Johnson044

I agree but six eccentrics? Plus possible seventh for feed water? Webb used slip eccentrics on his compounds, so their use was far from over. Don't think they would work on the same crank though as surely the one cylinder with full link motion would have to fight against the two with slip eccentrics.

The Chronicles reference to the loco being a saddle tank when still a 2-2-0 had gone completely over my head! That does seem to rule out an overtype completely. Take away the Australia's ploughing drum and other mechanism and there should be room for some cylinders and gearing between the front axle and the front of the firebox. I'm struggling with the idea of a flywheel though. Would this have been necessary with three equally spaced cranks? I wonder if one or two of the valves were operated by slip eccentrics.

...and, hopefully without the authors minding, here is an extract from Lord Willoughby's Railway, The Edenham Branch, by R E Pearson and J G Ruddock 1986- a drawing showing "Australia" which the text suggests might be similar to Ophir when first built (albeit Ophir was a self- propelled road locomotive). This poses so many questions. Alfred Rosling Bennett says that the three cylinders were "inside". Inside what and where? Inside an enclosure around the chimney? Inside an enclosure underneath- was Ophir an undertype rather than an overtype- if so was there a flywheel? How was power transmitted to the rear axle- cranks and rods, like Australia or conventional gears?

Here are some extracts from The Chronicles of Boulton's Siding, with some known history, a drawing of the loco after IW Boulton had rebuilt her and a photo - Ophir is the loco on the right.

@ Sir Douglas- there's a discussion on the Imaginary Locomotives thread about "Ophir" of the Edenham & Little Bytham railway- this wonderful little engine started life as a 3 cylindered road locomotive- there are drawings and photos of Ophir in later years after her rebuild by Isaac Watt-Boulton as a conventional 0-4-0ST but nothing so far to be found of her original form- don't know if she was overtype or undertype? Have you ever come across anything?

I'm amazed that this characterful railway has received so little interest- and I've never seen a model. A pioneering 3 cylindered locomotive with a connection with Daniel Gooch, there were also two very pretty little Hawthorne 0-4-0 side tanks, an intermediate jackshaft drive loco hired from the GNR- and a resident driver, poached from the GNR - 35/ a week with house and garden- was none other than William Stroudley. I'll scan and post some drawings and photos later today.

Ooh - thank you I'll explore that link at lunchtime. In the book "Lord Willoughby's Railway" the loco is credited to Coley's foundry at Bayswater and that previous accreditation to George England is erroneous. The search for drawings so far draws a blank, except for the loco in its rebuilt form, which, along with a photo, appear in The Chronicles of Boulton's Siding (and in the Mike Sharman volume). I did approach Grimsthorpe Castle a few years ago but they have no records. The Lord Willoughby book shows a side elevation of an overtype steam ploughing engine called Australia and suggests that Ophir must have looked pretty similar in its original form. Assuming that not much was re-used but the boiler, all we can do is overlay Ophir's boiler on to Australia and have a bit of a think about how the cylinders might have been fitted. Australia isn't described as a three cylinder loco and presumably has one cylinder each side of the chimney (I'm at work so don't have the drawing with me so this is from memory)- if Ophir was an overtype then the cylinders would obviously have to be located to avoid the boiler mountings... I'll have a look at the books tonight.

Brilliant! Sounds like they've gone to a good home. Looking forward to hearing more soon.

I can think of only one- "Ophir", a 3 cylinder 2-2-0, with 5' driving wheels and leading wheels loose on a pivoting front axle, rebuilt from a road locomotive for the Edenham and Little Bytham railway, thence to Boulton's siding for a new career as a 2 cylinder 0-4-0 saddle tank.

Agreed all three! What puzzles me about the unpainted one is the motor, which I've yet to identify. I may yet put some Romfords on, replace the missing bits, add some couplings and just run it on a friend's layout "in the brass". I'll keep the original wheels.

Best of luck- I hope you get it - If you do please can you tell us all about it?

Uckfield show yesterday. So many of the models that inspired me in my formative years were on a single display stand. There was a fair bit of paper memorabilia too including some original Iain Rice artwork- plus, of course, several of his layouts. He was so prolific and talented.

I'm not a Brighton man, myself- but I think Maunsell rebuilt some of the I1's, with a bigger boiler (from a B4 4-4-0, I think)- and gave some of them cut down cabs and condensing gear. Both the 0 gauge one and the mystery one on ebay are far too portly to be one of the much more graceful GNR locos.

This is just magnificent! A very worthy piece of work. I bet that could have out-performed the Great Eastern Decapod!

I think there's a lot of Brighton about it.... although the boiler is a bit chubby. The front frames, driving wheel diameter and what I can see of the cab in the first photo do look like LBSCR Marsh features. I've two of these- an 0 gauge one with an early Hornby Nr 2 mechanism (a bit short in the bunker dept but otherwise not a bad likeness at all) and a part-built 00 example with a motor I haven't been able to identify- any ideas folks?

I'm very much reminded of an 0 gauge Walker-Fenn controlled clockwork mechanism. The diagonal slot in the curved brass cover that sits in the bunker looks like a variable control device, not a simple switch. My money's on clockwork too.

This wonderful machine is currently on ebay. I've never seen anything like it. It looks rather Brighton and, maybe using commercial wheels, entirely scratch built. Beautifully made and described as 00 (and looks like it from the photo with the hand)- but what on earth is the means of propulsion? A speed control mechanism operated by the knob on the bunker maybe? Some interesting bevel gears and a pinion visible through a slot under the rear pony. Are those some sort of current pick up rollers underneath? Or is it clockwork, with the key hole on the side we can't see? I'm very tempted to bid but won't because I've far too much in the way of mechanical curiosities already but if anyone has any suggestions? Or if the successful bidder is on RMWeb maybe they can tell us a bit more? https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/325850058080?_trkparms=amclksrc%3DITM%26aid%3D777008%26algo%3DPERSONAL.TOPIC%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D20230811123856%26meid%3D286dbd98fad34de1aec1e2e281ba009c%26pid%3D101770%26rk%3D1%26rkt%3D1%26itm%3D325850058080%26pmt%3D0%26noa%3D1%26pg%3D4375194%26algv%3DRecentlyViewedItemsV2&_trksid=p4375194.c101770.m146925&_trkparms=parentrq%3A4888db0318b0aaf606d16993fffffbfc|pageci%3A75856c20-6e93-11ee-b7fa-0630075a1ab7|iid%3A1|vlpname%3Avlp_homepage

Haven't seen any activity here for a while- but wonderful things do still keep turning up. This delightful NER BTP is on ebay at present: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/325850041043?_trkparms=amclksrc%3DITM%26aid%3D777008%26algo%3DPERSONAL.TOPIC%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D20230811123856%26meid%3Df25e8acaba424f1fb07e0cab6f82313b%26pid%3D101770%26rk%3D1%26rkt%3D1%26itm%3D325850041043%26pmt%3D0%26noa%3D1%26pg%3D4375194%26algv%3DRecentlyViewedItemsV2&_trksid=p4375194.c101770.m146925&_trkparms=parentrq%3A47d93acb18b0aab324d3448bffff187e|pageci%3Aa91b3f53-6e78-11ee-9bb0-ea2b3586d75c|iid%3A1|vlpname%3Avlp_homepage

Any scope for some Jack Nelson style perspective modelling with 1:55 in the foreground?

Good to see you fighting back, Edwardian and I hope your health and fitness improve rapidly. Walking is the absolute cure- I really maintain this- but with our busy lives a decent long distance walk seems like an impossible dream sometimes. Have you read The Salt Path b y Raynor Winn? https://www.waterstones.com/book/the-salt-path/raynor-winn/9781405937184

I've started some work on the loco again- coupling rods next. i had these laser cut by Model Engineer's Laser- from Autocad drawings that I did. Herein lies the issue- Autocad and laser cutting provide the most incredible precision- and when the human hand is applied it starts to go a bit wobbly- hence the drilling and filing are not as good as I'd hoped. I managed to drill the first pair of 0.6mm holes for the bearing cotter bolts and then used the first ones as a guide for the rest by just placing the first rod on top of each one in turn and drilling them. Mild steel, which is lovely to work with. I decided to form a simple half lap at the knuckle joint and I've just tapped the pivot 12BA. i'm going to just thread a brass 12BA bolt through and peen it over or centre pop it on each side and hopefully it will be loose enough to enable the joint to flex but not to un-thread itself- I'm well aware that this is poor engineering practice! Next task will be to try to represent the oil corks and bearing cotters. Here's the first rod screwed to a bit of oak flooring to enable me to shape the surface.

Brake gear still to do but should hopefully be relatively easy- it's all etchings and castings and tube and held together with ordinary dressmaker's pins with the heads turned down in the mini drill. I went to the Alresford train collector's fair earlier in the year and the only thing I bought was a bag of lost wax LNWR lamp sockets, so I've put three of these on. I realise that I was trying to disguise an obviously Webb LNWR tender tank but then thought why am I doing so? Why could the Ledsham & Hereford not have used an old Webb tender tank? I will fit the lamp sockets to the loco front as well, instead of the conventional ones. I have plated over some of the holes in the tank top with some round, rivetted etched items that came with a collection of odd ebay etched bits. The front buffers are actually white metal washout plugs from the Hachette A3, that have been lurking around for many years now. It's been good to be actively making something again- mojo perked up and hopefully will stay that way for a bit.

Well- no progress with any of the above- I opened the Parliamentary Trains Brougham kit and, with the delicacy of the parts I thought for a moment I'd joined Caley Jim and the others in the world of 2mm fine scale. I've completely chickened out for the time being until I've bought an Optivisor or some other head-mounted magnifier. I have, however, after much procrastination, plucked up the courage to get the soldering iron out and I've made quite a bit of progress with the tender for the double-framed goods. This is now not far from being ready for painting, having gained a rear toolbox, weatherboard stays and brackets and also the various threaded brackets and holes to enable it all to be bolted together.

... but my own fault for going to a meaty restaurant instead of being Johnnie-no-mates and eating more energy bars and bananas by myself.

Very familiar! Reminds me of a charity cycle ride for MacMillan- Reims to Canterbury- we stopped overnight near St Omer, I think it was- the consensus of opinion was that Buffalo Grill was the preferred option- and as the token vegetarian I dined on- Les Frites!