Steaming up at the Fairfield Railway

[Matt]

Those anyone have any idea when Accucraft plan on bringing one out?

[Endless, Nameless]

Nope- it'll be after the 4 IoM live steamers though.

It was me that asked Ratty- they look better than the RH ones!

Did Pearse ever do one? I lose track...

[Matt]

yeah they did but i don't think it was well detailed.

[Endless, Nameless]

Dunno, they don't look half bad to me- just bimbled across to the Lightline website for a look. Accucrafts will knock it into a cocked hat though, if the W&L Peacocks are anything to go by...

[TommyDodd]

Aye they were nice. Somebody (Si I think?) asked who built the meths fired ones. The answer is, I can't remember I'm afraid! Whoever it was however alledgedly sold the design onto Roundhouse.

They were made by a guy called Phil Flint, using Roundhouse home-builder parts. They were meths fired potboilers, with inside slip eccentric valve gear (then the RH standard), like some others he built. There's an article describing a Hunsletesque freelance 082T " Port Lion" in an early SMT, and he also did one of the lovely Hunslet 4-4-0Ts proposed for the L&B. He didn't take orders, just built a few now and then and sold them when finished. But such lovely looking, lovely running engines generated a lot of interest and demand quickly overwhelmed supply so he handed production over to Roundhouse. The design was adapted for production- the cab was standardised on the 1897 version (PF offered both modified and straight-backed), the boiler changed to gas centre-flue, and dummy Joy valve gear added. Unfortunately it wasn't their best seller and didn't have a long production run. The more sophisticated boiler and level of detail naturally made it comparatively pricey and I suspect people didn't want to pay that much for a "push to change direction" loco, wheras PF could get away with it since he was effectively selling simplicity with just an old fashioned potboiler. As for the man himself, I saw all his 16mm stuff for sale on the members' stand at Stoneleigh a fair few years ago (and how, oh how, I wish I could have afforded the 440T) and believe he got into Gauge 3 live steam instead.