The locomotive appears to be a Baguley that would have been constructed to look similar to a steam locomotive for use at pleasure parks and holiday camps - look at old BBC Hi Di Hi show for similar at Butlins. Certainlt it would never have worked at Honister !!

Photograph:

[img]http://www.aditnow.co.uk/showimage?f=/community/Honister-Slate-Mine-User-Album-Image-005/[/img]

Fake as in it's a diesel not a steam one? Presumably it runs...

Welcome to the forum, incidentally 🙂

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I believe its from the Butlin's Camp Railway in Filey where it ran from 1953 - 1975. It would have been a diesel locomotive with a steam loco superstructure hence its appearance.

Early Baguley steam impersonations were petrol, but later were diesel. The first Baguleys were beuilt for the trench railways in WW1, and even these looked a bit steam engine like except they didn't have a "chimney". Baguley's first true steam outline inpersonation went to Lilleshall Abbey and Woodland Railway, and I think this is the one that was preserved at the Rev Teddy Boston's railway at Cadeby. The exhaust was taken up the chimney to try to give a bit of "authenticity". They were produced right through until Baguley closed down in 1931. For further details see Baguley Locomotives 1914 - 1931 (long out of print) written by Rodnay Weaver and published in 1975 by the Industrial Railway Society ISBN 0 901096 22 9.

Offtopic... but Honister now only has one loco.... a dogey, expensive, 2nd hand BEV.

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Hapus dwi, o achos fy cath darfod.

This translates to :-
Happy am I, because my cat died. 😞

Hapus dwi, o achos fy cath darfod.

This translates to :-
Happy am I, because my cat died. :(

Ah, that would be LAP and his random signature lines in foreign languages! I think he speaks Icelandic now!

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Baguley built about six steam outline locos for Butlin's. A mate of mine owns one (which worked at Butlins at Claction and may be the hi de hi loco) - they are horrible.

As an industrial narrow gauge nerd nothing inflames my passions as much as steam outline i/c locos, the are an abomination :curse:

It knocks the one at Darlington (home of the railway) into a cocked-hat.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/tees/hi/people_and_places/newsid_8822000/8822101.stm 

It knocks the one at Darlington (home of the railway) into a cocked-hat.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/tees/hi/people_and_places/newsid_8822000/8822101.stm 

that is dreadful, I thought the Angel of the North was an eyesore but that, no, no, no

ALL BEVs are horrible....

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Fortuantely the other end of the line at Stockton have done a better job with their roudabout.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/24/Head_Wrightson_locomotive-1200.jpg 

Baguley built about six steam outline locos for Butlin's. A mate of mine owns one (which worked at Butlins at Claction and may be the hi de hi loco) - they are horrible.

As an industrial narrow gauge nerd nothing inflames my passions as much as steam outline i/c locos, the are an abomination :curse:

Are the ones on the North Bay railway at Scarborough the same make? I remember those as being diesels disguised as miniature A3 pacifics....

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the Scarborough ones are Hudswell Clarkes

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/david.enefer/scboro/nb.htm 

and are really rather splendid if you like that sort of thing. The Severn Lamb 'Rio Grande' ones dating from the 1970s are rather elegant

http://www.ferrymeadowsrailway.co.uk/News.htm 

but I can definitely live without the ''barrel on wheels" ones, especially the ones with smiley faces...

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These ersatz locos must be of great interest to those of us who are affectionados of pressed steel technology.

I do remember a beautiful real steam scale loco in operation at Pontins, Chrischurch, Hants in the late 50's - "The Belle of New York" it think it was called. I think it turned up at Gwrych Castle, North Wales under the name of "President Eisenhower" a few years later when I was on holiday there. 10.25 inch guage, I believe.

Ernest Dove was the builder of a number of these scale locos (both faux diesel and real steam). I found this interesting website below.

http://www.scottjf.demon.co.uk/minor_railways/mronline%20resch.htm 

These ersatz locos must be of great interest to those of us who are affectionados of pressed steel technology.

I do remember a beautiful real steam scale loco in operation at Pontins, Chrischurch, Hants in the late 50's - "The Belle of New York" it think it was called. I think it turned up at Gwrych Castle, North Wales under the name of "President Eisenhower" a few years later when I was on holiday there. 10.25 inch guage, I believe.

Ernest Dove was the builder of a number of these scale locos (both faux diesel and real steam). I found this interesting website below.

http://www.scottjf.demon.co.uk/minor_railways/mronline%20resch.htm 

Hmm - if you remember the loco at Gwrych Castle in that era, do you remember the minature railway at the top of Great Orme that ran from the top tram station out onto the hill, then reversed and went back to the Hotel, where the loco shed was round the back ?

Cheers

Grahami

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Graham,

Are you referring the the Great Orme Tramway itself, or to something else? I don't recall a minature railway at Llandudno, but then we were staying at Colwyn Bay at the time (1958) in the sub-arctic conditions that inevitably attended summer holidays in the Uk in the 50's. Come the think of it though, 1959 was a lovely summer.

Gwrych Castle, by the way, fell on very hard times and there is a website dedicated to it's restoration out there.

http://www.gwrychtrust.co.uk/ 

I saw a few of these large-scale locos on minature railways, not including obvious ones such as the Romney, Hythe & Dymchurch and the Fairbourne, many of which were to all practical purposes built to exhibition standard. It would be interesting to know their fate.

We used to take our family holidays at Kinmel Bay, near Rhyl from about 1955 until 1974. It must have been early on in that time, because my father took relatively few photos then. We went up on to the Great Orme by the cable tramway, and then just at the back (or the side) of the top tramshed we went through a gate (for some reason my memory says it was light blue!) and beyond it, under an arch, was a minature railway station. As I said earlier, the train went out from that station, roughly in a NW direction, then reversed and backed all the way to a ledge on the North side of the hotel, although the track continued further round the back. Here it reversed course again and went back to the tram station. I guess there must have been a triangle just outside the station.

Edit: Just found a note on a web site which says: "I have 'Henry' 4-6-2 formerly 'commodore vanderbilt'4-6-4, built 1949 ,originally to great orme hotel,wales,owned by boxer Randoph Turpin (Turpin did his world championship training at Gwyrch castle) then to Skegness then to Ferry Meadows, finally to myself.
Whilst Gwyrch castle has considerable (ongoing) history on the internet, there is very little about the Great Orme Hotel. Evidence would suggest that the Gwyrch railway may have been operated by Mr.Dove."
Intriguing!

Many years later my father and I went to find it again, but it had all gone, apart from the ledge and a bit of rail. Sadly, we didn't photograph even that. I've only ever seen one reference to it in a book on minature railways, and I can't remember which it was.

To get back on topic, Oakeley had a Bagueley, of course, which you can see in these shots of the Gloddfa Ganol museum in the early 80s:
🔗Gloddfa-Ganol-Oakeley-1970s-Image-30206[linkphoto]Gloddfa-Ganol-Oakeley-1970s-Image-30206[/linkphoto][/link]
🔗Gloddfa-Ganol-Oakeley-1970s-Image-30205[linkphoto]Gloddfa-Ganol-Oakeley-1970s-Image-30205[/linkphoto][/link]
There was a shot of it actually in use at the quarry somewhere, but I'm blowed if I can find it at the moment. It may have been in Caban, but I can't spot it.

Cheers

Grahami

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You also get a glimpse of the Oakeley one in a film. Possibly "Y Chwarelwr"?

Ferry Meadows as I remember it... I used to go there regularly when the kids were small ... haven't been there for years and it's only up the road. The red diesel loco looks ridiculous though.

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Fortuantely the other end of the line at Stockton have done a better job with their roudabout.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/24/Head_Wrightson_locomotive-1200.jpg 

No they haven't! The real engine is in the middle of one of the busiest roundabouts in Teesside so you can't safely get close to see it. And yet on the grass verge where you could get close to it is (or was) a floral version of the same thing.

And it's all with our money!
😢

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