A few words about the BM kit ...
I guess that most etched kit manufacturers these days strive for high fidelity in their products. And BM is no different. In a 1997 Continental Modeller article reviewing the 4mm scale version of this kit (a forerunner to the 7mm scale kit) the author stated that
"With so many variations between the builds and locos over time, any commercial model must be a compromise. The kit basically depicts one of the 1951 Beyer, Peacock batch ...".
With several batches of the engines having been built between 1937 and 1967 and indeed by several manufacturers, and taking into consideration that these engines were shopped in South Africa over all those years of continuous operation, a modeller would be hard pressed to find two engines that looked the same; even when they came from the same manufacturing batch.
If the BM kits (the 7mm one seems to be an exact scaled up version of the earlier 4mm effort) are indeed a representation of the 1951 batch of Beyer, Peacock engines which covered the SAR road numbers 125 to 131, then there are a number of significant detail differences between the BM kit and my set of 1958 drawings.
Do I care? No, not really, but then I really don't have a right to complain either. For a start, I have to remember that my chosen kit is for a 30" gauge model whereas the prototype was constructed for 2ft gauge. So the gauge is wrong to start with.
As the building of the kit goes along decisions will be made about options and details that will be included where the kit is lacking, or change or omit details where the 1958 plans show otherwise.
In essence, if it wasn't for the BM kit being produced as it is, then there wouldn't be a model being built irrespective of what fidelity the model holds to the prototype.
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