A friend complained recently that there was nothing worthwhile on eBay. Well, that's not always true, although I can't say haven't made some bonehead moves on eBay (remember Richard Morgan?). One night in January 2005 or so, I did a quick check of eBay just to see what was there. This was after 9pm and, remembering I live in California, you can see it was rather early in the morning in England. Nevertheless, there was a new listing, perhaps three hours old, of a Great Western King Charles II, a restoration candidate by an unknown builder, in pretty bad shape and described as such. Parts were missing, there was a dent in the smokebox, the paint was dodgy. There were only two photos, but what caught my eye was the full working valve-gear and the inside cylinders visible in one photo. Many of the valve-gear pieces were missing, as were many other bits, but something about this loco attracted the gambler in me. The price was not too bad and it was a 'Buy it Now' - so I did.

King Charles II after completion of restoration and repainting

I knew I'd bought a pig in a poke, so rather than pay for the shipping to the States, I asked the seller to send the loco to my good friend Barry Makey in Taunton. I knew Barry could assess the loco and tell me whether I had something of value - or a disaster for the next Bring & Buy at Telford. To put it mildly, Barry was not pleased. His first impression on unpacking it was that my pig in a poke was actually a pig's breakfast! It was badly packed, parts were loose and it looked like it had been painted with a whisk-broom. But he consented to look at the loco more carefully as soon as he had the time. "No hurry", said I, "Telford is many months away, and that's where it'll probably end up"!

A few months later, Barry called me and there was a bit of excitement in his voice. He said he had tried to strip the paint off the beast, but could not get it to come off without extensive scrubbing. He had soaked it in paint remover for over a week, but the only way to remove most of the paint was by scrubbing with a wire brush. That was the bad news.

The good news was that underneath all the paint and grime, Barry had found what he was certain was an early Stanley Beeson locomotive! Barry believes the loco was built originally to coarse scale standards with three-rail skate pickups and may have been a commission for Bassett-Lowke, or indeed a direct customer. He told me that in Beeson's catalogue of 1932 a 'King' was listed as 'Super detail' at £55 or 'cheaper model' at £35.

The wheels, the construction techniques, the nickel silver used in the construction, along with the fittings, convinced Barry it was a Beeson. He sent me several photos of the results of his work, which showed the stripped locomotive all in pieces as well as several of these details. They also showed the tremendous amount of work still required.

Barry and I have had several conversations about Beeson over the years. Barry knew him personally, has worked on Beeson's locomotives, has some Beeson parts in store and has owned a few of Beeson's locomotives, so I had no doubt that he knew what he was looking at.

Now came the hard part. I'm a decent modeller, but for me to restore this locomotive was simply out of the question. The loco didn't need just to be repaired and repainted, it needed proper restoration, and that needed to be done in a way that preserved as much Beeson workmanship, techniques and approach as possible. Barry was a natural, but he was not interested since he was trying to reduce locomotive building - but he did promise to put together a list of the parts I needed.

Several months went by. There is a very short list of people who could restore a loco such as this one properly, and I hoped to see some of them at Telford last year. But I never got there. Hurricane Katrina intervened, blowing my daughter and her family out of New Orleans and back to California the day before I was to leave. In the meanwhile, Barry changed his mind and decided to have a go at the restoration, a decision I think he regretted more than once.

Barry's restoration included straightening the boiler, replacing most of the pilot bogie, installing a complete Beeson backhead, having the original motor rewound and trued up to run smoothly, repairing some of the inside motion and constructing replacement parts for most of the rest. He replaced many other detail bits using Beeson parts from his stores. The tender was part Beeson but mostly Bassett-Lowke, so Barry constructed overlays with proper rivet detail for the sides and ends and converted the chassis to inside bearings from Bassett-Lowke's original outside bearing arrangement.

When Barry was done, the loco went to Les Richards, who did the outstanding paint and lining in the proper GWR colours. We thought briefly of leaving it in the bare metal to show off Beeson's workmanship, but we have the photos of that stage and Les's excellent work makes it comparable with Beeson's standards.

Thanks to Barry and Les, one of Stanley Beeson's early masterpieces has been reclaimed and restored to as close to its original condition as possible. Even though he died in 1992 and did his best work years earlier, Stanley Beeson remains one of the very best model builders who ever lived; it is an honour to own one of his creations. Look at the photos of that locomotive; remember it was built in the 1930s - and remember you really can find a few bargains on eBay!