Review of Accucraft ‘Mona’

By Philip Brockbank

I purchased my Mona from Martin’s Models in December. 

Made mainly of brass, this is a very detailed model, note the brake gear, sandpipes etc.  The paint finish too is excellent, with the complex lining very well done. It has nothing in the way of electronic gadgetry, no sound, no lights, no smoke unit, but looks very graceful on the move with those large driving wheels gliding round.

As the real thing runs on 3 foot gauge track Accucraft have modelled Mona at 15mm/ft giving the correct scale/gauge combination on 45mm track.  This means that Mona looks slightly large alongside some LGB stock, but not enough to be a problem in the average garden setting.

Here is Mona pulling a LGB Zillertal coach for size comparison.  I am told that matching IoM coaches should be coming, so it will be possible to form a complete train to scale.

So far so good.  Unfortunately running Mona on my line has not been without problems.  There is a slight jolt as Mona negotiates the frogs of LGB radius 5 points.  I guess this is due to different flange measurements on Accucraft wheels.  It is less noticeable on radius 3 pointwork.  The next problem was that the leading pony truck was very prone to derailment, particularly on a radius 3 reverse curve that it refused to negotiate at any speed.  I greatly improved this by adjusting the spring steel support plate to increase downward pressure of the truck on the track.  The next problem was that Mona would only stutter along one section of my return loop.  On investigation I found that this section of track is out of true and needs levelling laterally.  All my LGB engines run over the same section without complaint.  It just goes to show that not all makes are so forgiving of dodgy track laying!  The final problem I had is that the coupling loops are set a couple of mm too high, so keeping Mona coupled to her train is a problem.  I have spoken to Martin at Martin’s Models about this who had already taken this issue up with the manufacturers. Adjusting the coupling height is tricky so in the meantime the solution may be to fit a more prototypical coupling design and only use Mona with certain stock similarly fitted.  Also worth noting is that Mona is not suitable for radius 1 or 2 curves.  I tried running her on my loft layout which has sharp curves and on radius 2 she slows almost to a halt.

In summary Mona is a real beauty, but not as easy to live with as your forgiving and bullet proof LGB stuff.  Even at £775 she looks good value compared to say those LGB/Aster jobs that sell for much more.  And of course she’s UK outline to true scale/ gauge, and they don’t come along very often do they?