Garden Railway Forum

We saw the new Roundhouse Jennie at the recent Llanfair show, looked so good that we ordered one. It arrived very quickly and a very impressive engine, runs very well as you would expect from Roundhouse.

They are lovely looking and as RH Locos, I trust they run well?

I was tempted by one. As-is though, the cab seems a little large?. However, it's like my stick re the Lady Annes - not so sure of the aesthetics but can totally respect that mechanically they're great. Same applies here.

But, I suspect this isn't [ijust[/i] another loco release from RH. No, the fact it's slipex, the bodywork is so simple [just a cab and boiler wrap] and the cab being so easily removed [three nuts and bolts i believe?] makes me wonder if this is also RH's offer to the bodger and modifier's market, like the Mamods are. Take off that cab and tender, make your own bodywork and hey presto, a Welsh style 042 tank engine [or Colonial. Or European. See what I'm getting at?] A working, beautiful basic loco that can also, very easily be a blank canvas without cutting up £100s worth of loco/bodywork.

And then there's that cab. Seems a little large especially compared to the likes of Russells, Hunslet 460s etc. But then I got thinking. It seems just right for the next scales up -7/8ths or 1/12th. Makes me wonder if RH have designed it to be a sort of one-loco-suits-all, sort of? If this was all planned, then I'm going to give RH a lot of credit.

How has she run?

I'm sure many modified locomotives will appear from a Jennie chassis, I'm sure that was the intention all along. She runs beautifully, have just uploaded a video to YouTube....
https://youtu.be/EBtDWU0tZjU

Well it's a Bertie with a pony truck, mechanically speaking, and Berties are great runners!

And you pay £100 extra for the privilege...

tom_tom_go wrote: ↑Sun Oct 21, 2018 10:11 amAnd you pay £100 extra for the privilege...

... but the tender is free, apparently.

A RTR Jennie tender is £110 pounds so you pay more for buying a Berite and a tender individually than you do buying a Jennie (£10 price difference from my workings out).

Anyone got a picture with a George tender? The one that comes with it looks a little... Short?

A Complete 'Jennie' is £750, but RH will sell just the loco minus tender for £650. Tender is then £110 on its own.

This locomotive would look grand with some Locoworks "Bertie" detail parts on it.

£750
- £650

= £100

I think she is a beauty….Why do people have to be rivet counters. So what if she looks to some like she has just been cobbled together. RH do excellent in my opinion.

Are some people forgetting this is a Basic Range offering, and for £100 more than a Millie or Bertie you're getting a pony truck and a tender?

PS. I'm biased as mine should be arriving in the next few weeks!

FWLR wrote: ↑Tue Oct 23, 2018 8:23 am I think she is a beauty….Why do people have to be rivet counters. So what if she looks to some like she has just been cobbled together. RH do excellent in my opinion.

I've spoken some reservations about the cab height, but I do not for one moment believe it looks "cobbled together". It's still a good looking engine and as I have stated, it will run like a charm being RH Basic chassis. I was very nearly tempted by one myself to be fair [not seen one in blue yet].

Let's not forget we are just discussing this and it's not a rant at we don't like the Jennie.

I will make the point though that Accucraft now produce freelance locos with simplified Walschaerts valve gear and slide valve cylinders for £950 so the price of a Roundhouse basic series loco looks expensive regardless if it's got the Roundhouse banner of reliablity all over it (these are slip eccentric valve gear loco remember, they are basic by name for a reason so not much to go wrong).

If I was in the market for a gas fired live steamer I would look for a Roundhouse second hand 0-4-0 or 0-6-0 which are regularly on offer for around £1000 or build something from their kit range.

Thank you Tomtom, I was not certainly having a go. Jennie looks an ace little engine and something unique in the RH stable. When lined out [I have seen Tallyho green, BR Black, maroon and straw] they look stunning. Whoever buys one will be proud owners indeed.

As for Accucraft, it's a coin toss. Yes they may have detailed gear but they're Chinese built and they don't supply spares like RH do. Unless this policy has changed?

I am decidedly tempted by one for the 32mm side of my operations, especially if the boys in Donny would humour a request for red frames. It is the first thing of Roundhouse's for a while that I have been seriously tempted by that was not a tram engine. One thing that counts very heavily in its favour is that it looks like a NG tender locomotive. Little 0-4-2s were not uncommon at the end of the 19th century, so one could easily see it with a lamp, and a few other bits and pieces doing its bit for the Queen and Empire in some colonial backwater railway system, or somewhere in Britain's extensive export markets. Jennie without a tender could be adapted into a nice little well tank. Nice little model all around.

Peter in Va

dougrail wrote: ↑Tue Oct 23, 2018 10:45 am

FWLR wrote: ↑Tue Oct 23, 2018 8:23 am I think she is a beauty….Why do people have to be rivet counters. So what if she looks to some like she has just been cobbled together. RH do excellent in my opinion.

I've spoken some reservations about the cab height, but I do not for one moment believe it looks "cobbled together". It's still a good looking engine and as I have stated, it will run like a charm being RH Basic chassis. I was very nearly tempted by one myself to be fair [not seen one in blue yet].

Excuse me, where did I say you are a rivet counter and you said “it looked cobbled together"…..

Please get your facts right before mis-quoting what I have said or put.

tom_tom_go wrote: ↑Tue Oct 23, 2018 2:01 pm Let's not forget we are just discussing this and it's not a rant at we don't like the Jennie.