Sold February 2008 Back to Archive

An engine that last saw use a very long time ago, this locomotive came in with the ancient 4-2-2 and driving trucks listed elsewhere. It appears of a different era and builder to the 4-2-2, the oddball gauge seemingly the only thing connecting them.

Emerging from many years in a shed, any oil had long since departed leaving a fine surface rust over the brightwork and a marked dryness in the bearings when it arrived in the workshop. Having spent a little time oiling round turning the motion over by hand, it ran very freely on air. Boiler is of steel, rivetted construction, feed by axle pump which is still there and injectors which aren't. There is a hand pump in the tender. Cylinders are gunmetal with a mechanical lubricator apiece, slide valves mounted above are actuated by Stephenson's reversing gear with a pole reverser in the cab. There is an interesting parallelogram arrangement to transfer the valve motion via a rocking shaft through the frames.

I think it probably dates from the 1920s, original build quality was good. There are a set of fire bars and a nicely made pattern for same, along with a box of miscellaneous plumbing. I don't think the engine would regauge down to 5 inch but it could probably be taken out to 7 1/4. In an ideal world, it would be rebuilt as is and run around on some 6 1/2 inch gauge track.

Length
Locomotive 40 inches
Tender 24 inches

Height 17 inches

Driving wheels 6 1/2 inch diameter