Steam Locomotives

Home	LEIGH VALLEY LIGHT RAILWAY STEAM LOCOMOTIVES: MODELS AND PROTOTYPES

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	0-4-0 VERTICAL BOILERED DE WINTON



	Probably the most famous De Winton product is the very similar "Chaloner" of the Leighton Buzzard Light Railway - a line which spent its working life carrying sand in Bedfordshire

	0-4-0ST HUNSLETS



	Red liveried "Louise" and improved engine green ( yellow to the rest of us Mr Stroudley!)"Joanne" - built by John Turner - represent two variants on the Leeds-based firm's 'quarry' design as used at Penrhyn and Dinorwic in North Wales. Festiniog locomotives "Blanche" and "Linda" took the basic concept to a new level for passenger service with their enclosed cabs and coal tenders although "Lilian" ( Hunslet 317/1883) of the Launceston Steam Railway remains virtually unchanged.



	In fact "Katie" has even been enhanced by the addition of a tender in the Festiniog style. In this shot however, the tender has been removed, leaving her much as she was outshopped by Roundhouse Engineering of Doncaster. With 9/16" x 5/8" double acting slide valve cylinders actuated by Walschaerts valve gear and fed with live steam from an internal gas fired boiler, "Katie" has a radio controlled regulator and reversing gear.

	0-4-0 TRAM LOCOMOTIVES





	Evoking memories of the Wisbeech and Upwell Tramway, both "Jason" ( with white roof, top ) and the single-cab grey-roofed tram engine ( soon to be named "Gilbert" ) were built in-house by the Morgan Locomotive Company, although "Jason" has a Roundhouse "Millie" chassis allied to a live steam external gas fired boiler and 9/16" x 5/8" stroke cylinders double acting on slide valves. The freelance body owes much to street trams in France, Belgium, Switzerland and the Netherlands where removable valences keep pedestrian and horse drawn traffic safe from the tram wheels and motion. The grey roofed tram engine meanwhile is more of a fun project and utilises redundant parts from other models.The twin oscillating cylinders, for example, are off the green Garratt with the cowcatchers described below! These are fed by a live steam external gas fired boiler mounted transversely at the rear and drive a 6:1 ratio gearbox.

	0-4-0WT "DOUGLAS"



	This model of the Talyllyn Railway's "Douglas" was built from a Roundhouse "Billy" kit with a live steam internal gas fired boiler feeding 9/16" x 5/8" double acting slide valve cylinders actuating Walschaerts valve gear. Radio control applies to both regulator and reversing gear. The original was an Andrew Barclays product influenced by the work of German manufacturers Orenstein & Koppel. Outshopped from Kilmarnock in 1918, this four wheeled well tank spent its working life on the 2' gauge railway at RAF Calshot near Southampton, close to the scene of the final Schneider Trophy seaplane races.

	0-4-2ST "TOM BALDWIN"



	Another model based on another Talyllyn favourite, this time "Sir Haydn". "Sir Haydn" was of three identical locomotives which formed the original motive power of the Corris Railway and was built in 1878 by Hughes Locomotive and Tramway Engine Company at their Falcon Works in Loughborough. Hughes later became part of the Brush group ( famous for its standard gauge diesel electric locomotives ) which itself joined the Hawker Siddeley empire.

	0-6-0T "LEIGH"



	"Leigh" has the distinction of of being the first live steam locomotive owned by the Leigh Valley Light Railway. Fitted with an internal gas fired boiler feeding 9/16" x 5/8" cylinders, the Roundhouse Engineering model has double acting slide valves actuated by Walschaerts valve gear. This particular example is manually controlled and its freelance design pays homage to Hunslet. In fact this type of 0-6-0T - featured in the Roundhouse catalogue as "Lady Anne" - is still the most popular locomotive supplied by the Doncaster firm after almost 20 years of production.

	2-6-2T "RUSSELL"



	Another Hunslet product - carrying the works number 901 of 1906 - "Russell" - was the original motive power of the Welsh Highland Railway and continues to haul passengers from the Porthmadog base of the preserved Welsh Highland Railway which was founded in 1964. The model meanwhile comes from Roundhouse Engineering of Doncaster. Fed by a live steam internal gas fired boiler, "Russell"'s 9/16" x 5/8" double acting cylinders have slide valves actuated by Walschaerts valve gear. Radio control applies to regulator and reversing gear. At the time of writing, this part of the WHR is reaching out to meet the Festiniog owned section of the Welsh Highland proceeding south from Caernarfon. Like the Leigh Valley Light Railway, this has some unusual and exotic locomotives!

	2-6-2T "ALBERT"



	Based on the "Argyll" pattern from the Roundhouse catalogue, "Albert" represents an Andrew Barclays of Kilmarnock locomotive delivered to the 2' 3" gauge Campbeltown & Machrihanish Light Railway, which offered passenger services in Kintyre, Scotland, between 1906 and 1932. The real Campbeltown & Machrihanish Light Railway fleet included locomotives named "Argyll" and "Atlantic", both of which ran between Machrihanish Colliery and Campbeltown Harbour on the trackbed of a previous standard gauge line. Unfortunately bus competition and the need for heavy repairs on the locomotive fleet in 1932 combined to close the line.

	2-10-2T 99 734



	This model draws its inspiration from a class of 32 locomotives built between 1928 and 1933 for use on 750mm gauge lines in Saxony and is numbered as part of the first batch - assembled by Sachsische Maschinenfabrik vorm R. Hartmann a year before the Chemnitz based works closed in 1929. A further 24 modified and updated plate framed examples were built from 1952 to 1957, by which time the 750mm gauge railways had become part of the German Democratic Republic's Deutsche Reichsbahn and Chemnitz had been renamed Karl Marx Stadt. Several of these engines were also converted to oil firing in 1993. However, this fuel was not completely successful - mainly due to environmentally hostile oil leaks and very hot footplate conditions! The prototype 99 734 had two 450 x 400 mm cylinders and a driving wheel diameter of 800 mm.

	0-4-0 + 0-4-0 GARRATTS





	Designed and built in Gorton, Manchester, Garratt locomotives combine a chassis carrying fuel, water, boiler and cab with two horizontal cylindered driving units, allowing them to negotiate tight curves on uneven track. "Helen" - seen above overtaking Laurel and Hardy in their US Army jeep - is a Cheddar Models Locobox design with a live steam internal gas fired boiler feeding two large bore oscillating cylinders on each axle. Based on a 1910 design for the Darjeeling Himalaya Railway, "Helen" appeared at the 2005 Open Weekend fully lined out in black and straw. Similarly, the black Morgan Locomotive Company Garratt with the silver smokebox now features the same lining out on a Brunswick green and black background with the red buffer beams now sporting matching red cowcatchers. The model is based on a Garratt supplied to the Belgian Congo and has a similar technical specification to "Helen".







	0-4-0 + 0-4-0 HEISLER



	"Ernest" represents one of four American designed Heisler type articulated locomotives built under licence in Britain by Avonside of Bristol for export to sugar cane plantation railways in South Africa. The Morgan Locomotive Company model features an internal gas fired boiler feeding twin oscillating cylinders driving a centrally mounted gearbox with torque transmitted by cardan shafts, universal joints and bevel gears.

	0-4-0 + 0-4-0 SHAYS





	As well as being an arena for other articulated locomotives, the Leigh Valley Light Railway is something of a Shay stadium! Shays transmit the reciprocating movement of their vertical cylinders ( twin oscillating in this case) to their wheels via cardan shafts, universal joints and bevel gears - in these instances on the right hand side of the locomotives. Used mainly in construction and logging environments in North America, Shays develop large amounts of torque and are extremely sure footed even on poorly laid track with tight curves and steep gradients. Shays were built in the 19th and 20th Centuries by both Shay and Lima. The Michigan - California Shay (top) has a T-boiler while "Rachel" - seen above with a load of logs - was built by the Morgan Locomotive Company with a live steam external gas fired boiler feeding twin oscillating cylinders.