NSWGR AD60 #6029 returns to steam.
Very enjoyable viewing, Andre. Thanks for sharing. [:D]
Here’s another Garratt, from Airfix if I recall correctly. I built this unpowered but moveable locomotive for a nearby hobbyshop, and lettered it, as requested, for a very popular local line. The number used is next in succession for the road’s two ex-NYC Hudsons.
Wayne
I came across 6029 working alone (without diesel assistance) for a recent Father’s Day special from Canberra to Bungendore and return. It is fun to watch, and for our last shot we were standing on an old wooden bridge which shook with an exhaust blast as it passed underneath.
OF course there is an HO model…
http://eurekamodels.com.au/garratt.html
The good news is that the prices are in Australian Dollars with a current exchange rate of 0.70, which drops the basic model below $600.00
Now that really is on topic…
M636C
Wayne, that Garratt kit was by “Kitmaster” in 1/76 scale.
Andre:
Thanks for sharing those wonderful videos!
Dave
Just beautiful and a sweet sounding whistle to boot!!
Thx Andre.
Now, that is cool! Thanks for posting the videos.
Thanks, I was sorta grasping for a name when Airfix popped into my head. [:-^] The store got two of them, new in the boxes, when they bought an estate lot.
Wayne
Great video’s! Are we allowed to watch them more than once?[(-D]
Wow! The videos are a treat. I’ve liked Garratts for a long time, but never got “into” them. What marvelous beasts.
It’s pretty obvious they never were in North America. But they seem to have been EVERYWHERE else. A person could wonder why.
One reason could be that the US had a very vigorous and successful locomotive building establishment. And I’m pretty sure the Garratt would be built under license. And said establishment would not be enthusiastic for paying licensing fees. And obviously did not have to, to be successful. Because they WERE. Without paying license fees for the Garratt.
The well-known disadvantage of the Garratt was that it was a tank engine. And so its tractive effort would decrease over running time. Now, it’s not at all hard to predict the decrease. Operators all over the world could handle it; so could operators here. BUT. Tank engines in mainline service were quite unusual here. And tank engines in mainline service elsewhere were much more common. So it wouldn’t surprise me if the US folks just didn’t feel like the Garratt could be “a part of their world”.
If it had been operated here, it looks like it could have been a sweet little logging articulated, nice and low and flexible (this one even appears to be a 2-6-2+2-6-2. How appropriate):
Should something like the above ever be done in HO standard gage, my logging railroad just might import one, what with being exceptionally flush with capital.
Once the “locals” (Americans and Canadians) learned how to operate a mainline tank engine, I think the Garratt would have stood a good chance on the “real” railroads. BUT. I am not convince that it could s
I believe that ALCO had a license for Garratt production in North America but major railroads lacked the loading gauge requirements that made them attractive elsewhere in the world and went with shorter Mallets and Simple-articulateds.
Interesting.
I wonder what the license cost. And I wonder what fees they would have had to pay the licensee if they had actually built one.
Too bad they didn’t–there is a bit of disappointment in this house. At least, a demonstrator. I wonder what it would have looked like, if they had.
I saw, online, a nice little HO model that looked a lot like it was built on two Mantua/Tyco 0-6-0T drives. It wasn’t, but it sure reminded me of them. The Tyco drivers are a bit too big to be a logger (51" vs. 44"), but gets a person thinkin’…
Ed
Here’s a pretty good little Garrett logger:
I think the drivers are too big, but it’s far better than the one I (didn’t) make.
Ed
Very interesting, I would have thought that US loading gauge was generous enough to allow a creditable Garratt, but further to Eds analysis I see that a possible explanation was that the American Rail Companies did not regard the Garratts coal and water capacities sufficient for their requirements. I also wonder that with the advent of the first US mallet”Old Maude” in 1903 if the US railroads looked upon the first Garratt built 6 years later, not only as a latecomer but a small narrow gauge oddity? It was 1924 before the first standard gauge Garratt was built, and that was a one of, 0-4-0+0-4-0.
Still dreams are free…
http://www.railarchive.net/fantasysteam/prr_t1_garratt_rcl.htm
Cheers, the Bear.[:)]
Who here doesn’t have a mind that wanders to a KK-56 (If D&RGW wanted a bigger engine post K-28)
You make it WAY too easy:
Ed
Yep… Dick Truesdale (owner of Westside Models) had a great imagination and sense of fun…
Love the videos
Guy
I found what appears to be a littermate of the Garratt I posted earlier. This one REALLY looks like a logger. It’s narrow gage, which won’t work for my ritzy standard gage system; but, WOW…
It’s even link and pin!
Ed
Here’s a link for lots more on this two foot South African railroad:
http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/59139-south-african-two-foot-gauge-railways/
I especially like the shot of a South African version of a Pennsy long distance tender.
Ed