Kitbashing a KCRC G-12 in HO scale

As every member knows, there are totally five G-12s in Hong Kong. Interestingly, they all have an extended walkway on their long hood ends whereas those from the US don’t. Peculiar to the Clyde-built units, which economized by using a frame standard with something it was building for Queensland at the same time. The batch it sold to New Zealand was also so fitted, in contrast to those bought directly from the EMD in US. That also explains why the G-12 models (in HO) available in the S. America or Europe are different from those from Australia.

Talking about models, in one of my previous kitbashing projects, I built a KCR G-16. I knew she was pretty lonely and badly needed a working partner. Thus I built a G-12 so that her dream came true. So did mine.

With the assistance of another fellow member, Gary To, I sourced a nice plastic G-12 from Black Diamond Models of Australia. Actually it offers different G-12 versions to meet its clients’ requirements. Its G-12s are also available in two KCR versions, with upper number boards (diesel locomotive nos. 51-52) or lower number boards (nos. 53-55). I decided to go for the latter this time.

My model came unpainted with all the basic body details. Mechanically, it is equipped with a centrally mounted “Mashima” can motor and a good drive system. It runs very smoothly and can easily pull 10 free-rolling freight cars on level track.

I painted it in the old KCR’s livery. Some additional commercial detail parts were attached to improve its appearance. I also scratch built some detail parts for the truck sideframes e.g. brake-pipes, drainage pipes, etc. Decals and barricade stripes on the pilots were custom made. Gary favored me with lettering and installation of sand-pipes again. No doubt, the result of which was very good and satisfactory.

Raymond Lam
Member
The Hong Kong Railway Society

P.S. With my special thanks for the assistance rendered by Gary To who had also built some beautiful KCR G-12s with Black Diamond Models products (see the modeling column on the website).

Photos : by author

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