LBSC

See also Curly Lawrence at Wikipedia.



"LBSC" was the pen-name of one of model engineering's most prolific writers. Lillian "Curly" Lawrence was born in 1882 and by the time he died in 1967 had designed over 100 locomotives, building over 50 himself. An enigmatic character, not to mention one who had almost no ability to tolerate criticism of his work, he nevertheless had a natural empathy with his readers and a remarkable knack of making the most complicated workshop procedures sound utterly straightforward.

Besides the ‘Model Engineer’ magazine, his writings appeared in other journals between the mid-1920's and the 1950's. He produced more design's and construction articles for 2.5 inch coal-fired locomotives than for any other gauge. Most LBSC designs were based on actual prototypes, but were not necessarily finished to scale. With this generous exposure, it is perhaps not surprising that many of his engines (and their derivatives) are still around today, together with older engines by Bassett-Lowke, Carson and their contemporaries.

Most of these early engines were built to a nominal scale of 1/2" to the foot, but shortly after WW2, the norm became to build to 17/32" (13.5mm) to the foot. This is the scale that G3 models are built to these days. LBSC was a former “engineman” and the famous initials he used to identify himself to thousands of modelers around the World stood for an old British railway name : London, Brighton, South Coast …