Snow Business

By Mark Thatcher

December 2008

The opportunity to get some pictures today when snow fell for the very first time on the Dovecote Light Railway was to good an moment to miss. It also provided me with a chance to complete the current article I am writing on the build of the DLR for Garden Rail Magazine, and probably, most opportunely, to get our last three live steamers off the shelf and on to the line. These hitherto have not been featured on this website and I thought you might like to see them. They are all manually fired live steamers, and such, are limited to running and end-to-end service between Awdry Moor and Eastway stations, as they need to have human fingers nearby! I hope you enjoy the shots and descriptions – I had a fun (if chilly) two hours taking them.

Lyn

This is made by Accucraft and is a good faithful model of the Baldwin type of loco, which was commissioned to run on the now defunct Lynton & Barnstaple Railway. The model itself is superb and the picture shows her just getting up to steam with the steam outlet valve still open. As a manually fired loco she runs on a rolling road like a sewing machine and is a pleasure to drive. Made in China, on behalf of Accucraft, Lyn just shows the quality of workmanship coming out of the Far East these days, complete with hand lining, the right livery, authentic decals, a removable cab roof and a working smoke box door. Accucraft have just ceased production of this loco, although a few are still around, so if you fancy one at around £1100, my advice is grab one while you can, she is worth every penny.

Croglin

Croglin, is actually Accucraft’s Edrig – very much an entry-level model at around £400.00. There are many Edrig’s around, because apart from being relatively affordable and a good starting place for live steam, they are very disposed to being kit-bashed and augmented in every way possible. Mine has added rivet detail, safety chains and new couplings to the buffer beams, added lamp brackets, a smoke box grab rail, a complete repaint, including painting the interior of the cab cream and dulling down the brass work  on the footplate, plus glazing for the spectacle glasses. A toolbox, oil can and lamp, plus a faux coal load to hide the gas filler completes the makeover. Mechanically she has had an up-rated “chuff pipe” which really makes the right chuffing sound, a live steam whistle (taken off the boiler blow down assembly) and most impressively, operational cylinder drain cocks. Yes… all these modifications take time and a little courage, but prove what can be done with this diminutive little loco that in this form now rivals the best from Roundhouse, Accucraft et al.

Taw

This really is something special. Roundhouse only made these in limited numbers before withdrawing as, as it was probably too expensive to make! Another L&B loco, this Manning-Wardle comes fully lined and ready to go. A few years ago we were lucky to stumble on one, unfired out of the box! To date she has only been lightly steamed a handful of times and is really our “special occasion loco” – particularly as Flo bought it me for my first birthday we were together.

If Lyn is a Bugatti Vayron, then this is more of an Aston Martin DB7 insofar as it doesn’t have a reverser as such, you simply push it in the direction you wish to travel and off it goes…”why buy a new fangled telescope Mr Cholmondely-Warner  - simply move closer to the object you wish to view” – sort of thing! Joking apart, this really is a most classic loco, and one we are proud to covert her in this original condition.

"hot fingers on a cold day"

So all in all a great day was had steaming these manual locos. Firing a manual loco is much more down and dirty. It relies on “hands on” control literally, plus a fair amount of the operator scampering hither and thither along the track to keep their trusted steed in check. But it is much more close to running the real thing than twiddling a few knobs on your remote control.

Obviously, to control a manual loco requires little or no gradients and perhaps they are not that well suited to our up-hill-down-dale line, but its still a challenge, a very different challenge, involving hot fingers on a cold day. Running in the snow is very different, at least both Lyn and Taw have cowcatchers to scrape the snow away, but to keep them running smoothly is a dark art.



"always a pleasure playing trains"

Anyhow, as always, nature takes control of any outside line and it is always a pleasure playing trains in whatever she may throw at us. Hopefully I’ll get back to more indoor modelling matters very soon – including that build of IP Engineering’s Jessica loco.

Be Sure to read the whole story of The Dovecote Light Railway.