It was my original intention to kick off with the three-cylinder "Silver Jubilee" of the L.M.S., but when it comes to using the working tools of the drawing office, your humble servant is about as handy as Cissie the cow with old Sam‘s musket. Eh, what‘s that? Why, bless your heart and soul, I know I get away with it; but, gee-whiz! if you only realised the time it takes me to get out a drawing, and the dozens of pencils and piles of rubbers mopped up in the process, not to mention sundry bits of tin, cardboard, pins and what-have you which are used in lieu of calculations when scheming out the valve gear and so on, well—'nuff sed! Anyway, as the "Jujube" (although well on the way) hasn't yet reached the stage of being fit for "presentation to the public," I have persuaded Bro. Springer to make an outline drawing of the Great Western‘s latest, the "Grange" class, and have managed to work out the details of her. Therefore, we‘ll carry on with that, pending the completion of the "Jujube." As blueprints have been requested, I‘ve asked friend Springer to see what can be done in the way of getting out a few prints with "dual dimensions" for 2½" and 3½" gauges; and if he does, he will advertise them, so you‘ll know where to look!
The "Grange" class should make a pretty powerful locomotive, both in 2½" and 3½" gauges. No special castings are needed; all the stock stuff sold by our advertisers will come in fine. As will be seen from the drawing, the outline of the little engine follows that of the big one very closely, and it is practically "to scale," except that the boiler is a little bigger in diameter in order to bring in the most-easily-obtained sizes of tube. On the 2½" gauge edition, the cylinders are 13/16" bore and 11/8" stroke, with outside overhead valves actuated by Stephenson link motion, driving them via the usual Great Western rocking shafts with pendulum levers. Tyros can use loose eccentric gear if they so desire, without upsetting the efficiency of the engine in any way. The driving wheels are 27/8" diameter, and as the regular Swindon-type boiler will maintain 90 or 100 lb. pressure without thinking twice about it, she ought to be able to perform in true Great Western fashion. The cylinders on the 3½" gauge engine can be 11/8" by 1¾", and the driving wheels 4¼" and, judging by the performances of another class of engine built to "Live Steam" specifications of similar dimensions, a twenty-passenger load should be well within her haulage capacity. Now to instructions; I'll give the details and figures for 2½" gauge, and brothers building the larger size can increase them in the proportions of 5 to 7 "except where otherwise stated," as it says on the excursion handbills.
Photocopies of the constructional articles are available to members from the Association.
Drawings, castings and some materials are available from GLR Distributors.
back to locos