Garden Railway Forum

I thought you might be interested in dads latest loco purchase - it appears to be a scratch built leek and manifold body and chassis with Merlin Hunslet running gear and other Merlin parts. The boiler looks similar to a Merlin Hunslet at the cab end (but longer) and possibly all brass? Anyone recognise anything?

We've repaired the water gauge and checked it over and all looked promising so we steamed it up at the weekend. It raised pressure nicely but we could only get the whistle working - no steam to the cylinders. Last night we steamed up again and realised that the Merlin has a second regulator as part of the lubricator on the same servo as the whistle but in the opposite direction so we detached the servo arm and turned the valve by hand and away he went - running nicely on blocks for 30mins at approx 40psi. Hoping to get a paint job this year.......

What a lovely looking loco, great detail.

Any chance of seeing it running?

I agree with Tom, it doe look really good.

I'll take a video of it running later in the week. Here are a couple of better photos of the business end..

If that is a brass boiler then please do look after it. I have a loco I have owned for 30 years that has a brass boiler, and it still working just fine. Draining the boiler completely before any length of storage (other than a few days) is the key to long life!

Thanks for the advice Tony - did the Merlin Hunslet use a brass boiler, it looks very similar? I think dad is hoping you may be be able to paint it at some point this year, he just wants to make sure it is a reasonably reliable runner first.....

Oooh, that's very nice...

This is wishful thinking on my part really, but I wonder whether it could be the one built for Donald Evans by Mac Muckley back in the late 80s - I've got no idea if he used Merlin parts in his work, but i guess the vintage would be about right... I think that loco remained unpainted and was used very little before Donald died, at which point it was given to his next door neighbours to live on their mantlepiece, so it would be nice to think of it running again...

Actually, just thought, that would've been 45mm gauge, so unless yours is I guess it's a different loco. Oh well...

Enjoy running it!

Andrew.

Thanks Andrew

That is possible - the loco as received was set at 45mm (although it is also re-gaugeable to 32mm). I would also assume that it has been sat on display for a long time too as there is plenty of evidence of it being polished but not used.

I have also got a copy of the Merlin Locomotive Works brochure from 1984 and on page 11 in the 'Research and Development' section it mentions a Leek and Manifold 2-6-4 being developed to follow the W & L Hunslet. I don't think it made it into production although maybe one was built or someone took inspiration from this and built one themselves?

Here are photos of the the brochure......

Andrew, I've done a bit more research after you mentioned Mac Muckley and found a couple of his locos in the book 'Live Steam Model Locomotives 16mm Scale' by Peter Dobson. One is indeed a Leek and Manifold - J B Earle - and in the description it says it is also based on a modified Merlin Hunslet chassis. Whether or not he also built our E R Calthrop is not certain. Looking at the photo there are some differences in the method of construction in various areas and also some similarities. Hopefully someone out there may be able to offer their thoughts too.

Mac Muckley may be able to tell you more about your loco so I suggest you contact him. His email address is in the files on the 16mm Association DVD.

Thanks Tony, we'll see if we can get in touch

Excellent loco!
I have long been fan of mr Merlin and his locos, so it is particularly gratifying to see such a nice example
Is the valve gear fully functional? or is it "...semi-rotary valve to change speed and direction, standard practice on the Merlin range..."
Would love to see more details with explanations as to what is what on the "business end" of your loco

edit:
since writing this post I have found this page with more details of what I was asking for

Thanks Bambuko - yes working RC reversing valve gear in addition to RC regulator/whistle combination - thats a great web resource isn't it, I've looked at quite a few locos on there.

I've just been looking at your loco build topic for the first time - that is really impressive work.

I take my hat off to anybody who makes/fettles/repairs/paints anything these days as I can appreciate the amount of work, skill and time it takes. That is the main reason I was attracted to this leek and manifold loco, yes it uses Merlin parts but you can still really appreciate the amount of extra work that has gone into it. It's way above my skill level.

a short clip of recent test run on blocks....

I would be very happy with that purchase, certainly looks like a large loco and the whistle sounds great.

I liked this video, and you have one more subscriber to your youtube channel who looks forward to more

Agree. Very nice looking Loco and the whistle sounds great too.

This looks very much like the original Merlin L&M prototype. I would need to see an image of the underneath, especially the rear bogie as I put it together. The upper works were all done by Tony Sant, including the boiler, smokebox and body, that is if this is the Merlin prototype and not the Mac Muckley version. Tony originally did an early version of the L&M for another client, which the later version with the raised bunker was based.
This may not be the Merlin version but everything is in the same place as I designed it. More images will help me to confirm it one way or the other.
The Merlin version had its own new chassis so if the frame is all one piece of angle it will be the original. Great to see it what ever version it is. I have always been an admirer of Mac's work.
Regards
Ian Pearse

Hi Ian - many thanks for posting - that is really interesting information. I'll upload some more images later today for you to have a look at. The frames are both one piece of brass angle for the full length rather than the extended Hunslet chassis as used on Mac's L&M.
When would the Merlin version have been made? Am I correct in saying that the loco never went into production and if not why not?

This sounds like the original prototype as it has the one-piece frames.

The Merlin model was made to 16mm scale and turned out very big, too big for most people! When I did the Pearse Locos model for GRS we did it to 15mm scale , as I think Roundhouse may have also done.

By the time we did this model at Merlin, the company was in a difficult situation so the model never got any further. Neither did the 4-4-0 Kerr Stuart Madras which you show on the cover of the developments brochure. I think Mike Dockery had that prototype and made it into an L&B might-have-been.

I would be very interested to see any more images.

What is the power like? Because the first set of cylinders were not good as there was blow-by on one of the valves, even though it ran sweetly enough.

Ian