Sold February 2015 Back to Archive

The work of a professional engineer, this is an interesting build of a 7 1/4 inch gauge Class 47 in "barn find" condition. The locomotive has an all steel body on a steel chassis, electric-powered bogies powered by a large generator driven by four cylinder water cooled Reliant engine and vacuum brakes.

Complete (we've go the front buffers, which are missing in the pictures) and pushes along freely, it requires a serious clean and recommissioning. I think there's a lot of potential in this one - we delivered a Stafford to a garden railway a year or two back which had a Reliant-engined locomotive. In contrast to the engines normally found under the bonnet of IC locomotives (ie: cheap, noisy and single-cylinder), the Reliant is a quiet and smooth - rated at 35 horsepower, it does most of what's required of it on the average railway at tickover.

This one is coupled to a large 30 volt generator, which drives the two bogies - motors are gear driven to the axles. There's a lot of gubbins packed within the body, it's been neatly made and well thought out to make maximum use of the available space.

Length 110 inches
Weight estimated 1/4 ton