February 13, 1930. The Model Engineer and Practical Electrician. 161
SHOPS SHED
SHED & ROAD
A Column of "Live Steam."
The Third " Baby" Arrives.
By "L.B.S.C.”
a
Well, brother loco men, I've shot a solemn
resolution all to bits. No; not in a speakeasy,
friend "
Inquisitive." After the completion of
gauge-o Minnehaha,' which was built
couple of years ago for Mr. Joe Lozier, notice
of motion was given, and the motion itself duly
proposed, seconded and carried unanimously,
that there wouldn't be any more gauge-o loco.
motives turned out by this child. The violent
crop of headaches and troubles with eye-strain
which the building of that little locomotive
brought to me, was enough to break the heart
of an angel and I'm sure a long way off that
category at the time of writing, anyway! The
evolution of the successful 2-in. gauge
Westinghouse pump was a bit of a teaser, too,
but it was a quicker job and didn't "prolong
the agony," in a manner of speaking, so we
managed to survive making a few of them at
odd intervals. I refused plenty of orders for
duplicates of "Sir Morris" and "Minny," and
told all and sundry that I wouldn't build
another o-gauger even for Lord Bermondsey or
the Duke of Barking Creek. But, alas! for
good resolutions. Whether the shocking rough
trip across the Atlantic (and will Mr. Neptune
kindly inform the p.-way ganger in his division
that the track between Southampton and New
York badly needs relaying) had anything to
do with it, or whether American air suits me
better, I just can't guess; but I haven't had a
trace of a headache since we landed, thank
goodness for small mercies.
That being so,
when a worthy friend wanted a gauge-o loco-
motive ("just the last one, and no more," said
he), I fell for it and started in to build her.
At the time of writing, she is well on the way
to taking the road on the new N.L.R.R.
Oil-fired this Time.
baby,
37
"Sir Morris" burned coal, "Minnehaha
was fed on poison-gas (or rather, the stuff
which generated it), but the latest arrival will
be fired by a little kerosene torch, or vaporising
burner. She is a pretty good size for a
and is a fairly correct copy of the New York
Central Hudson " type 4-6-4, similar to the
engine in the American Express Company's
window in the Haymarket, London. The lead-
ing truck is cut from -in. steel plate and runs
on wheels 13/16th in. diameter, solid pattern.
Main frames are also cut from -in. steel plate,
and are shaped exactly as full-size American
bar frames, but have brass axleboxes and spiral
springs, and six-coupled driving wheels rins.
diameter. The trailing truck sides are bronze
castings; the big engine has a booster, so the
wheels are of unequal size, and Josie » has
one pair 13/16th in. and one pair 1 in. dia-
meter, the latter being turned from a hunk of
cold-rolled steel bar as no castings were avail-
able at the time. The cylinders are practically
the same as "Sir Morris" and "Minny," but
are bolted to a heavy smokebox saddle instead
of direct to frame, and the whole assembly is
mounted up on the frames similar to big
66
augs 1979
Photo by
How Mr. W. F. Koch caught the Loco Fever. A scene on the Old N.L. Railway.
[Mrs. Koch..
