Garden Railway Forum

Hi Guys,

I recently added a lovely Beck Anna to my loco fleet and thought it would look nice with a brass dome. After a bit of reasearch on the net i opted for one from Garden Railway Specialists,

http://www.grsuk.com/Dome_Brass_Fairlie-M2777

It was a bit of a gamble but as luck would have it, it fitted perfectly. As Merlin Maestros have the same boiler it would do as replacement for their domes. It would also most likely fit some of the other Merlins, the Matterhorn and Matador come to mind.

Anyway, just thought this might be useful info. Below is a pic of my Anna, i've also added some boiler bands. The sharp eyed among you will probably notice that she appears to be a hybrid of a black and a green Anna.

Nice little engine you have yourself there

Thanks Dan. I was very lucky with this one. Bought it from a very nice guy called Charlie O'Mahoney who is one of the drivers down at The Launceston Steam Railway. It appears to have had very little use and runs like a swiss watch

Like it, the brass dome works well on this one and does not make it look toy like.

Can we see it running please?

Very pleasing to the eye.
Its nice to see an early engine still in almost 'ex-works' condition.

There is a short clip of her running here,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GP-INzs ... e=youtu.be

This was taken before the boiler bands & dome were added. Apologies for the dodgy camera work, i'm afraid my videos aren't in the same league as Mr Birds!

Looks very nice with the dome. There are several features I like about that locomotive, including the gas tank being in the bunker instead of in the cab... well they needed to do something in order to make room for that monumental pressure gauge!

Looks like you have a Merlin Beck Anne there rather than a true Beck.

Alan P:110268 wrote:There is a short clip of her running here,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GP-INzs ... e=youtu.be

This was taken before the boiler bands & dome were added.  Apologies for the dodgy camera work, i'm afraid my videos aren't in the same league as Mr Birds!

Now, that´s an excellent video on an attractive little line. Your new loco already looks at home.

I did wonder if it was an early Merlin but it does have a Beck plate in the cab,

Not wishing to dip my fly in your ointment but my Maestro has a Beck tag on it.

Hi Jim, not at all, i'm learning all the time here so any information is useful

That's interesting, i have two Maestros and neither have the Beck plate. Although the later one does have the small metal bracket that the plate is usually riveted to.

Mine has been hacked about a bit, I think in order for Mr Cooper to fit RC, The bottom corner has been cut and bent back in order for the rod to fit.

I may be wrong but weren't the early Merlins built from Beck bits left over from when Beck finished. Or even Beck built engines sold as Merlins?

It is still a nice looking loco and the gas knob on the tank is much better than poking out of the cab front.

Mine that has the bracket is the same.

According to the esteemed Marc Horovitz, Beck went bust in 1981 and Tom Cooper bought up the remaining stock. He used some of this to produce some of the early Merlin locomotives, specifically the Maestro, Midas, Monarch and Matador.

Hi Alan

That is a very interesting Anna you have there! It is the chassis that interests me the most.

It looks as if you are running on 32 mm gauge; please correct me if i'm wrong. The original Merlin Beck Anna locos (Tom Cooper era) were re-gauged to 32 mm by having the old chassis completely modified and the side chassis members moved inwards. The chassis were all made from brass angle. Your chassis is completely flat on the top of the footplate.

It looks like your chassis is one of the cast chassis's developed by Alec Mathesson. He and Tom went to the Beck factory when it went bust. Tom bought some of the stock of remaining parts and Alec bought the rest of the parts and tooling. He set up a company in Telford to supply further parts when Tom Coopers supply ran out. Alec was a very good engineer and developed the new cast chassis which was much superior to the old brass chassis. It had a cut out at the back to fit an AA battery box for powering the R/C when fitted. If you can let us see an underside image of the chassis this will confirm this. Unfortunately the partnership between Tom and Alec did not last! Alec sold all his parts and interests to Roundhouse who re-introduced a few Anna's with their slide valve cylinders. However you will have to ask Roundhouse about these developments.

Also the cylinders on your model puzzle me. The original Beck ones were not drilled right through and fitted with end caps, also both the piston rods and piston valves were nickel plated brass, yours look plain brass. That's no worry, just use plenty of good steam oil.

Regards the boiler plates - all the old Beck boilers had them fitted, a leftover from the stock bought from Germany. Some were removed when R/C was fitted, others were left on.

So it is difficult to say what era your model came from. But I can definitely say that up till 1986 no cast chassis were used at Merlin Loco works.

I hope this bit of insight into the history of Merlin and its developments help. All in all I think you have a very pretty loco that should give you pleasure for many years to come. Oh and I know all this as I worked at Merlin from 1982 to 1986!

Regards

Ian

Hi Ian,

Thank you so much for sharing that information. It's all very interesting, i had no idea about the chassis developed by Alec Mathesson or indeed his involvement with Tom Cooper.
Yes i run 32mm. I think you might be correct on all accounts, i've taken a couple of close-up shots of the underside and they certainly bear out what you have been saying.
The chassis definitely looks like a machined casting to me.



Close-up of the cylinders,



Thanks again,

You certainly have an unusual loco the cylinders look a little like those on the Steamlines Little Giant (Aileen) but not exactly:

http://www.alspcs.com/Aileen1.JPG