For the most part my modelling is of small narrow gauge steam locomotive that run on ‘0’ gauge track for use on garden railways. These narrow gauge locomotives appeal to me because they are quirkier than their larger brothers often one off’s and sometimes designed for specific jobs so they can be quite odd looking. Sometimes they have been altered to do other jobs such as stationary engines to power machinery or as winches.
In the 1880’s a Wensleydale cheese manufacturer moved into an old factory that had a narrow gauge railway. The Cheese Company had little use for the railway and was considering disposing of it. However one of the company’s directors had heard of the Guinness Brewery’s success in using their industrial narrow gauge locomotives in converter wagons to pull wagons on their standard gauge sidings. The cheese factory was situated reasonably close to the navigable section of the River Ure, which connected to the Ripon Canal and the River Ouse with its connection to York, Hull and beyond.
The Cheese Company decided to diversify and go into the canal tug business and they decided to fit their small steam locomotives into canal boats thus converting them to tugs. For the first conversion the locomotive chosen was Gill a Cracker class 0-4-0WT locomotive that was originally designed and built in the Netherlands but was later made under licence in the U.K. and probably other countries as well. Gill was a very simple engine that was powered by a single cylinder geared steam engine. Other than the fitting of a taller chimney and a large water supply no alterations were needed to the locomotive itself. The power for the propeller in the hull being taken from a gear wheel already fitted to the locomotive’s leading axle. Like the Guinness locomotive, which could be lifted out of its converter wagon and placed straight back onto the narrow gauge rails, this locomotive could also be lifted out of the hull and placed directly on rails and with the chimney reduced in height it was ready to go. It is unlikely that once in the hull the engine was ever taken out again. So the W&G Cheese Company entered the tug hire business maybe even carried their own products.
This seemed a daft enough model project to do, so I though it was worth a model of the engine and boat. I didn’t photograph the construction of the locomotive but what follows shows the hull being made and the locomotive being fitted in it.
The locomotive
Transmision.
Lining up hull.
Building hull.
More photographs to come.
Regards Tony.
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