Garden Railway Forum

Can anyone recognise this sweet little engine please? Quite a heavy powerful little beast running on a 9 volt battery , 32mm track. Thank you . Tony

No idea, but I love it

TTgardenrail wrote: ↑Thu Jul 27, 2023 10:07 am Can anyone recognise this sweet little engine please? Quite a heavy powerful little beast running on a 9 volt battery , 32mm track. Thank you . Tony

No idea of the manufacturer/builder of the model, but the prototype is Dot, built by Beyer Peacock and used on their 18" gauge internal works railway. Now preserved in the NGRS museum at Tywyn.

Graeme

Thank you , the model appears to be die cast or soldered white metal. It has a lovely frame and gearbox and the running gear is quiet and powerful. Will run for ages pulling two or three wagons . A lucky find perhaps!

I believe manufactured by Sweet Sixteen, who did figures too. Sadly no longer around. They did a couple of versions, as I once owned one fitted with a saddle tank. Lovely little things, fitted with top quality motor/gearbox.

Thank you for the identification help. I am new to garden railway but keen to develop a 32mm track in my small garden. Forgive my ignorance but is this engine 16mm scale? What scale trucks should I be looking to buy? Thank you . Tony

Please forgive my lack of knowledge but what scale trucks should I be looking to buy for this engine. It runs on 32mm track, the trucks I currently have look way to big. Thanks. Tony

TTgardenrail wrote: ↑Fri Jul 28, 2023 4:13 pm Please forgive my lack of knowledge but what scale trucks should I be looking to buy for this engine. It runs on 32mm track, the trucks I currently have look way to big. Thanks. Tony

This is possibly going to be a bit of a head twister!
32mm track scales up to 2ft gauge at 16mm to the foot. The prototype Dot was 18" gauge and only ran on an internal works railway for standard gauge stock, so you are highly unlikely to find models to run with it, to scale. So, if in your model terms the 32mm equates to 18" and not 2ft then you would need wagons at 25% bigger to be in scale with it i.e 20mm/ft rather than 16mm/ft.

Having said all that, many 'garden rail' modellers don't worry over much about exact scale and work on the principle that, "It's my railway and my rules".

It's similar in principle to mixing continental HO with OO, or American N gauge with British N gauge.

TTgardenrail wrote: ↑Fri Jul 28, 2023 4:13 pm Please forgive my lack of knowledge but what scale trucks should I be looking to buy for this engine. It runs on 32mm track, the trucks I currently have look way to big.

If the original kit was made to scale, then it will be 7/8" to the foot scale (1:13.7). Using 1:13.7 scale on 32mm gauge is in common use for modelling 18" gauge industrial railways.

That thing is tiny. 18" gauge railways were used for materials handling in large factories and had to negotiate tight clearances between machinery. The sort of job now done with a forklift.

Dot probably spent it's working life at Beyer Peacock pulling and pushing simple flat wagons loaded with bits of larger locos between places like the foundry, the blacksmith shop, the machine shop, etc. Maybe the odd low sided wagon as well for variety, carrying rubbish, scrap, coke for forges, etc.

Another use for small industrial railways was in smelters. The copper smelter in Port Kembla NSW had an internal railway, dieselised by the time I saw it in the '80s. The little Hunslets chugged around carrying scrap, slag, electrodes, ingots, etc. etc.

A larger version of Dot was built for a copper smelter at Wallaroo in SA, but it ended it's working life in the open air. It was built in 2'9" gauge, but converted to 3'6" gauge and used on a timber tram in the Otways in Vic.

'Google is your friend' (and if you believe that you'll believe anything). Put 'Wren locomotive Horwich' into your favourite search engine and the image search results will turn up pics of Dot's half sister Wren, with it's dinky little tender and an assortment of typical wagons at work in the LYR/LMS workshops at Horwich.

If you aren't into scratchbuilding, have a look at Phil Sharples website. https://philsharples.com/shop He has a good range of industrial rolling stock kits, some of which might be small enough to be suitable. Just remember locos like Dot and Wren worked in very tight quarters. Make sure any rolling stock is no wider than the loco........

Graeme

A few 7/8 suppliers

• https://mikes-models.co.uk/product-cate ... 8ths-kits/
• https://shop.bowatersmodels.co.uk/colle ... 8ths-scale
• https://www.finelinemodels.co.uk/page13.html
• https://www.grsuk.com/shop/GRS-Rolling- ... hs-D145000
• https://bolelasercraft.com/product-cate ... le-wagons/
• https://www.hglw.co.uk/ACME_7-8ths_Kits.html
• https://www.smallbrookstudio.uk/store/7 ... c128041527
• https://slatersplastikard.com/wagons/78NGWagons.php

And a Facebook group for 7/8

https://www.facebook.com/groups/78thsca ... lrailways/

Hope there's something useful

Rik

Thank you for all the advice on wagon size and scale. I am impressed by PS models kits, the prices seem most affordable to a new garden railway recruit!! The history of this engine DOT is quite fascinating so thank you for that. This forum had been so helpful.

Although based on Dot I believe the Sweet Sixteen model is 16mm scale, and frames widened to suit 32mm gauge. It’s just a rather small loco overall for the scale that’s all!

Thank you for the information. Very pleased with the engine build quality. It looks a treat running around pulling a few smaller industrial work type trucks. Tony