The loco is based on 'Tiny', a Lewin loco which ran on the Middlebere Tramway, which carried clay near Corfe Castle, in Dorset. The Middlebere Tramway started out as a plateway but was converted to edge rail before steam power was introduced. Lewin were based in nearby Poole and made a few small industrial locos as well as portable boilers and other steam machinery.
The model however differs from Tiny in many respects, not least that Tiny never ran on plateway track, having been fitted with flanged wheels from new. Also the model has a haycock firebox, a different style of chimney, and a lift up smokebox door.
However, none of that matters to me. Like many of Brian's models the loco has a charm all of its own.
One possible reason for the haycock firebox could be to make room for a vertically mounted motor. The kit was supplied either powered or static, and the position and size of the firebox would I think be in keeping with a tiny Sagami motor driving the back axle (*see note below). That however is just conjecture on my part, without seeing a powered example I cannot be certain. Later on Saltford listed a 009 Lewin, using the same main body castings but with a cab and of course a different chassis. The cab hid a Mabuchi motor, driving the rear axle in typical Saltford fashion.
The waggon looks to be a generic plateway type, and like the loco is cast whitemetal, but with etched brass wheels.
Both chassis members are insulated from each other and mounted on a plasticard floor, so the waggon could be hauled by a powered loco.
The track is made up from cast whitemetal blocks. For a working model Brian also sold etched brass track. He also produced a small booklet called 'An Introduction to Plateway Modelling', a fascinating read.
All of this came in the original box as sent by Brian, complete with notes in his uniquely humourous style;
Many years ago I scratchbuilt a pair of waggons, based on a drawing in Brian's book, but like so many things they never got finished. Wheels were to be N scale whitemetal wooden cart wheels. Perhaps its time they came out of storage for painting and finishing. I do have a small bag of plateway rail sections as well.
Incidentely, Ambis make etched nickel silver plateway track (and fishbelly rail).
Information on 'Tiny' can be found in 'Stephen Lewin and the Poole Foundry', Russell Wear and Eric Lees, long out of print, and the more recent 'Fayle's Tramways' by Chris Legg published by the excellent Twelveheads Press.
Paul.
Addendum: Funny thing memory. I seemed to remember one of these being described in the Goods Arrival pages of 'Model Railways' magazine, and a quick look through my copies in the loft finds said description in the October 1983 issue. A single photo and a few words obviously made an impression on my young mind, although it was some years later that I built my first Saltford kit (a Simplex, still extant but rebuilt with a better motor and improved drive). The reviewer managed to build the waggon with its sides upside down...
*I've now found out that the motor was a larger can motor driving the front axle.
Hi Paul
ReplyDeleteSomebody ripped off some of Brian's castings years ago and I have a couple of the plateway wagons - and the Groudle coaches. John Thorne has a couple of the locos built with proper chassis running on his Purbeck layout.
Hope all is well. Must email!
David
Sorry David, I've only just found your comment! Google's obviously doing strange things as comments usually show up in my emails.
DeleteRipping of castings, I know it happens but its quite rude. But there's no copyright on 3D parts, just photos and drawings, which is quite odd really.
I've seen John's locos, and there's a Lewin rebuilt with a new chassis running on Bob Telford's Falcon Rock.