools in their workshops. Building a locomotive would still be a long and complex project, even at this level, and I have no intention of getting involved in anything like that, but it's fun to see how you might go about it, and how the individual steps all look quite manageable...… (más)