Model of the Month February 2010
Single Fairlie, based upon "Taliesin" as first built by Harvey Watkins
I was already running an Archangel “Snowdon Ranger” and was so
impressed by the performance and running qualities of the
articulated engine that I dearly wanted one based upon “Taliesin”,
in my view the best looking Fairlie.
I couldn't afford a special build so there was nothing for it but
to knuckle down and make one. The design was based upon “Taliesin”
as first built and would be my second steam loco, the first being
the Glyn Valley Tram loco “Sir Jasper” that appears in one of the
photos. The idea was to follow the conventional wisdom of the day,
for a pot-boiler. I didn't have the courage to leap into internal
firing at that time.
A top-hatted driver, by Maureen, came straight off the Christmas
cake. He looks a bit yellow about the gills these days, but he has
been standing in meths fumes for thirty years. Maureen, my late wife
was a potter by trade, and produced a number of figures, some given
away with the locos I built.
The boiler is a simple tube rolled from half-hard copper sheet,
over the household rolling pin, as I recall. At the time of
building, Fairlie pattern wheel castings, in chilled cast iron, were
available from the trade, but everything else, with the exception of
the pressure gauge, had to be handmade.
When running, the loco operates for about an hour on one boiler
of water. During this time she consumes three tanks of spirit. After
a run the boiler is refilled, as it cools down, by means of a vacuum
tap in the backhead.
The spirit filler is hidden under a removable coal load in the
bunker, so is reasonably unobtrusive.
“Frank Lloyd Wright” dates from the Black and White days of
garden railways, well, 1976-77 anyway. 100 years after the original
“Taliesin” locomotive first ran on the Ffestiniog. She is named in
memory of the American architect who was so proud of his Welsh roots
that he called his house “Taliesin” in honour of the Welsh poet.
Nothing complex here. Very basic detailing, as befits a beginner.
Play it safe, my motto, and make haste slowly.
Harvey Watkins
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