Eighteen Inch Revisited

[kevmt]

Boiler house is looking good.

Cheers,
Kevin

[jefran]

Murray,

The skips do look odd, and they could only be tipped one at a time, but that is how they were at Horwich on photographs, and in some drawings I copied from the Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineeers from 1888. (The proceedings were from 1888, the copying was done in 1978!)

Thanks for the boiler house comments, Kevin. As one who has worked with valves for 25 years, it is tempting to put a full set of safety valves, crown valves, low water whistles and all the rest of it on - but I will certainly put some shovels in

[jefran]

To show that there is something beyond that big bridge over the river, and to demonstrate that it is only possible to keep away from new locomotives for so long, here is the big blocks of the current machine taking the air (pun unintentional)

Click the image to zoom in

[MuzTrem]

Ooh...now I don't recognise this one...intriguing!

Can you shed any more light as to what she is?

[jefran]

It is quite possible that you don't recognise it on account of the poor modelling, but it is rather obscure, I have no idea how you do this but try

http://www.enuii.org/vulcan_foundry/pho ... 20mars.jpg

Built by the Vulcan Foundry for Chatham Fort - the same site has a picture of the 2ft gauge derivative that went to India a little later.

I think I may have got this link stuff right, so here is the Jorhat loco
http://www.enuii.org/vulcan_foundry/pho ... 201887.jpg

[kevmt]

Thats looking very good, Andrew. It's a new one on me as well.

Cheers,
Kevin

[davidaward]

Nice interesting model there Andrew- its good to see something different!

[jefran]

There is a very long way to go with this one - open cab again, so no getting away from all the details there. The Vulcan Foundry built 4 of these engines, Vulcan and Mercury in 1884, which were sent to Sudan in 1885 for use supporting the Suakin Expedition (and are generally thought to have come back at some point) and Mars and Venus to replace them on the fortification railway at Chatham, not a place where many enthusiasts were likely to photgraph them. Venus and Mars went to Longmoor to assist on building the standard gauge Longmoor Military Railway, and Mars later supplied hot water to a camp bath house! Mars' boiler (partly sectioned) survives and has recently made its way to the Royal Gunpowder Mills (though I don't think that it is on display yet)

[MuzTrem]

It is quite possible that you don't recognise it on account of the poor modelling

Don't worry Andrew, it's not a prototype I'd ever heard of before! But thanks for the info, the model's looking great.

[jefran]

A bit more progress, both on Vulcan and the other side of the river

Click the image to zoom in

[andrewgadd]

You know, I don't believe Vulcan had any designers.
They just bolted them together from bits laying about the workshop....

[jefran]

You know, I don't believe Vulcan had any designers.
They just bolted them together from bits laying about the workshop....

Now, that is usually said of Stephen Lewin, "you want a loco? Let's see what we've got lying around........"

Some drawings of these engines say that they were designed by Major English (Royal Engineers) - they were certainly fitted with his arrangement of Gooch's valve gear (which can't be seen, so I won't bother modelling). They were built for a very particular job, dragging heavy guns around beseiged fortresses, so maybe we can let them off. On the other hand, the NWNGR single Fairlies were very elegant engines..

[jefran]

Back in March I mentioned that I needed the stately home and the gas works. Whereas the gas works was demolished 30 years or so ago, the stately home is still there, but access into the estate is only allowed once per year, so I decided to borrow one from somewhere else, and came across one on holiday last week.

Click the image to zoom in
It is possible that someone may recognise it , though I have taken a few liberties. The hall has its own private station, and drivers are instructed to be there in advance of their passengers, and to ensure that the engine's chimney is outside the roof.
Here is the loco running around having brought a carriage round for a party going up the line on a sight seeing trip,

Click the image to zoom in
- the station borrows much from the area's big mainline station.

[desiro5]

oooh - looks very nice!

[photons66]

Agreed Ali, looks visually stunning. Keep up the excellent work.