| Newsletter No 4 (May 2003)
Welcome to Newsletter No 4
The good weather is here again, so I’m sure we’ll see many
more Garratts out in the garden as their owners come out of hibernation.
Garratt Sunday
22nd June is Garratt Sunday!! This has got to be the 16mm Garratt event
of the year, all the commercial Garratt producers are intending to attend
– John Brittain with one of his NGG16’s, John Campbell with
one of his K1’s, Chris Fletcher from Locobox with the brand new
‘Darj’, Ross from Salem Steam Models with one of his Garratts
& Richard Copperwheat will also be in attendance with both the Garratts
that have been the subject of the articles in this newsletter. We are
expecting numerous Garratts owned & built by other people. Chris of
Locobox tells me that all ‘Darj’s ordered on the day will
be £695 - order after Garratt Sunday & the cost will be £795!
This is the last chance to get one of these locos at the introductory
price. The event will be held at the South Arbury Railway at Waterbeach,
Cambridge & will run from Midday until 6pm. The event is free, however
donations of £1 per person are suggested to contribute towards unlimited
tea, coffee, cakes etc. (while stocks last…)
The South Arbury Railway itself is a circuit of four scale miles of 32mm
gauge double track with maximum gradient of 1 in 200 & curves no tighter
than 7 ft radius. Clearances are generous throughout. For more information,
take a look at www.southarburyrailway.co.uk
,Email garrattsunday@southarburyrailway.co.uk
or call the ‘Garratt Sunday Hotline’ on 01223 864029. Please
ring by noon on Saturday if you wish to attend, so that sufficient refreshments
can be made available.
For those who are travelling some distance & enquired about a camp/caravan
site (01353 648870) & a Travelodge (0870 191 1528), the nearest to
us are about 8/10 miles away.
The Salem Garratt
Here is the second part of an article written by Richard Copperwheat who’s
built two of these Garratts from kits.
The locos both steam well & are very free runners.
Having no valve timing to worry about was a weight off my mind! When they
were both new, initially they were tight, but after several runs (as with
any loco) they started to free up.
Radio control was fitted to both as I find that pulling away & stopping
is a lot more controlled, however manual operation is possible. You need
to learn to drive taking into account the delay ot the steam reaching
the cylinders from the boiler as the pipe runs are longer than a conventional
locomotive.
The Garratts are fitted with pressure gauges (which is essential in my
opinion), but no water level glass, as it’s not really required.
On the first kit I built two lubricators are fitted, one to each engine
unit – both of the single leg displacement type, but on the second
loco, I’ve fitted a normal straight through displacement type in
the cab. The twin lubricators will last approximately two boiler fillings
& the single one needs to be replenished every steaming.
Both the locos are free steaming (one being internally fired & the
other externally fired) & I’ve been asked if they ever run short
of steam. Well, any loco can run short of steam (even a full size one!),
depending on how you drive/fire it. The same as a conventional loco, if
you drive it hard constantly – you’ll run short of steam,
however driven carefully, long & rewarding runs can be achieved. This
will of course vary with the ambient temperature.
I’ve already mentioned the two different boiler types & in my
experience, I believe internally fired boilers are the way forward as
externally fired (or pot) boilers are more subject to weather conditions.
Both boilers were found to achieve working pressure in roughly the same
time & steam output was also similar once the condensate had cleared
on starting. The externally fired boiler will last a little longer as
it has no centre flue taking up the water space.
In conclusion, I’m very pleased with both Garratts. There have been
a few minor tears along the way, but nothing that I couldn’t sort
out myself & the very patient Ross was always available on the other
end of the phone to give help & advice.
The first Garratt I built was the 0-4-0 0-4-0 version with all the standard
bits & pieces as supplied by Ross at Salem Steam Models with a few
cosmetic additions added by myself. The next Garratt was the first 0-6-0
0-6-0 that Ross produced (after constant badgering from me) & had
a different cab with NGG16 style tanks. This loco was built without side
tanks unlike the first one. The two Garratts are basically the same, but
look totally different.
The Manchester Museum of Science & Industry
I gave the information in the last newsletter for here, but omitted the
Email address & website address – here they are now; website
is www.msim.org.uk &
Email is a.draper@msim.org.uk
.
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.
Steaming Days
You’ve already got the date for Garratt Sunday this year, the South
Arbury Railway will also be having open days on 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
Locobox are now producing the new ‘Darj’, a Garratt that is
similar to the loco that was built for the Darjeeling Railway. With dimensions
of 520mm length,110mm wide & height of 140mm it looks a fair sized
model for the price! It has a boiler 2x8 & four 13mm big bore oscillating
cylinders. The power bogie wheelbase is 60mm with pivot points of 285mm.
The smoke box is machine turned Aluminium & the frames & cab are
laser cut. The Salem Steam Models (01558 822530) Garratt has had a few
changes made to it recently, the frames are now all laser cut as well
as the 0-6-0 0-6-0 version now being freely available. I believe that
the larger cylinders are now standard & the price is still under £1000.
John Campbell is just finishing a batch of K1 Garratts & when they’re
finished is planning to build a batch of coal fired ‘D’ class
Darjeeling Garratts. Cabs can be open or closed & any colour you like.
John is also keen to produce some South African rolling stock –
interested? Give him a call on 01384 891244. John Brittain (01788 561126)
is of course still producing the NG16.
The 16mm AGM that was held at Stoneleigh in April 2003
As you all know, the 16mm GO&OA had a stand at the 16mm AGM at Stoneleigh,
it was great to meet so many people! Thanks must go to Richard & Adam
Copperwheat, Eddie Bull, Trevor Ruffles, Mike Harris, Andrew Petit &
anyone else who we grabbed to assist with erecting, manning & dismantling
the stand. Thanks as well to all those who sent photos for display. We’ll
be there again next year with an even bigger display, so if anyone has
photos (which we can copy & return to you) or would like to display
their Garratt on the stand, please let me know. This year we had the privilege
of gracing the display with one of the fine Garratts made by Peter Angus.
We gained many new members & the newsletter now goes out to over 150
people! Not strictly Garratt news, but congratulations to Eddie bull for
winning the trophy for his superb mine. Maybe it’ll be a Garratt
you’ll have built to win the prize for next year Ed…
Want to build your own Garratt?
There are some beautiful commercially made Garratts available in 16mm
scale, but in the next newsletter we’ll be looking at making your
own. Many of us like to buy parts from suppliers like Roundhouse, Cheddar
etc & produce our own loco; some even make all the parts themselves.
So, if anyone has any tales, tips, triumphs or disasters please let us
know.
Next time
Sorry, but I’ve run out of room! Next time – K1 news, drawing
sources & the painting, news of Articulated Weekend on the Welsh Highland
Railway (13/14 Sept 2003), Garratt related websites (including the new
official 16mmGO&OA website with photos) & more…
All correspondence to:
The 16mm Garratt Owners & Operators Association.
Tel: 01223 864029
Email: info@16mmgarratts.co.uk
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