- BW CGR Garratt.jpg (177.67 KiB) Viewed 5581 times
The little Garratt in the photo is one of a small batch built by Brian Wilson (author of the book 'Steam Trains in Your Garden') around 2010-2011 and is based on the Ceylon Govt. Railway H1 class, built for one of their 2'6" lines. I've seen several of these models running locally at the GSSU (Great Southern Steamup) in Melbourne and the prototype is one of the best looking of the small Garratt designs turned out by Beyer Peacock. I never thought I'd own one though.....
Anyway, to cut to the chase, the seller was located only a few suburbs away, so a short drive the next day and I was test driving it on it's home railway. A quantity of pacific pesos changed hands and it followed me home. The next pic. shows it on my work bench under test, after some minor repairs/adjustments, while I was learning how to run it.
- Gunawarra -b.jpg (123.19 KiB) Viewed 5581 times
The model is built to 1:19 scale on 45mm gauge and is basically two Eric chassis from Brian's book, fitted with a gas fired twin 2 1/2" twin flue boiler. It is radio controlled, which simplifies reversing the valve gear. Some bits like the cylinders and burners are from Roundhouse.
It is mid-winter here and while this year has been dry, it has been too cold and miserable to take it around to the LNR for track testing. Today was a rare sunny day, not too cold and with not too much wind, so the opportunity was taken to visit Grant and give it a run.
The following pic shows it on shed before lighting up for the run. It doesn't quite fit the repair shed, but it did just fit the turntable, which simplified things when it came to working the yard.
- Gunawarra -c.jpg (380.59 KiB) Viewed 5581 times
A light loco run was made to ensure everything was working and it was then coupled up to a goods train of Grant's rollingstock to see how it behaved with a load. It had no problem with the train (22 axles), but the gas ran out before we could increase the load.
The following pic shows it drifting through Nayook on a goods train in late afternoon sun.
- Gunawarra -d.jpg (436.16 KiB) Viewed 5581 times
Apart from a bit of fun running a train in the sunshine, the test run served it's purpose, as we found the radio system needs some more work, as well as the planned cosmetic improvements to the loco. It also needs a larger gas tank. A new loco build is taking up the space on the bench at present, so the Garratt will have to wait for attention, although I would like to get it fully sorted out for this year's GSSU coming up in November.
- Gunawarra-i.jpg (179.92 KiB) Viewed 5056 times
Before anyone asks, there's no video, as I have no idea on how to post one here, or how to use YouTube. There is however a video on YouTube taken by it's builder Brian Wilson, showing this loco running with a sister at the 2015 GSSU. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wzP7ibqxfIc
The loco name?
There is something called a Black Swan, mainly used in the financial sector, which is a low probability event outside the realm of normal expectation. It originated from a onetime European belief that there could be no such thing as a black swan. They found otherwise when a Dutchman sailed into a certain Australian river in the 17th century.
With only five of these models made, the chances of me finding one for sale was very low, hence it is a Black Swan in garden railway terms.
Regards,
Graeme
