Boot Lane Works "Janet"

[tommygander1941]

Well here we are, ANOTHER new kit from BLW. This time it is the Furzebrook Railway G.E. Bellis 0-6-0WT, "Secundus", probably the weirdest looking but also most interesting Furzebrook locomotive.

This might just convince me to have some 45mm gauge stock, to be able to run on garden railways that either have both 32 & 45 or are just 45. Might even invest in some Sixteen Mills wooden tipper waggons to go with it, but those conventional buffers will definitely be replaced with wooden examples, as to me that is even more industrial.

https://www.bootlane.org.uk/product-page/janet

[ge_rik]

In some ways it is a thing of beauty - though I cannot put my finger on why.....

Rik

[StuartJ]

Fascinating loco that has been on my long range project list for a while. There is an early photo of it in the distance without a cab, and it looks much more attractive! I think the smokebox and chimney are from it's visit to Pecketts in the 1930s but I haven't seen a photo of what the front end originally looked like.

[Peter Butler]

During my time working for the Birmingham Museums service I walked past 'Secundus' hundreds of times whilst on open display at the Museum of Science and Industry, Newhall Street. I hardly gave it a second glance! Since then I have become drawn towards quirky locomotives and wish now I had paid more attention to it.
A request to the new Thinktank Birmingham Science Museum might offer additional information.

[Paul_in_Ricky]

During my time working for the Birmingham Museums service I walked past 'Secundus' hundreds of times whilst on open display at the Museum of Science and Industry, Newhall Street. I hardly gave it a second glance! Since then I have become drawn towards quirky locomotives and wish now I had paid more attention to it.
A request to the new Thinktank Birmingham Science Museum might offer additional information.

Secundus has been moved to the Swanage railway now and on display at Corfe castle station.

I'm not sure how much interest in Secundus there was at Birmingham MSI other than being built locally, although they were helpful to researchers.
When the Greenwich & District Narrow Gauge Railway Society were conserving a wagon from the Furzebrook railway, the late Dave Brewer and myself spent a day in the museum at Birmingham measuring Secundus. We crawled over every square inch recording it. An interesting surprise was it looked like at sometime the main frame had broken and been repaired. It would be interesting to know the story behind that repair.

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[Lonsdaler]

The old Science and Industry Museum in Newhall Street used to be a highlight of trips into Brum in my earlier years (pre my 50th birthday). I've been to the new Thinktank (new? It must be 20 years old now at .east) and whilst its exhibitions are well crafted and displayed, they just don't capture the atmosphere that the Newhall Street site had, being a former industrial site.