Engines and rolling stock for Nixnie

[tedp]

Whew... that one's completed. For the moment, as I'm seriously considering the generator wagon. But right now there's no time for that as I have to move on to other work on the stock and the layout. Here are the final photos.

The driver being painted:



Cab interior, plus some undetected paint blemishes:



And finally a view of the loco in service, showing how tiny it is - only 42mm long with a few mm added for the couplings:

[Cambridge Paul]

Hythe Pier ex mustard gas comes to mind ~ before their uglification. They were battery powered before taking the third rail option.

[tedp]

Wonderful! It seems to be chain driven with the traction motor in the cab. Controller to the right, the brake is the handwheel I think. In the back is the main switch, or possibly a reversing switch. Thanks for posting this, Paul.

[Isle of Stoner]

There is a battery electric loco with a steeple cab in the slate museum in Llanberis that is very similar to your new loco, which I love. I'll pop down and get a picture or two when I get a chance. I'm not sure where it came from but I guess that it must be from a quarry or it wouldn't be in the museum.

http://www.aditnow.co.uk/showimage/?f=/community/Llanberis-2-User-Album-Image-30386/

This is it, I found the pic on line.

Keep it up

Cheers


John

[Cambridge Paul]

Both of those locos share a common origin I think. The Hythe locos were very extensively "rebuilt" by Southampton University Engineering Department in the 1980s after the salt spray had corroded just too much away. Basically they've spent most of their lives on (over) the water. The Hythe Tramway picks up power from a third rail (human muscle when shunting in the curlicue siding at the landward end) instead of the battery boxes that were mounted fore and aft. The motor is from the eighties and has a thyristor control. The pier itself has had adventures, like being cut into by a ship that got lost. Now it is almost buried in the land (they've left a "canal" of water for it) which has been reclaimed on both sides.
Initially it would seem a superb prototype for modeling but 80 feet of straight track, 79 feet of see or mud (depending on the tide) and hundreds of Victorian screw pilings all dipped in Captain Peacock's patent mixture, topped by girders, timber and ornate railings. Operation is very much a case of out and back, and the stock list is short.
I'm not saying that someone hasn't done it, but

[tedp]

Thanks, all, for your information on battery electrics. I may have to put a motor mock-up in the cab of mine - I always assumed there would be a motor under the cab and the batteries in the ends. But probably there wouldn't be enough space under the cab for a decent size motor. If it's going to be an overhead powered loco I think the motor would be in one hood and the switchgear in the other.

Regarding pier tramways, I seem to remember Laurie Cooksey once built a model of one.

[rod335]

John

Manod Quarry had two Brush built battery electric locos, the one you picture appears to have similar parentage although probably is not from Manod. I don't know of any other quarries in the area that had such things, maybe someone elso knows better. Presumably it is not known where your example came from?

Rod

[Isle of Stoner]

If my daughter ever gets out of her pit I'll take her and the hound for a walk down to the museum and see if it has any information about it. I've never taken much notice of it till I saw Ted's model of it!

John W

[rod335]

John

Manod Quarry had two Brush built battery electric locos, the one you picture appears to have similar parentage although probably is not from Manod. I don't know of any other quarries in the area that had such things, maybe someone elso knows better. Presumably it is not known where your example came from?

Rod

[rod335]

Any luck with the battery electric loco at Llanberis John? I've been eagerly scanning the site since your post waiting for details. I suppose that's a comment on the sort of life I lead! Seriously, I find posts about these sort of obscure things that very little is known about to be vastly more interesting than yet another picture of Lyd etc. Cue howls of outrage....

Rod

[Isle of Stoner]

Hi Rod

Daughter stayed in bed too long and I haven't had a chance to get down there since but as soon as do I promise to put up some pics. I know I've got some prints in an album but it is behind the xmas tree at the moment.

John W

[tedp]

Hi Rod

Daughter stayed in bed too long and I haven't had a chance to get down there since but as soon as do I promise to put up some pics. I know I've got some prints in an album but it is behind the xmas tree at the moment.

John W

;D  I thought that was a problem only specific to sons!

[tedp]

Continuing the tale of the rolling stock for Nixnie, here are a few photos of a model scratchbuilt by my friend the late Reinier Hendriksen, over 15 years ago. It is a tiny Bagnall style wing tank, made from brass on what I think may be a Saltford models chassis. It is of split frame and axle construction, with tiny cranks and coupling rods, driven on the rear axle by a Mashima 16x9 open frame motor in the cab. It runs very smoothly although it has a slight limp due to wobbly wheels. The wagon, also by Reinier, is a scratchbuilt affair with 5.5mm curly spoke wheels. I intend to run this loco sparingly as I don't want to cause any wear. Some of the old hands on this forum, who remember Reinier's Moors End layout, may recognise it!







Here is a close-up of the chassis which may shed some light on its construction and origins:

[MickT]

I agree that this definitely looks like a Brian Clarke Saltford Models chassis. Unless it is a bit of an optical illusion, the driven axle appears to be slightly off-centre to the wheels. I wonder if this is the cause of the slight limp that you mentioned?

Mick

[tedp]

I think that's an optical illusion - it is a blob of glue on the back of one of those pinroller wheels that you're seeing - or perhaps that is the offending wheel. It may be the quartering which is very difficult with a crank throw of perhaps 2mm. I'm not happy to tamper with that as it must have been a lot of work to get it to run properly. The cranks are soldered to the flat faces of the wheel bearings.