A Breakdown Crane for Rospeath Lane?

 A project I’ve been thinking of starting is a breakdown train. I’d purchased a Airfix/Dapol breakdown crane a while ago then realised I was not sure one would be appropriate for Rospeath Lane. After a little research, I discovered that some Booth Rodley cranes were built for BR/WR in the late 1950s, so at a stretch, one could be justified. Then at a MERG meeting, a member mentioned he’d downloaded a GWR breakdown tool van and mess van from thingiverse.com. At the following meeting, he gave me a reject resin prints of each van to whet my appetite even further.

I needed no more motivation to discover more. During further research (Peter Tatlow’s–Railway Breakdown Cranes Vol 1) I discovered that a Cowens Sheldon 15-Ton Crane was located at Newton Abbott until 1956. Volumes 2 and 3 of this series of books are yet to be purchased, but I believe Volume three covers the Booth Rodley cranes.

As Penzance did not have a crane allocated, how could I justify one? No doubt I’ll come up with a feasible backstory, at the moment I’m thinking that rather than the Newton Abbott crane being relocated to Swindon in 1956, it relocated to Penzance. Would this have been a temporary allocation or permanent until withdrawal? This is something I’ll have to think about.

Anyway, during my online research, I found a website (not eBay) advertising an EM gauge Cowen Sheldon 15-ton crane for sale. This looked a closer match to the GW version than the one Oxford Rail are soon to release, so a purchase was made and it arrived this morning.

At some point during the next few months I hope to receive the complete kits including the under frames for the two vans. Then it will be one of those 'slow burn' projects. In the meantime, I feel this is an excellent start.