THE LOCOMOTIVES OF THE

The locos are all scratchbuilt, with the exception of a Wealden kit of an E4, and a kit of a G single from an un-named source which was so appallingly badly designed it had to be virtually scratchbuilt anyway! All the locos have handbuilt chassis, fully compensated, and with split-axle pick-up. Many were built originally with open frame motors (mostly Anchoridge D11's and D13's) but most have now been converted to Portescaps, with much improved running. A section on loco building will be added to this site at some point.

I have now added a sixth loco for you to look at.

C2 No522 has recently been rebuilt with a conventional motor in the firebox, rather than the original tender drive. Here are a few pictures, including a couple of shots of the very excellent 'Bachrus' rolling road system.

Now that the brewery building is just about complete, it seems a good time to revitalise my Manning Wardle. This is a loco that I built about 25 years ago, for the sand quarry on Chiltington, which never got built.. It has suffered a bit over the years, and hasn't been in operational order for at least 10 years.

'Strasbourg' is one of a series of E1's and D1's that I have made (six in all) showing the various phases of development, from Stroudley's original (as shown here) to the final Billington version. The principle differences relate to the boiler (two or three rings) which gave rise to variations in the position and size of the dome.

Strasbourg is shown here in its original condition, with small dome, copper-capped chimney, condensing gear, and wooden brake shoes, and of course the cast number plate.

'Blatchington' is the first loco I made, and has undergone a number of rebuilds. It's fully compensated, but started as a rigid 0-8-0 style chassis (ie without a pony truck for the trailing wheels). This didn't work so I copied the prototype, and assembled a radial axle box out of sheet metal - which worked. I think this was one of the earliest 4mm models to use a radial axlebox - it certainly earned a few compliments when first made in 1981.

Since then, Blatchington has been converted to split axle pick-up (in common with all other locos I have made) which necessitated a new radial box, made out of perspex - a complete ring turned on a lathe, and then cut into suitable lengths. I have also remotored the loco with a Portescap.

'Victoria' is my favourite loco of all the ones I've built. In common with all other locos on the layout it is scratchbuilt, and fully compensated. There has been a lot of discussion about how to compensate 0-4-4's. This one is straightforward. It is equipped with sidebeam compensation on the two front driving axles, and a centre pivoted bogie, which is also compensated, but with a single beam centrally between the two axles. This gives three points of suspension - the centres of the two side beams on the driving axles, and the centre of the beam in the bogie. The frame of the bogie just pivots about a vertical axis - no fancy swing links or anything.

There is a bit of sideplay on the second driving axle, and as little as possible on the leading axle. This gives enough horizontal flexibility to negotiate B6 turnouts, and about 4' radius curves.

Holyrood. In response to a query on the Brighton Circle e-group I have now posted a few pictures of my scratchbuilt (but not quite finished) B4.

I'll post a few more pics of the other locos when I have time.

Home Page

About the Group

Layouts

Stock

Locos

        Manning Wardle

        Strasbourg

        Blatchington

        Victoria

        Holyrood

Buildings

other sites .....

Scalefour

EMGS

Brighton Circle

Sussex Association of Model Railway Clubs

SBC DSL Internet Access