| Newsletter No 5 (August 2003)
Welcome to Newsletter No 5, which is the anniversary
edition! The 16mm GO&OA is now one year old. For those that
don’t know the story – I’d always had a love of Garratts
& about 14 months ago got chatting to Richard Copperwheat who was
of the same persuasion. Laughingly, we joked about an association dedicated
to 16mm Garratt fanatics - it seemed so far out… As I mentioned
this to other people, it appeared that there were other Garratt lovers
out there (many still in the closet) so I did newsletter number one, thinking
it’d be just a ‘flash in the pan’. Well, from that moment
on, with a mention in the ‘16mm Exchange’ & the Internet
it just snowballed – nobody was more surprised than me!! One year
on & the free newsletter now goes out by email/post to over 180 people
from all corners of the world. The first Garratt Sunday (the annual association
get together) was a major success – read on for the report. I’d
like to take this opportunity to thank all those people who receive the
newsletter, who send me information to include in it, who write to me
& email me telling me of their plans & dreams for the future &
all those who assist or just come over to chat at the shows that we’ve
had a stand at – without you all there would be no 16mm Garratt
Owners & Operators Association.
Garratt Sunday
22nd June was Garratt Sunday!! It was a hectic day & the hours just
flew by, over 60 people attended from all over the UK, Rochdale, Southend,
Wales – one even brought his NGG16 all the way from darkest Kent
by train! Many different Garratts were seen romping round the track at
South Arbury. There were examples from all the commercial producers &
also home built examples. Locobox had the first public running of their
new ‘Darj’ Garratt, which just seemed to run forever. Every
time it came past, there was somebody else at the controls! It ran beautifully,
pulling a train of 10 Bachmann hoppers behind it (not forgetting the brake
van with the brick in it!) all weighing in at 53Lbs! Some took advantage
& ordered one on the day (last day before the price increased) &
others who’d already ordered were made all that more impatient –
Mr Locobox must stop teasing people like that! . Lots of food was eaten,
gallons of tea/coffee was drunk & a good time was had by all. Many
thanks to all those that contributed their £1 towards the catering
& also thanks must go to all those who assisted in the smooth running
of the whole day – Eileen, Paula, Richard, Ed, Katy, Sophie, Sally,
Jannis, Glen (station taxi duties) & anyone else who helped. Garratt
Sunday next year will be on 20th June.
Steaming Days
You’ve already got the date for Garratt Sunday next year, the South
Arbury Railway will also be having open days on 21 Sept (the Great South
Arbury Steam Festival)& 28 Dec 2003, don’t forget that Eddie
Bull has kindly invited all members of this association to his open day
of his spectacular Brinkley Light Railway (Newmarket) on 12 Oct 2003.
Anyone else got any open day dates?
Commercially produced 16mm Garratt news
Lots of new items here this time. Chris Fletcher of Locobox (01554 774262)
tells me that the first five production ‘Darj’s are well under
way & he hopes to have them completed in time for the Great South
Arbury Steam Festival (21st Sept). I understand that they’ve also
had orders from Holland & USA, so it’s truly a worldwide market!
To find out more about these loco’s, give Locobox a call or take
a look at the new website – www.locobox.co.uk
. Salem Steam Models have taken the decision to transfer the Salem Garratt
to the Locobox range. The loco will still be known as the Salem Garratt
& will feature quite a few modifications to bring it into line with
the quality seen on the ‘Darj’s. John Brittain is (01788 561126)
still producing the coal fired NGG16’s which now have the option
of gas firing as well. I called in at John’s a few weeks ago just
as he was testing his ceramic gas grate on the bench. Once lit, the heat
from the burner was immense – I’m hoping my eyebrows will
grow back in time… John Campbell (01384 891244) has recently finished
a batch of K1 Garratts & will soon be producing some of the Darjeeling
‘D’ class Garratts. They’ll be coal fired & manual
control. Kevin Trim (01202 881255) is about to produce some ready to run
electrically powered NGG16’s which will be double motored, 32/45
gauge, battery powered with Mac 5 radio control. They will come finished
in final colour or primer. Once these are done, Kevin’s thinking
of doing a similar set up in a model of the K1. Not strictly 16mm, but
he’s also been approached by someone to do a model of the 59 class
Garratt which would probably be as a kit only with the same spec as the
others. Scale for the 59 is not decided yet. Now you’ve heard the
rumours about the possibility of Accucraft producing an NGG16, well over
to our Accucraft correspondent –
Dereck Pollard has been in touch with Ian Pearse of
Marches Models to investigate rumours of a new model which would be of
great interest to the group. A 16mm NGG16 is currently under development
by Accucraft & is scheduled for release in 12/18 months time. Accucraft
built the 45mm gauge NGG16 Garratt for LGB & by coincidence that model
was more or less 16mm scale. The live steam version will have even more
detail than the LGB one & will be modelled on the examples at the
Welsh Highland Railway. It will be gas fired using the tried & tested
boiler design already successfully used in the K27 & C21 models. The
estimated price is £2500 to £3000. Ian is happy to keep us
informed & would like us to know that he has a new website which will
give news of product developments.
I’ve spoken to Ian Pearse who tells me that he’ll also keep
us informed of the progress being made with this particular model through
the pages of this newsletter.
New Heading for this newsletter
You’ll have noticed the new heading at the start of this newsletter
& the Garratt at the top? Well, that’s all thanks to Roger Dimmick
from the Festiniog Railway. Roger spends many hours fabricating these
locomotive designs & very splendid they are too, look out for another
one soon!
Superpower Weekend at the WHR (was Articulated Weekend)
13/14 Sept is Superpower Weekend at the Welsh Highland Railway. Both the
NGG16’s should be in action, but sadly the K1 isn’t quite
ready yet. I’ve had a sneak preview of the timetable for that weekend
& it’s looking pretty good! Both days run from 06:45 until 18:15
with Garratts in action all day. There will be Garratt hauled freight
trains with a photographer’s coach at the rear & one mixed train
(Garratt hauled) each day. The loco roster ensures that the two Garratts
swap duties on the second day to maximise photo opportunities. Non-Garratt
wise – Prince & Velinheli will be in attendance for shorter
trains & shunting duties. For more information, call 01766 516073
or visit www.festrail.co.uk
.
Books for sale
The 16mmGO&OA has two Garratt books for sale. Garratt Locomotives
Of The World by A.E. Durrant (£18) & LMS & LNER Garratts
By Essery/Toms (£20). Please contact me by phone or email, details
at the end of the newsletter.
16mmGO&OA website
The association website will shortly be ‘up & running’.
The site will be free to view & will consist of all the newsletters
that have been issued & will also be a means of showing photos. There
will also be a links section, if you’d like your site to be linked
to this one, just send me the details. So how is all this free you may
ask? Well, the site will be sponsored by people/companies who wish to
advertise their products/services – hopefully this will cover the
cost of the site. If anyone wishes to advertise on the front page of the
site, prices start from just £1 per month. Advertising space will
be allocated on a first come - first served basis, so if you want to be
at the top of the front page – get in touch with me now. All those
who don’t have internet access need not worry, all the photo’s
that go on the site will be photocopied & sent out in the post along
with your newsletter.
The 16mm GO&OA show stand/layout
We had our first stand at the 16mm AGM at Stoneleigh this year; we’ll
also be at Llanfair on 30th/31st Aug & hopefully at the All Day Steaming
at Merstham on 4th Oct. The current stand is tiny, but there are plans
to include a circle of track into a new, larger stand, which will be known
as the ‘16mmGO&OA layout’. Should there be any surplus
funds gained from the website, these will go towards the costs incurred
when building & running this layout. It will demonstrate that you
don’t need a huge space to run a Garratt!
Build your own Garratt
Even though there are more & more commercially manufactured 16mm Garratts
coming onto the market, many folk want to build their own, whether it
is for financial reasons or just to say ‘I made that’. Once
you’ve made the decision to make your own, you have to decide how
much you’re going to do yourself. As we all know there are many
ready-made parts available from suppliers, some who make locomotives &
some who make just the bits. There are people who will want to make all
the parts themselves & their Garratt may take many years to build
(I take my hat off to them – unfortunately that’s way beyond
me!), but on the other hand there are the ones who want their own Garratt,
but would rather source ready manufactured components. You’ll probably
have a pretty rough idea of many of the parts available to the 16mm builder
already & remember – all the parts used in a ‘straight’
locomotive can be used in a Garratt, the only different parts we need
will probably be pivots & the steam pipes at the articulated joins.
Many people look at a Garratt & feel because it’s so large (compared
with most other types of locomotive), it’s going to be complicated.
The beauty of it is, as it’s so big there’s plenty of room
to play with! Let’s break it down – it’s basically just
2 chassis units & a centre section. The chassis units are no different
to a normal loco chassis except you’ll have a pivot over one end.
Generally speaking, the 2 chassis units on a Garratt are identical (remember,
let’s keep it simple) apart from the tanks being different - that’s
only superstructure & need not worry us at this point. The cab &
boiler sit on the centre section, again quite straightforward. The one
point to watch for on a model Garratt is shortage of steam. You have to
bear in mind that you’re feeding 4 cylinders, not just 2. If you
feel that your line doesn’t warrant all this power, you may decide
to only have 1 unit working & the other acting as a ‘dummy’.
I’ve seen this done on a couple of Garratts & it’s worked
very well. Another way of overcoming this is to use a steam motor mounted
underneath the boiler/cab unit & have a drive shaft to each chassis
unit. This gets us round the shortage of steam problem, but then makes
life a little more complicated by having a drive shaft – it’s
your choice. You should also remember that the way your loco is driven
will make a big difference. Like a full size loco, if it’s driven
like the clappers, flat out, then it’s going to need to produce
a lot more steam. If it’s just going to amble round with a sensible
train, then it won’t need so much. Not really much difference in
principle to you ‘Lady Anne’ really. Boiler design is so well
advanced these days, there’s no real reason why you should run into
trouble.
In the next instalment of this article we’ll look at what some of
the manufacturers can offer as well as the pivots & steam pipes.
Next time
In the next newsletter we’ll look at the new 16mmGO&OA website
along with some other useful sites & we’ll also have progress
news on the K1 (including drawing sources & a painting) which I didn’t
include here as things aren’t as progressed as the K1 people hoped.
There seem to be a few more electrically powered Garratts about now, some
of you like them; others are not to keen so we’ll weigh up the pros
& cons.
All correspondence to:
The 16mm Garratt Owners & Operators Association.
Tel: 01223 864029
Email: info@16mmgarratts.co.uk
- Don’t forget to come & say hello
if we see you at
Llanfair (30th/31st Aug) & Merstham (4th Oct)! -
|
