Grosvenor is generally regarded as the masterpiece of LBSC. Completed in 1957, this locomotive unusually  occupied ten years for a man who otherwise could turn out locomotives like shelling peas. Grosvenor is a 2-2-2 single from his beloved London Brighton & South Coast Railway. His home, workshop and track were in Purley next to that railway line. The model is in 3 1/4in. gauge.

It was never written up in the magazines of the day, as by this time ‘Curly’ as he preferred to be known, was in his late 70s. And in a bizarre publishing decision he was forced to resign from his freelance work for Model Engineer in 1959. It was not until 1966 that the magazine realized that it could not do without him and he continued to write until his death in November 1967. He was about 85.

For the benefit of younger model engineers who may not be familiar with Lillian ‘Curly’ Lawrence, it is to him they should be grateful for the fact that there is a hobby at all. He pioneered many things to turn what had been a pastime for the wealthy who simply bought models, to a hobby that the average man could enjoy in a home workshop. He showed how small coal-fired locomotives that could haul passengers could be made, and which were a class above the company-built locomotives that were all that was available hitherto. His articles in Model Engineer, and elsewhere, explained just how it could be done, with extraordinary simplicity, clarity and humour.

Grosvenor is pictured here at Sandown Park on the stand of the National 2 1/2in. Gauge Association, which has done everything possible to conserve his work. A great club. To discover more see the excellent and comprehensive book (with Grosvenor on the cover) by the late Brian Hollingsworth, now sadly out of print.

Like Curly, Grosvenor was unique, a one-off. She was built at Brighton in 1874 in the Stroudley era and worked on the LBSCR until withdrawn 1,048,000 miles later in 1907. It is likely that she was then sold to the Italian State Railways, and destroyed in the great earthquake at Messina in 1908. J. N. Maskelyne described her as “a stately engine, a real aristocrat, and she was loved by all who knew her.”