009 locomotives

Building a model railway is all about personal choice. We all have our priorities and the results of our modelling shows how different we all are. My personal bugbear is the practice of slinging inside framed chassis under prototypes which were outside framed. Backwoods Miniatures fortunately have brought out some fine, accurate kits, but without question, many modellers have failed in building their chassis successfully. I am one of them and have to pay others to build them for me. I have no trouble building the bodies.

The total lack of reasonable proprietary outside framed chassis with realistic valve gear has been the problem...that is until now.

you're as ugly as sin babe, but have you got some chassis!

Roco has bitten the bullet and come up with an outside framed HOe six coupled locomotive. It is not cheap, at just under a £100, but at long last there is a viable alternative to having a horrid unrealistic chassis hanging under you narrow gauge model. For my eyes, Continental locomotives are damned ugly....they deserve to be rebodied!. The Roco chassis runs perfectly. It has a flywheel which also helps, driving the loco over slightly dirty track with no hesitation. All our locos are now flywheel fitted.

Backwoods Miniatures Manning Wardles

Still going strong! Tasmanian K1  built by me 1974 in silver and brass. It took nearly six months to get the outside frames to work!

One problem in these small gauges is to get acceptable running for many differing locomotive types. We find that our Garratt locomotive shows 'P' factor when running. That is, the rotation of the universal drive causes the articulated chassis to bias to one side or another which causes derailment on turnouts unless the check rails are perfectly set. The 2-6-2 Manning Wardles on the other hand, have long rigid wheelbases which can get tight on turnout checkrails. On County Gate, we have to get the check rails to within one thou. to get reliable operation for both types of loco.

Another problem is the variation in performance of locomotives. When I built the first two sections of County Gate, I was still living in the dark ages and wired the railway for DC (they had only just invented the wheel in Herefordshire). Having seen what can be done with it, conversion to DCC starts during the winter of 2007.  Each loco can be programmed to give predictable and consistent performance. In addition, the track voltage is a steady 15V AC so dirty track is much less of a problem. At long last, we are blasting into the 21st century!

L & B locomotives

'Lew'

custom built chassis for 'Exe' by Andrew Griffiths - click on image to enlarge

 'Exe' ready for the paint shop - click on image to enlarge

chassis fitted with pickup - Peter Wallace

chassis after metal treatment - Peter Wallace

click for full size image

click for full size image

Backwoods miniatures L & B locos are 'Lew', 'Taw', 'Exe', 'Yeo' and 'Lyn'. These are nearly all completed. I find that age has overtaken me a bit when it comes to chassis building, so these are built by experts.

The locos are panelled, lettered and lined by Tony Freestone. We have selected a lighter SR green than the original. It is quite possible that this green could have been used in the 1930s and the result is in our opinion better for exhibition.

railcar (see birth of the railcar)

The railway began to experiment with railcars in order to reduce costs during low traffic periods. Eastleigh, who wanted to promote their 'modern' image, decided to use the railway to develop a new generation of diesel electric railcars. A French engineer, Jehan du Pontivice, who had gained considerable experience in railcar design working at the Bugatti factory in France was employed as consultant. The prototype unit, no. 200 was delivered in January 1934 and a further unit, no. 201, much improved, was delivered in Spring the following year. For the first time in many a year, the railway became the fastest way to travel in the area and local traffic soon returned. From making a substantial loss during winter months, passenger returns showed satisfactory profits. Steam traction continued to be employed during the tourist season when long trains were required and of course continued with goods traffic.

railcar (click to enlarge)

And now for something very silly

Following a joke about articulated locomotives, I drew a Lynton and Barnstaple Mallet. If traffic had been heavier, the design could well have proved better than double heading. The locomotive remains within the loading gauge and would have negotiated the curves. The locomotive number tells it all, (the number of the Beast). It is called 'River Avon'

The loco runs exceptionally well at County Gate. It will be the last freelance piece of rolling stock for our railway

see how to build it here

 

the Mallet loco 'River Avon' with 'Taw'

Southern Railway locomotives built for County Gate:-
 

Taw	761	2-6-2T	Backwoods kit	b - J de Frayssinet c - rebuilt by Peter Wallace  p - Tony Freestone
Exe	760	2-6-2T	Backwoods kit	b - J de Frayssinet c - rebuilt by Peter Wallace  p - Tony Freestone
Yeo	759	2-6-2T	Backwoods kit	b - J de Frayssinet c - Peter Wallace  p - Tony Freestone
Lew	188	2-6-2T	Backwoods kit	b - J de Frayssinet c - Peter Wallace  p - Tony Freestone
Lyn	762	2-6-2T	Backwoods kit	b - J de Frayssinet c - Peter Wallace  p - Tony Freestone
River Avon	666	0-6-0-0-6-0T	freelance Mallet	b - J de Frayssinet c - ROCO/JdF  p - Tony Freestone
	200		freelance railcar	b - J de Frayssinet c -Grafar/JdF  p - Tony Freestone
	201		freelance railcar	b - J de Frayssinet c -Riverossi/JdF

b  body builder
c - chassis builder
p - painter

Glenthorne Harbour Authority locomotives

 

the 70s models
 

the Garratt (Glenthorne Harbour Authority No. 4)

This was the hardest thing I think I ever made in miniature! The basis was an N gauge diesel loco. The motor in central and drives the bogies by lay shafts with universal joints. Axles extenders were made and fitted using a jig. I did artwork which was the basis for photo etching the parts at the nearby Beech Aerospace division (they did this in between the times they were building exploding cryogenic tanks for Apollo 13!). The loco is very powerful but solder joints have got a tad brittle and I have had to do quite a bit of servicing. I actually brought it to the UK in the 70s to a Wessex 009 group meeting. The loco has now had a major overhaul and has been fitted with a flywheel which has much improved running. stripped for flywheel fitting (click to enlarge) 2 - 6- 2 Hunslet  (Glenthorne Harbour Authority No. 1) This was a model of the WHR Hunslet 'Russell' that I made in the early 70s. Sadly, our cat Lenny took a shine to it when it was running. The result was a solid right claw that hooked it onto a brick step. The locomotive was completely destroyed. No animal was injured or upset in any way as a result of this incident. The loco has been replaced with a Backwoods version, fitted with a ROCO outside frame chassis. the new No. 1 built from a Backwoods kit and Roco chassis. It is lined by Tony Freestone

(Glenthorne Harbour Authority  No 6)  2-6-2 Alco

The Alco started out as a white metal kit which was super-detailed but not fitted with a new outside framed chassis. Until the time that this could be redressed, it lived in the loco shed undergoing maintenance! Hey, how lifelike is this? Some locos remain dismantled forever! The Alco has now been rebuilt by Pilton Yard. The bunker was enlarged and new cab panels, made surplus by the withdrawal of Manning Wardle 'Oare', completed the picture. The chassis is now, of course, an outside frame Roco. Sadly, there is no room to install the rear pony truck which has to be a dummy. No 6 after Pilton Yard rebuild but already a bit dirty! Sadly no bar frames. Loco crew are not fitted as yet. This will hide the box which contains the ROCO mechanism- click on image to enlarge (Glenthorne Harbour Authority  No 9)  4-6-0 Baldwin

The most unloved of the WHR locomotives, our Baldwin has a scratch built body fitted to a Liilput chassis. New valve gear was drawn, etched and fitted. Unlike its prototype, this has been the best running locomotive of the fleet (until No 1) and actually ran non-stop for 2 years in Denver on a fund raising layout. It has been remotored by Andrew Griffith. It is not possible to fit a flywheel to this model. By modern day standards, the Lilliput chassis runs very fast. When tested by a 4mm/1ft Jeremy Clarkson the figures were: 0 to 60 in 6 seconds top speed 125 mph This can of course be solved when the loco is converted to DCC. (Glenthorne Harbour Authority  No 10)  4-6-0 Baldwin also built during the 1970s Also based on a Lilliput chassis but rods were built to scale, The loco runs very well but is exceptionally delicate and normally remains in a display case. Even a derailment can break a rod! This loco benefited from some wonderful H0 lost wax brass castings.   IC locomotive (as yet not numbered) An ex WD Baldwin IC locomotive was purchased by the Authority for harbour shunting duties. The petrol engine was replaced with a Gardner diesel unit. The model is to be supplied by Meridian Models. ex WD Baldwin by Meridian Models I built the locomotives shown below in the 70s. Very little was available then and I had to struggle hard to get them to work well. The prototypes are Welsh orientated but we have found an excuse for them to make an appearance by having the harbour branch!