Garden Railway Forum

ge_rik wrote: ↑Sat Dec 31, 2022 1:40 pm Anyone fancy a real challenge? Three rusting hulks somewhere in S. America
Tried looking up PEY BELFI without success. Somewhat stumped.
I wouldn't mind betting they originated in the UK

The loco in the two top row photos looks like it was built by O&K. It's rare for British locos to have oval cab windows and the dome just behind the chimney.

The locos in the bottom photos look more french than british. The opening in the cab front on the left is reminiscent of a Decauville, but close inspection shows it was made with a gas axe......

Graeme

ge_rik wrote: ↑Sat Dec 31, 2022 6:32 pm Nearing the end of the album (you'll be delighted to hear).
Any ideas here? I've hunted high and low for preserved Garratts in S America and can only find some small versions in Argentina.
I have a feeling these locos are from various different locations rather than from the same preserved railway. I've tracked down some others in Peru but not these.

The first three locos are a very long way from Peru.

The first photo is a Bundy Fowler. Specifically, BF5 'Bundy' preserved by the ANGRS and running on their line at Woodford in Qld.

Second photo is a froggie. Mallet 104 of the Chemin de Fer du Vivarais (CFV). Preserved, although it appears to be working a goods train.

Third photo is a Garratt alright, but it's G42, preserved at Puffing Billy in the Dandenongs near Melbourne Vic. Looks like it is waiting at the platform at Belgrave. Must be summer, the driver has hung a water bag out of the window, which is partially obscuring the number plate.

Your guess is as good as mine as to what and where the contraption in the fourth photo is. Looks industrial.........

Regards,
Graeme

GTB wrote: ↑Sat Dec 31, 2022 9:12 pm

ge_rik wrote: ↑Sat Dec 31, 2022 6:32 pm Nearing the end of the album (you'll be delighted to hear).
Any ideas here? I've hunted high and low for preserved Garratts in S America and can only find some small versions in Argentina.
I have a feeling these locos are from various different locations rather than from the same preserved railway. I've tracked down some others in Peru but not these.

The first three locos are a very long way from Peru.

The first photo is a Bundy Fowler. Specifically, BF5 'Bundy' preserved by the ANGRS and running on their line at Woodford in Qld.

Second photo is a froggie. Mallet 104 of the Chemin de Fer du Vivarais (CFV). Preserved, although it appears to be working a goods train.

Third photo is a Garratt alright, but it's G42, preserved at Puffing Billy in the Dandenongs near Melbourne Vic. Looks like it is waiting at the platform at Belgrave. Must be summer, the driver has hung a water bag out of the window, which is partially obscuring the number plate.

Your guess is as good as mine as to what and where the contraption in the fourth photo is. Looks industrial.........

Regards,
Graeme

That's sneaky. Assuming the 'contraption' is in S America, those three are the only photos in the entire album which aren't S American. No wonder I was struggling to find a preserved Garratt with that wheel arrangement in the S American continent. There were Garratts of various descriptions exported to that continent but it seems that very few now survive. To be honest, I'd not started searching for the other two. I'd found a couple of parks running restored steam locos and identified some other photos, but (for obvious reasons now) I was struggling to find anything on those railways which even vaguely resembled those locos. I was only a couple of thousand miles out!

Rik

Interesting. When I was searching, I passed a reference to Bundaberg but didn't bother looking!

philipy wrote: ↑Sun Jan 01, 2023 10:17 am Interesting. When I was searching, I passed a reference to Bundaberg but didn't bother looking!

Equally embarrassed. I've seen videos of that Puffing Billy Garratt and the coach behind it is very distinctive of the line. I just assumed all the photos in that album were from the photographer's S American trip. There was no particular order to the way the photos were placed in the album and absolutely no annotations so I don't even know when they were taken. No idea why he included three 'rogue' photos in the album.

The NGRS librarian says that when enthusiasts go on specially organised trips, they quite often exchange photos with each other - which makes cataloguing a bit of a nightmare as you can never be sure which photos can be attributed to which photographer. Maybe the chap who compiled this album was given those three photos by one of his fellow travellers during his S America trip???

Rik

Someone on one of my other forums tracked down that mysterious loco - a Baldwin pusher loco at a Chilean copper mine. The arm allowed it to push wagons on adjacent tracks on either side. It was electrically powered both by overhead catenary and third rail.
https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/561753753501322936/

(Click 'More...' and scroll down for an English translation - unless your Chilean Spanish is better than mine... )

Rik

Hopefully the last one from this batch. I think it's in Chile. Looks like a photo taken of an old photo in a museum.
Any suggestions as to what the locos are?

Rik

ge_rik wrote: ↑Tue Feb 14, 2023 10:27 am Hopefully the last one from this batch. I think it's in Chile. Looks like a photo taken of an old photo in a museum.
Any suggestions as to what the locos are?

The one on the right looks like an Avonside, but it has been modified. Specifically the sandbox on the boiler and the damper on the chimney. Otherwise it is very similar to an Avonside that ran in Qld. at Irvinebank and later at Marian Mill.

The one on the left looks German built, some details suggest O&K, but other details aren't typical of German practice. It may have been rebuilt, which makes a definite ID more difficult.

Looks like the original photo was behind glass in a frame when the photo was taken. The sepia toning and the clothing suggests the original photo was taken before the Kaiser's War. The Irvinebank Avonside that resembles the r/h loco was built in 1909.

The engine shed seems very large and well built for what was presumably a narrow gauge mining line.......

Graeme

GTB wrote: ↑Tue Feb 14, 2023 12:37 pm

ge_rik wrote: ↑Tue Feb 14, 2023 10:27 am Hopefully the last one from this batch. I think it's in Chile. Looks like a photo taken of an old photo in a museum.
Any suggestions as to what the locos are?

The one on the right looks like an Avonside, but it has been modified. Specifically the sandbox on the boiler and the damper on the chimney. Otherwise it is very similar to an Avonside that ran in Qld. at Irvinebank and later at Marian Mill.

The one on the left looks German built, some details suggest O&K, but other details aren't typical of German practice. It may have been rebuilt, which makes a definite ID more difficult.

Looks like the original photo was behind glass in a frame when the photo was taken. The sepia toning and the clothing suggests the original photo was taken before the Kaiser's War. The Irvinebank Avonside that resembles the r/h loco was built in 1909.

The engine shed seems very large and well built for what was presumably a narrow gauge mining line.......

Graeme

Thanks Graeme
I had a suspicion that you might be able to shed some light on it.
That engine shed does look capacious. I wondered if it was part of some sort of processing plant.

Rik

Slightly different request this time. I've just scanned a press release from the Ffestiniog Railway announcing a gift given to the seven millionth passenger (Miss Jeanette Gardiner) with a photo. The press release is helpfully dated 21 April - but doesn't include the year.

I've done some online researching but found no reference to this event. Does anyone have it listed in one of their books on the FR?
Rik

Not a definitive answer, but I would say late 70's - my wife had the same hairstyle🫡

Lonsdaler wrote: ↑Sat Feb 25, 2023 6:56 pm Not a definitive answer, but I would say late 70's - my wife had the same hairstyle🫡

Nice one!

Rik

Seven million by even by the late 70s seems quite impressive!

How about this? A Jeanette Gardiner died in New Zealand aged 52 on 8 September 2010. She would have been 23 either 21 April 1981 or 1982. That’s still a reasonably impressive number of passengers in under 30 years, but certainly fits with the type-written press release.

Well done Simon,
A check of the British Newspaper archive prompted by your search suggests 1983 (she was 25, not 23). However, the publication date is 15th April 1983?
Next question, Mr Bennett?

Excellent detective work chaps! The identity of Jack the Ripper next???

Rik

Oops. Misremembered her age despite the extra couple of years suggesting a more plausible date.

Glad you’ve found your answer, Rik. Though I’m now feeling sad that Jeanette, who I’d never heard of a couple of days ago, dies so young and is not around to tell her (great) grandchildren about the day she was given a piece of slate for riding on a little train in Wales.

SimonWood wrote: ↑Sun Feb 26, 2023 9:45 am Oops. Misremembered her age despite the extra couple of years suggesting a more plausible date.

Glad you’ve found your answer, Rik. Though I’m now feeling sad that Jeanette, who I’d never heard of a couple of days ago, dies so young and is not around to tell her (great) grandchildren about the day she was given a piece of slate for riding on a little train in Wales.

I must say I was similarly sad that she'd passed so young.

She may have died unmarried - assuming Gardiner is her maiden name.
Makes you wonder what was her back story.

Rik

OK - back to more traditional train spotting fun.
Any ideas? OK, it's a double Fairlie at Porthmadog - but which one and when? I've tried zooming in on the nameplate and searched for similar photos to no avail.
It's clearly in a sorry state so I assume it's prior to preservation days?
Rik

I know not a lot, and the Festiniogites amongst us may pour scorn on me, but I believe Merddin Emrys was rebuilt in 1934 and the smokebox plate on your piccy appears to say 1934, so.....? "When" is another question of course.

Just found this photo which says it is identifiable by the rivets on the front buffer block, which look to me to be the same as your pic.
http://217.34.233.120:8086/view-item?i= ... 7600865904