Northern Territory Surprises

Went to the Northern Territory with my father last year. No railway activities were planned, it was to be all nature and scenery. We drove the triangle, Darwin-Kakado-Katherine-Darwin, and we had a great time. We visited the museum in Katherine which had a few exhibits on the old North Australian Railway, and where I picked up a book, the "History of Railway in Katherine". It is locally produced and only cost $10 so production values weren't great, but an interesting read anyway. Next day on our way out we drove around the local relics, the station building, a massive bridge and a plinthed loco, no. 88, an NF8 class 2-6-0, formally a South Australian Railways Y class. It had been conscripted into the WW2 war effort and stayed on after.

However the bigger surprise was further up the highway. Purely by chance we made a toilet stop at Pine Creek where we chanced across this locomotive:

It is either NF2 or NF5, opinions differ. Either way, the NF class were originally SAR W class locomotives, and were constructed by Beyer Peacock in 1877. They were purchased for the railway by the Commonwealth Railways in 1915. Amazingly this locomotive was restored to operating condition for the bicentennial in 1988. It probably still is operational, certainly it can't be worn out from overuse. There are only the few metres of track within the Pine Creek yard to run on.

The Northern Australia Railway would make a good prototype for an operating layout if set in1944. War conditions meant there were an average of over 30 trains a day. It would also suit those interested in military modelling as most of the traffic would have been military. Certainly ten years prior there was only one train each way a fortnight.

nA Class at Emerald

The nA class of the Victorian Railways is one of those classic designs that just screams narrow gauge, a bit like the Darjeeling B class, the Ffestinog Fairlies, or the D&RGW C36 class. But the nA class has a profile that was so typically Baldwin narrow gauge tank from that era, one recalls to mind immediately Lyn on the Lynton and Barnstaple Railway in England, the 0-6-0 tanks on the Emu Bay Railway in Tasmania,or the 2-8-2t on the 2'6" gauge Barbados Government Railway and many others. Perhaps the closest was the New Zealand Railways Wb class 2-6-2T, which were built the same year as the first nA class and look very much like an inside framed version. So here is a photo of an nA hauling a special train for the Southern Forests Narrow Gauge Meet 2012.

The story of the C&BFT is that it operates the line from Kongwak to Walkerville on behalf of the VR, and so has some VR narrow gauge rolling stock allocated for this purpose. So the nA class will operate on the C&BFT and I have a whitemetal kit awaiting construction. Numbers will be 3, 18 and 19. The VR seems to have kept good track of its locomotives, so we know were most were most of the time. However 3nA seems to have slipped out of sight for a few years around 1925. Also the VR started to build 18 and 19 in 1919 but stopped, so why not have those locos completed and in service on the C&BFT?

To complete this blog here is a photo of the end of the Southern Forests special train, it was not a partially long train, obviously conveying an elite group of narrow gauge enthusiasts!

Garratt Solution?

One of the big problems I'll have is finding a Garratt locomotive for the C&BFT. In fact I'd like three. The British firm of Huttons may have come to the rescue with this model of an LMS Garratt, to be manufactured by Heljans in 1:76 scale, and expected at the end of this year.

So what would be needed to turn this into a reasonable 1:48 scale model of a 2'6" gauge Garratt? These are my thoughts so far:

1. Price. It is hard to see how I could go wrong. I estimated about $250 per unit delivered, and as any other option looks like being over $1000 per unit and I want three, it seems to me I’d just have to make it work. Plus I presume it will come with an operating mechanism that won’t have to be fiddled with!

2. Overall dimensions. I scaled the LMS garratt out at 55’ long in 1:48 scale. I can’t find a width but I’ve taken the British loading gauge, which is 9’ and that scales to 5’8”. This compares with a Victorian Railways G class, which is 50’x8’3”, and narrower than my rolling stock, which is 6’3”. I’d want to widen the running board by a scale 2’, that is add an additional 3mm to each side. It would still look a bit longer and skinnier than a typical Garratt for this gauge, but with no other Garratts around I don’t think that would be noticeable.

3. Driving wheels. Typically 2’6” gauge locomotives have driving wheels at 30” to 36”, with some passenger locos going to 42”. The wheels on this loco scale out at 39”, I think that is acceptable.

4. Tractive effort. I worked out what the tractive effort of this loco might have been, and I came out with a figure of 16620lb., which is pretty much ideal for me.

5. Inside/Outside Frames. We tend to think of larger 2’6” gauge locos having outside frames. However several 2’6” Garratt designs had inside frames, so this is quite acceptable.

6. Front water tank. With a wider running board, the front tank would not be the full width. While full width tanks are typical, there were one or two designs where this was not the case. I’d probably leave it as it is.

7. Boiler/Cab. I should think that the boiler will be fine with new stack, domes etc. Obviously it would need a new cab, built full width.

8. Rear “tender”. This would need to be full width and a very different design. But as a typical NG Garratt rear unit is basically a box, I don’t see many problems.

The Heljan model will even come ready to run with DCC plug. Hard to see any problems.