Newsletter No 3 (February 2003)

Welcome to Newsletter No3

Belated I know, but Happy New Year to you all! I hope Santa brought you many Garratt related items for xmas. We went to see the GMA Garratt at the Summerlee Heritage Park on New Years Eve. If you’ve never seen one, it’s well worth the visit. The GMA itself has seen better days & is “ready for restoration”, but even so it’s a breathtaking sight. All the times that I’ve been to my mother-in-laws house & I’d only found out about this GMA (that was 25 miles down the road from her!) the day before we went up for the New Year!! The steaming day on 28th Dec 2002 at the South Arbury Railway saw about 15 hardy souls playing (sorry – operating) trains from midday until well into the darkness, isn’t it odd that you never seem to feel the cold when you’re driving a loco (maybe it’s just me…), anyone got any meetings to report on?
More great Reading
To follow on from the last newsletter, here’s another book well worth having; Beyer-Peacock, locomotive builders to the world by RL Hills & D Patrick. It’s published by Venture Publications. By a stroke of luck, I found this very book in my stocking on Christmas morning! I can heartily recommend it. As you’d expect it tells the full story of the company from inauguration to dispersion, as well as a huge section about the Garratts. This book is full of photos not only of locomotives in action, but also of many the parts that are needed to complete a Garratt.
The Salem Garratt
Here is the first part of an article written by Richard Copperwheat who’s built two of these Garratts from kits.

I first saw a Salem Steam Models Garratt some years ago at the show at Butterly. I’d always wanted a Garratt, but was put of by the thought of having two sets of valve gear. At first glance I thought the loco in question had conventional cylinders, but after I fought my way through the crowd & got to the line side, I realised that it was powered by oscillators covered by cylinder covers! As I watched, it seemed to perform faultlessly (a lot better behaved than any Mamod I’d ever seen), no valve gear to worry about just a simple lever on each unit for reversing (similar to the Mamod) with the main regulator being in the cab. That was it – I was hooked! I’ve made some of my own engines with limited success & having an engineering background (being a mechanic), the natural course was to opt for a kit as opposed to a ready to run example. Cost was also a factor – having a wife & two children meant that nearly £1000 was beyond my means; around £600 for the kit though was easier to financially swallow. The kit could also be customised as your own personal loco. I’d spoken with Ross (the main man at Salem) in the past about other loco related problems so felt comfortable about purchasing from Salem. The Garratt was a challenge, but the way it’d been designed by Ross meant that it was fairly easy to put together. The thinking behind the design is ‘keep it simple’. The kit came supplied with plenty of nuts & bolts so drilling & tapping was almost unnecessary. Due to the simple design, all that was required in the way of machines was a simple drill press (see notes elsewhere in this newsletter-Chris), no lathes required as Salem have done the rest for you. The boiler & gas tank are complete & ready to bolt on, all the silver soldering being done apart from a few pipe olives. Being a bit of a lazy operator, I’ve fitted radio control, there being plenty of room inside the front tank with the handrails used for the Ariel. Not many engines can boast that sort of space! After building two & contemplating a third, I’d recommend a kit to anyone. It doesn’t run straight out of the box it arrived in, but you’ll learn a lot as you go along, you’ll end up with a loco, which you’ve built & if you get stuck Ross is only on the other end of the phone. Most people would happily pay over £1000 for an un-articulated loco from some of the major commercial 16mm locomotive producers (Roundhouse, Pearse, Cheddar etc), but for around £700 you can purchase your very own Garratt, built by & personalised by you. I’m sure that Chris will agree with me in saying that every garden line should have it’s own Garratt (here, here-Chris) & this is one way to make that possible. In the next part of this article, I’ll deal with performance & different types of firing.
Richard Copperwheat.

The Manchester Museum of Science & Industry
I had a long chat recently with Amanda Draper of the MSIM about plans, drawings & photos of Garratts. The very helpful Amanda tells me that the museum holds almost all of the Beyer-Peacock records & can provide drawings & works photos for almost all of the Garratts ever made or designed by Beyer-Peacock. There is also a GL Garratt on display there. Amanda can be contacted on her direct line 0161 606 0118.
Newsletters by Email
The newsletter is now available by email as well as post. If you’d rather get your copy of the newsletter this way, please email me at info@16mmgarratts.co.uk & I can send it to you as a word attachment. The majority of newsletters are sent by email, but post is still the preferred option for many. Please note that although I consider email to be a very useful tool, I’m very aware that some folk don’t have email & don’t want email, so post will always continue to be an option. As always, all I ask for is four stamped & addressed envelopes.
Garratt Sunday
There’s been a lot of people enquiring about Garratt Sunday which will be held this year on 22nd June at the South Arbury Railway near Cambridge, so we’ve decided to start at 1200 rather than 2pm especially as some people are coming from quite far away. For more details – www.southarburyrailway.co.uk
For Sale
Smart & Brown Lathe, tray & stand, new single phase motor, buyer collects, offers please to Eddie Bull, 01638 507495.
Articles
If you’ve any articles about Garratts that you’d like to share with us all, please send them to me at the address at the bottom of the page. I know that some of you are building some pretty spectacular locos out there, don’t keep them a secret-let us all know! The newsletter will only continue to thrive if there are things to put in it.
Drill Press
Everyone who makes their own locos needs one of these. I notice that B&Q are now selling them for just £39:95. I’ve had one for about 15 years & it’s proved indispensable.
Steaming Days
You’ve already got the date for Garratt Sunday this year, the South Arbury Railway will also be having open days on 13 April, 21 Sept & 28 Dec 2003, don’t forget that Eddie Bull has kindly invited all members of this association to both his open days of his spectacular Brinkley Light Railway (Newmarket) on 6 July & 12 Oct 2003. Anyone else got any open day dates?
Commercially produced 16mm Garratts
Ross at Salem Steam Models (01558 822530) tells me that all his locos are now produced with the cylinders driving the centre (0-6-0) or 2nd (0-4-0) axle. There’s a possibility of having larger cylinders later in the year, prices should still be under £1000. John Campbell (01384 891244) is just finishing a batch of K1 Garratts & don’t forget John Brittain (01788 561126) is still producing the NG16.
Your photos required !
The 16mm Garratt Owners & Operators Association have been fortunate enough to be given space for a display stand at the 16mm AGM on 5th April at Stoneleigh. I don’t require anyone to assist on the day, but I do require some photos of your Garratts to add to the display. Whether you’ve built your own Garratt or have one built by somebody else – I need a photo of it please! Any size is acceptable, as they’ll all be copied. All prints can be returned to the owners. This is our chance to put the 16mm GO&OA ‘on the map’!
Your views
For the newsletter to continue in the direction that you would like to see it go, please email or write to me letting me know your views, without feedback nothing improves.
Next time
Well, that’s all for this edition, but the next newsletter will include the 2nd part of Richards article, lots of K1 news (including drawing sources & a painting), Garratt related websites, news about the articulated weekend at the Welsh Highland Railway & more.

All correspondence to:
The 16mm Garratt Owners & Operators Association.
Tel: 01223 864029
Email: info@16mmgarratts.co.uk