I've enjoyed reading the "collectable/vintage" thread on RMWeb for many years due to an interest in the by-ways of model railways. I've long wanted to have one of the original Graham Farish "Prairie Tankers" on my railway. This model was launched in 1951 and according to the GF advertising leaflet was exhibited at the Festival of Britain. Quite why they called it a Tanker as opposed to a Tank engine I have no idea. This year, 2021, is its 70th anniversary.
After gradually collecting possible locos there were enough parts to assemble a working example, with the body from one, chassis, motor and wheels from another and cylinders from a third. Surprisingly all three of the strange Farish motors in my collection are strong runners. The two-pole motor with sprung plunger pick-ups is a complete unit that fits into the chassis. It drives a centrifugal clutch so that it can start unloaded and then take up the drive when the clutch engages.
The finished loco runs ok after quite a lot of fiddling about to get the correct setting of the springs that push the pony trucks down onto the track. Sometimes it will even start on its own without needing a push. In the photo it is pulling a train of matching Graham Farish diecast wagons.
The biggest problem with this project was finding an intact chassis. I have enough parts to assemble two more locos apart from their cast Mazac chassis (chassises?), which have broken into chunks due to what the Germans call Zinkpest. I tried sticking the bits of one of the chassis together with superglue but the metal had expanded so much that the assembled chassis was too long to fit under the body. My two locos will have to remain unassembled until a couple more chassis can be found.
Does anyone have experiences of these locos to share? It's quite impressive that a loco that is 70 years old still runs quite convincingly.