Garden Railway Forum

My locomotive policy in 16mm has always been rather mean. I never paid more than £500 for a locomotive. I reasoned that as my 5" gauge loco had been secured for £1200 back around 2010 ish, that spending the same sort of money on 16mm would represent poorer value for money. As a quick reminder the DVLR Mk2 had, at close of play 4 steam locomotives:

No. 1 River Deben is a Roundhouse Millie, procured in 2007
No. 2 River Alde is a Regner Vincent, procured in 2008
No. 3 River Butley is a second hand Accucraft Excelsior, bought in 2009 at the Brandon Show, perviously owned by Andy Sleigh
No. 4 River Tang is a second hand Merlin Little wonder, bought from Jack Sharples in 2014 while an undergraduate shortly after the Peterborough show.

Four locomotives really is quite enough and I decided that there was only a very limited list of locomotives which I would consider adding to the fleet.
One of the few was a Morgan Works Baby Garratt locomotive.

As some of you will be aware, I drive the small but mightly garratts at the WWLR so have something of a soft spot for a bendy engine. I've looked on longingly over the many years on this forum at Malcolm Morgan's locomotives (have a quick search through the forum for Baby Garratt, or Morgan works).

Having spent October 2016 to April 2022 as a PhD student, in 2022 I started my job as a lecturer at the Chem Eng department. Earning money and paying tax is still something of a novelty having been a pesky student for 10 years. In April 2023 I had worked my first year and was starting to get an itch for 16mm again. (The reasons for not building a 16mm line in the mean time I'll leave for another discussion).

Discussing with Theo Jalil one night between days spent working on one of the new build carriages at the Corris Railway, we mused on what a Stratfordised Morgan baby garratt might look like. Theo being rather good at sketches penned the attached drawing.

Armed with this I reached out to Malcolm through the forum. I'd heard rumers from others that Malcolm might have finished building locomotives so it was with some trepidation that I asked him, are you still building and have you capacity for one for the DVLR?

I do love that sketch, it looks so 'cute'. It has been a while since I scratch-built a locomotive, but that has me so tempted I might just 'borrow' your idea (if I may?) and produce an electric version.

I notice the two bogies are in synch. I'm sure we discussed this when I visited the W&W but can't remember whether you said this tends to happen or if it's just by chance? Very tempting.........

Rik

Peter Butler wrote: ↑Sun Aug 20, 2023 10:59 am I do love that sketch, it looks so 'cute'. It has been a while since I scratch-built a locomotive, but that has me so tempted I might just 'borrow' your idea (if I may?) and produce an electric version.

Go ahead, though it being based on the Morgan layout you may want his permission first - calling JMORG or MMORG!

ge_rik wrote: ↑Sun Aug 20, 2023 11:30 am I notice the two bogies are in synch. I'm sure we discussed this when I visited the W&W but can't remember whether you said this tends to happen or if it's just by chance? Very tempting.........

Rik

Done here for aesthetic purposes in the sketch but yes they do sync up. It is an example of a coupled resonant system, there's a nice video on the subject matter here: https://youtu.be/t-_VPRCtiUg



Malcolm had a set of components left for a baby garratt and was willing to build one which was excellent news. For those of you who don't know, the Morgan garratts are powered by an Osmotor - mounted in the rear tank on the earlier models, driving the rear engine or mounted between the boiler cradle frames on the later models driving both the forward and rear engines via a carden shaft much like a shay.
We discussed a few things preliminarily before hitting a snag - the DVLR was (famously) 2' 9 3/4" gauge. Malcolm's baby garratts are not wide enough to accomadate 45mm gauge. No matter - Malcolm was confident he could build a regaugable version, it would just have to be a bit fatter and a bit taller, that was all. Phew! We met at Peterborough show to quietly discuss the details. It was quite a shock just how many details there are to discuss!
Very quickly the loco came together and with regular updates from Malcolm, watching the build process was a delight. I requested a number of non-standard features for my loco. Firstly, the cab and roof are quite different from the usual Morgans, there is no cab back for the roof has to be held in place with a magnet.
With the extra width, the rear tank is wide enough to accomodate a millie gas tank from RH. It seemed like a good opportunity to free up a bit of space in the cab.
Also, because the loco is a bit wider than previous baby garratts, the reversing lever mounted on the Osmotor could be tucked behind the frames and opperated with a reach rod from a reversing lever in the cab. All very pleasing indeed.
I wanted to contribute a small amount to the project so designed up and machined the GER pattered "safety valve bonnet" and GER pattern whistle to sit ontop of the "belpaire" firebox. (Of course, these are all non-functional but they do set off the loco and give a good nod towards Stratford works stylings.
The parts were sent off to Tony Willmore for painting into the DVLR's standard livery and very soon I had the first complete works photo from Malcolm. I hope he won't mind me reproducing it here. A very hansom engine I'm sure you'll agree.

She has turned out really well and looks magnificent in your personal livery. In my mind I have made several design changes which will make it quite individual and not a copy of any known locomotive. The twin power bogies are already on order!

That’s looking lovely Zach! However he’s scaled it up to suit the wider gauge is done perfectly as it still retains its baby Garratt proportions well! Used to think mine was a great machine (maybe I shouldn’t have sold it.., )

What a beauty! I can't wait to see her in action!
Have you named her yet? Blyth? Ore?

Rik

ge_rik wrote: ↑Mon Aug 21, 2023 8:56 am
Have you named her yet? Blyth? Ore?

Rik

I can't help but think there's a clue in the title!

Peter Butler wrote: ↑Mon Aug 21, 2023 10:40 am

ge_rik wrote: ↑Mon Aug 21, 2023 8:56 am
Have you named her yet? Blyth? Ore?

Rik

I can't help but think there's a clue in the title!

Duhhhh .......

Rik

A thought Osmotors were a simple oscillator?
Obviously not, if there is a reverser?

As it has been scaled-up, how big a baby is it?

Phil.P

Hi I'm fairly new here. Zach I just discovered your 5in stuff on YouTube a few days ago.

Very cool little engine, can't wait to see more of it.

Thanks all, Malcolm did a lovely job of it and I don't think you'd immediately clock that it is slightly larger than his other baby garrats unless they were side by side. The dims are: 425l x 102w x 145h mm ish.
I'm still working out where the works and name plates will go. I had a few good runs on a test track on the patio (the old Marklin track came out again after many years).
Rik - Good guess on River Ore! (Perhaps my numbering scheme is too predictable?) Nicely, the River Alde becomes the River Ore - both locos which are geared ossilators.
The osmotor is a twin, double acting unit and, with drive to all four axles makes for a loco which holds the track well. I had all of the rolling stock which was in a fit state for running behind it on some 2ft 6 inch radius curves. I then spent a happy afternoon fitting chopper couplings to a lot of my stock (a job I'd got half way through many years ago) to give some more interesting formations.
Here she is on a "Flying Sprat" formation - fish vans and carriages. Two of the fish vans here were given their first run before finishing. I must get round to tidying up my grotty old 4 wheel carriages!


A not very good photo of No. 5 next to Nos. 4, 3 and 2. The flash makes her appear lighter than her stablemates but in reality its the same colour.
I think its time I got poor old No. 1 painted blue... This photo shows off the GER pattern whistle to good effect.

Awful lot of character in that, and a unique machine to boot.

Good to see you back and engaged with 16mm again. And that is a brilliant looking baby G. I'm sure Malcolm will be pleased that he can be sure that it will be cherished by you.

Hi Dr B!

Just catching up here, and I don't have anything original to add, but I did want to say how very splendid that looks, absolutely lovely!

Looking forward to seeing it in action - any chance of getting back to Rik's line, it'd look great at the head of a lengthy goods train??!

All the best,

Andrew

Lovely loco

Thanks all,

First off - it has taken me a while to get the video of the test run uploaded. Here it is:
https://www.youtube.com/embed/osrequFP0 ... qdL7l6-afc

As to

Andrew wrote: ↑Wed Sep 13, 2023 9:46 am Looking forward to seeing it in action - any chance of getting back to Rik's line, it'd look great at the head of a lengthy goods train??!

Ask and you shall receive...

Very nice running Zak. Love the sound of the loco and the train itself.

Andrew wrote: ↑Wed Sep 13, 2023 9:46 am Looking forward to seeing it in action - any chance of getting back to Rik's line, it'd look great at the head of a lengthy goods train??!
Andrew

Your wish .........



Rik

A beautiful sight to see, lovely loco and ideal testing ground, which she mastered well.