CoggesRailway
Registered
Hello All, not posted in a while.
Recently I have had some time to finish the Garratt. In reality it’s a bits and pieces loco – it has a Bachmann big hauler tank for a boiler and cab roof/sides from a Connie. It has ancient LGB mallet power blocks- and I have added ponies to make it a 2-6-2-2-6-2. The rest is scratch built from plasticard/ally –tender, tank, frame, cab front etc.It is designed to take playmobil radius reverse curves in it's stride. It is technically 2 independent locos running in MU mode courtesy of Tony Walshams superb RCS kit.
I guess it’s cost about £300 all in- mostly radio/and motor blocks- and a lot of tinkering time. My dad designed it and I built it and it must have been over about 3 or 4 years, so cheap over the time as it were.
However in the world of Cogges Railway things are bit different from the boring reality…...
Traffic from the recently drilled fracking wells is growing, as has the log traffic from the ancient irreplaceable hard wood forest. Needless to say Lord Cogges in not popular with the local environmental types on either front, but it’s good revenue for the railway and his Lordship! But trains are getting bigger.
Additionally the railways steam summer tourist services have become heavily loaded, so it was time to acquire some steam muscle. Recently retired in deepest Africa was an ideal candidate- it was running, but for sale at scrap value. It was duly shipped to Cogges Island. Sometime in its history the loco had been rebuilt in a local shed with bigger tender and tank, explaining the dubious riveting (well it’s really hard- and boring- super-gluing on pin heads).
When it arrived, Lord Cogges signed off a ten year boiler certificate, on the proviso his shipment costs would go down, and it was not steamed near him...
Some pics; (youtube link of first train test at bottom)
Build-
Today "in the wild"
First run outside- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dl9_qa_90rY
Recently I have had some time to finish the Garratt. In reality it’s a bits and pieces loco – it has a Bachmann big hauler tank for a boiler and cab roof/sides from a Connie. It has ancient LGB mallet power blocks- and I have added ponies to make it a 2-6-2-2-6-2. The rest is scratch built from plasticard/ally –tender, tank, frame, cab front etc.It is designed to take playmobil radius reverse curves in it's stride. It is technically 2 independent locos running in MU mode courtesy of Tony Walshams superb RCS kit.
I guess it’s cost about £300 all in- mostly radio/and motor blocks- and a lot of tinkering time. My dad designed it and I built it and it must have been over about 3 or 4 years, so cheap over the time as it were.
However in the world of Cogges Railway things are bit different from the boring reality…...
Traffic from the recently drilled fracking wells is growing, as has the log traffic from the ancient irreplaceable hard wood forest. Needless to say Lord Cogges in not popular with the local environmental types on either front, but it’s good revenue for the railway and his Lordship! But trains are getting bigger.
Additionally the railways steam summer tourist services have become heavily loaded, so it was time to acquire some steam muscle. Recently retired in deepest Africa was an ideal candidate- it was running, but for sale at scrap value. It was duly shipped to Cogges Island. Sometime in its history the loco had been rebuilt in a local shed with bigger tender and tank, explaining the dubious riveting (well it’s really hard- and boring- super-gluing on pin heads).
When it arrived, Lord Cogges signed off a ten year boiler certificate, on the proviso his shipment costs would go down, and it was not steamed near him...
Some pics; (youtube link of first train test at bottom)
Build-
Today "in the wild"
First run outside- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dl9_qa_90rY
