Sold November 2011 Back to Archive

The work of a talented engineer with experience in the repair and maintenance of standard gauge locomotives, this project was started when he became involved with a 10 ¼ inch gauge railway. Far from the usual “lawnmower engine in a tin box” concept favoured by less patient builders, this is a well-designed, beautifully built and extensively detailed design.

Power train is based on a three cylinder electric-start Kubota diesel engine which was completely rebuilt before installation (and I mean completely, with a sheaf of receipts for everything from new cylinder head and valves guides, through pistons and rings to just about every seal in the engine). Transmission is by hydraulic pump mounted on the engine, driving a hydraulic motor which is coupled by gears to the rear axle.

The chassis is robustly constructed, the builder produced patterns and castings for the horns and sandboxes in iron. Wheels are in steel, coupled by flycranks and rods (if you look closely you can see the little wooden bungs turned up to cap the oiling holes in the rods)

There is currently no bodywork, although there is a sketch of what the builder had in mind which would allow completion should you not have your own ideas.

The engine has was run in its current state some years ago for a couple of days on a railway that Sam I and I visited earlier this year. The engine is reported to run like a watch, the locomotive as powerful as anything the owner had ever driven on this gauge (which, with a three cylinder diesel engine driving all wheels through a geared-down hydraulic motor, is hardly surprising).