The Company Steam Locomotives~'Nipper'.

Note!

As you can see on the previous page poor 'Jenny' was doing the bulk of the work on the company lines for many years. However after the Great War the company found a dodgy way of obtaining a cheap engine....War reparations! One of the shady companies known to the management obtained a geared locomotive from the Western Front and it ended up at Reynoldston Junction. After all the bullet holes were repaired and the shrapnel dug out the body style was 'anglicised'.... The company found it had a good bargain! In the real world this locomotive is a Regner 'Konrad' 'bashed' up to my scale. For some strange reason known only to the management the engine is numbered '1'.... After going through the company workshop's the locomotive is unrecognisable from how it arrived. This locomotive is also painted in 'Tank Green' like the previous engine. As this engine is geared it has great slow running and is very powerfull. As the company trackage is poorly maintained with a top speed limit of 10 mph this engine is ideal. The locomotive was given a wooden floor plus body and roof. Many bits were added such as....whistle kit/Essel multi-height buffers/brass dome and safety valve pipe/extended chimney/wooden boiler lagging/new flywheel... (off Rob Bennett....thanks!) front coal bunker/Rosco lubricator and oil pot/etc. The chain fitted to all of the front buffer beams of the company locomotives is for chain shunting....you can shunt a wagon or van on a line next to yours...A very dangerous practise done on line's FAR removed from the railway inspectorate eyes! The spares supply for Regner is with one sole agent who is rather slow. Its strange that a country that makes BMW motorcycles (I am a life-long motorcyclist) cannot knock up a decent gas control valve. I say this as the valve has little fine control, and the point of 'on or off''... is like stepping off a cliff! This results in the safety valve blowing off a lot and one has to keep a eye on the water height glass (in the boiler) as most of it exits via the safety valve as steam,. This engine, like 'Jenny' is manual driven and is far more fun than using radio control. The 'hands-on' method means you can learn the art of driving a steam engine. With radio control one just stands there getting cold and looking like your waiting for a bus!

During 2009 the company built a new under-slung girder bridge over the Dodford Gorge. Here is 'Nipper' being driven by her regular engineman, Perce with a short goods train passing over the bridge on a sunny day.

Its a gentle day out on the line and here is 'Nipper' (driven by Perce as usual) passing past the new rock cutting with a short train of empty mineral skips. The usual pigs are in evidence cropping the line-side growth and the dwarf yellow marigolds are coming into flower...