Sold October 2008 Back to Archive

2 inch scale Fowler ploughing engine - stock code 3555

A very finely built 2 inch scale model of a Fowler BB1 ploughing engine to the John Haining design. Builtto a high standard it has had little use apart from minor marks to the paint, condition is pretty much ex-works.

Steel boiler with brazed tubes, working presure 80psi, feed by injector and hand pump mounted in the driving truck along with an auxiliary water tank. Twin pop-type safety valves with dummy Ramsbottom spring casing installed above whilst looking correct externally, they let off at 80psi, close at 70 and dont leak when theyre shut!

Compound cylinders with slide valves actuated by Stephensons valve gear. Simpling valve rod-operated from footplate. Mechanical lubricator.

A winding drum is slung beneath the boiler with drive engaged by lever operated from the footplate, coiling gear fitted as per prototype.

I had this engine in steam all one afternoon recently it runs very well, the injector tends to dribble from the overflow but is highly efficient at filling the boiler and works down to an unfeasibly low pressure (it was still just about hanging on the wrong side of 40psi).

A BB1 is a large engine in any scale in two inch this one runs out at four feet long and is just liftable by two fit men (which is how Geoff and I describe ourselves on a good day). Complete with a set of drawings, steam-raising blower and a very nicely made driving trolley with footboards containing a water tank and hand pump, with quick detach pipe fittings to the engine. It's surprisingly comfortable to drive for a two inch engine, at the same time it's not so big you can't keep it in the house when not in use - indeed, it's spent its recent past next to the previous owner's television (presumably so he'd always got something interesting to watch).

There's a clip of it running here.

Length 48 inches
Weight approx 180 pounds

 

scale 2 inch