One of only 4 Garratts ever built by John Cockerill of Seraing, Belgium has been completely rebuilt by the Welsh Highland Railway for use on their new 25 mile line which will open this year.

See here the "works" photo taken this week.

http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=267412

TH

That's very nice, but somehow a steam locomotive lettered with a web address seems completely wrong!

On a more serious note, what's that device just above the rail beneath the firebox? It looks like a magnetic rail detector or something.

Randall

Yes the display of the railway's web address is unusual at the is time.

The idea was "borrowed" from the A1 steam trust and their brand new loco "Tornado"

See here: http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.p ... 067&nseq=1

The logic is simply that folks will read the address and hopefully investigate further (visit the railway!) during the initial period of high interest in the loco(s).

I'd expect that we'll see the idea used a lot more on both sides of the ditch......

The loco is coal fired (The railway somewhat vacillates between coal and oil. Their four operational Garratts, two are oil and two are coal fired)

Yes that is the ashpan and side dampers. One of the main advanatges of a Garratt is that the size of the boiler/firebox is not restricted by the wheels / frame etc.

TH

Actually, the grand canyon railway had the web address on the tender for years until the 4960 was repainted in '07.

White? Wow, I am impressed with the appearance but I am surprised at the color choice. Someone is going to get to do a lot of scrubbing to keep things looking shipshape.

Wow. That is some outfit.

If I remember right, they are putting back a railroad that is long gone, and collecting "new" motive power for it.

In the US, this would be like rebuilding the Rio Grande Southern.

Rob

Here it is at Donnybrook in 1988

I thought about that, but it just looks so tiny. How much water can you possibly boil with grates that size?

Hello,

As for logos, yes this scheme is not quite as optimum for the purest. However, marketing is marketing. IMHO, having a web site on the logo helps get the attention of the younger set, who under normal circumstances could care less about rail transport, let alone preservation. Perhaps this will spark some interest?

Beyond tourists, maybe hikers want to traverse mount Snowden will use the WHR passenger service, or the locals, it doesn't matter. The key is getting the railroad integrated into the fabric of the community.....being in Wales, most certainly helps!

I have been following the developments of the WHR for quite some time. The entire project, motive power included is quite impressive.

As for the NGG16 pictured, for the American rail enthusiest, a garratt is an unusual and different beast, never executed in general service in the US. However I find them quite ineteresting. With the NGG16 being 48'5" over the pulling faces, its quite formidable for a 2ft loading gauge. It earns the classification of "2ft gauge super power".

For those of you who would be interested in technical details of the NGG16, there is an excellent resource in South Africa to obtain detailed engineering drawings of the NGG16 as well as other South African Railways power. The name of the contact is "SAR Steam" at the web site:

http://www.sarsteam.co.za/

John Young is the proprieter. A few years ago I purchased a disc bundle of all the drawings he had at the time. He sent the discs to me via international mail. If you desire to do the same, be prepared to wait. I believe my shipment took 8 weeks. However the wait is well worth it!! John has been able to access the South African Railways mechnical department drawing archives and scanned 1000's of detailed drawings of dozens of locomotive classes, the NGG16, the Class 25 non-condensor and even the class 25C condeser locomotive, to name a few. I believe the set includes detailed drawings of the 3'6" gauge 4-6-2 rotary poppet valve pacific (which is also an impressive well proportioned locomotive) Some of the drawings (in pdf) he has touched up for clarity. In the case of the 25NC class, he included actual 3-d wireframe CAD drawings of drivers, frames, etc. If you care to pursue this, I highly recommend it. Its a rare opportunity to get this level of detail from an international railway source.

In the past John has had problems with his web site being taken down by hackers. he seems to be holding on well now. If you are interested, purchase them while you can!

The WHR will have (4) NGG16's in their stable which will make for a very substantial and capible operation. I hope to visit the WHR in the future.

Regards,

Randy Musselman

One week later and the loco is in steam and under test.

More images can be seen here:

http://www.roger-dimmick.fotopic.net/c1632319_49.html