Just looking at an interesting photo by GrahamI of what was the Gloddfa Ganol loco collection. I was wondering what is this machine and where did it go when Gloddfa closed?
I saw an old photo once of a similar loco at Lord (Fotty) in the 1930's but without a cab.

🔗Gloddfa-Ganol-Oakeley-1970s-Image-30207[linkphoto]Gloddfa-Ganol-Oakeley-1970s-Image-30207[/linkphoto][/link]

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did it end up with mosely railway trust?
Thorpey

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This is Ruston Proctor No. 51168 of 1961, currently in the care of the Phyllis Rampton Trust.

Martin

Is it being restored to it's former glory? It looks very much older than 1961 to me. Correct me if I am wrong.

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That should be 1916 not 61 !

martin

Fotty had a total of 4 Deutz petrol locos 2 were 10 & 12 hp locos of 1912 & 1913 plus 2 were 20 hp of 1916. None of these went to Gloddfa Ganol.

Is it being restored to it's former glory?

...currently in the care of the Phyllis Rampton Trust.

Now there's a strange organisation - it owns and operates the Vale of Rheidol Railway, yet most of the stock is tucked away in a barn in Surrey, where nobody can see it. The stock list is quite interesting: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phyllis_Rampton_Trust 

However, a bit of digging comes up with this response to a request to view the collection in Surrey:

Dear Mr. Waite,

In reply to your letter of 23rd September, it is not possible to see the locomotives stored away. It would take hours of our time to make them available to be photographed and this would really be a waste of time as most of them are in an appalling condition fit only for scrap.

Please advise anyone else so interested of the situation.

Yours sincerely,

P.J. Rampton

Most curious...

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What is the point in keeping something, if you, the keeper, say they are fit only for scrap?????

Weird!

Grahami

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What is the point in keeping something, if you, the keeper, say they are fit only for scrap?????

Weird!

Grahami

It may help keep some of the less savoury element from sneaking around in the dark trying to get a look..... 😉

What is the point in keeping something, if you, the keeper, say they are fit only for scrap?????

Weird!

Grahami

Given that the collection includes an NG13 Garratt and an NG15, it's not as if it's just small stuff either!

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Yes, weird is the right word.

The collection is mainly stored in buildings (with a few items, coaches mainly, stored in an open sided barn) that are located either side of a public bridleway. One section of track even crosses the bridleway.

The Industrial Railway Society were forced (by Rampton's solicitors) to put a warning flyer in one of their EL publications a few years back warning people to keep away from a private farm site (totally overlooking the fact it was a public path) as people would be prosecuted for trespassing!

I was fortunate some years back to get wind of an imminent delivery of one of the Garretts. I went down one evening with a friend and it was parked on the track right next to the bridleway, all 50 foot of it!

At one time they had a pile of ballast leaning against the wall of one of the sheds right next to the bridleway, very useful as the shed had high windows right along the side.

Dear Mr. Waite,

In reply to your letter of 23rd September, it is not possible to see the locomotives stored away. It would take hours of our time to make them available to be photographed and this would really be a waste of time as most of them are in an appalling condition fit only for scrap.

Please advise anyone else so interested of the situation.

Yours sincerely,

P.J. Rampton

Well that response is a bit daft to say the least as most cars and machinery are in a bad way before being restored anyway. And I think most of us like to see them in pre restored condition.
I find a kind of attraction in seing and photographing rusty cars and machinery.
🔗Personal-Album-106-Image-048[linkphoto]Personal-Album-106-Image-048[/linkphoto][/link]

It may be perhaps because I might be eccentric, I don't know 😉 .
But seriously I hope the loco is not being stored is a wet damp enviroment as it will just fade away in no time and be beond restoration. Would be better to pass it on to someone that could get on with the restoration.

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But seriously I hope the loco is not being stored is a wet damp enviroment as it will just fade away in no time and be beond restoration. Would be better to pass it on to someone that could get on with the restoration.

Thankfully, it's apparently quite dry - and it's not just one: there are at least 25 locos in the barn in Surrey!

It is, of course, quite possible to restore complete basket-cases - take as an extreme example the WHR(P)'s ongoing work on the appropriately-named Lady Madcap is a case in point, where the chimney seems to be the largest original part to be used!

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quite a lot of these restorations are more properly regarded as replicas incorporating original parts. A steam engine has a whole range of parts which wear out and MUST be in proper working order, ie not 100 years old and unfit for purpose.

I've always felt that the main thing is that they survive in some form and can be seen working

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It is not just locos that are there. There are also several Isle of Man coaches, both bogie and 6 wheeled vehicles. One of the locos is a very interesting item a 4w petrol electric built by Dick Kerr. It is, I would think, similar to those that worked on the Ashover Railway.

What a delightful photo Hymac!

One of the locos is a very interesting item a 4w petrol electric built by Dick Kerr.

From my brief trawl through Wikipedia, it suggests that's the only surviving Dick, Kerr & Co loco still in existence?

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Those Ruston Proctor petrol/paraffin locos (start on petrol then switch to paraffin) were close copies of the Deutz mining design that went back to the 1890s, hence the resemblance to the Deutz at Fotty. The RP at GG (memory playing tricks - were there two?) didn't come from North Wales, and is to quite a wide gauge - somewhere around metre?

As for the Rampton Trust... well, it's what it chooses to be and ultimately, he who pays the piper, etc. But as well as buying the Rheidol, in recent years the Trust has (for instance) published the new edition of Bagnalls of Stafford, and given the Narrow Gauge Railway Society info about progress with the Manx carriages. Plus the Trust's nicely restored Kerr Stuart Wren has visited at least one other railway - it's another of their purchases from the Gloddfa Ganol sealed bid auction (the de Winton Kathleen was another), which brings us sort of full circle. An acquaintance who has been shown round the locos in Surrey suggests that we may have reason in future to be grateful to the PRHT; as and when its museum happens in Aberystwyth, perhaps?

From my brief trawl through Wikipedia, it suggests that's the only surviving Dick, Kerr & Co loco still in existence?

Westinghouse built very similar locos for the war effort and examples of these exist in France

Martin

From my brief trawl through Wikipedia, it suggests that's the only surviving Dick, Kerr & Co loco still in existence?

Westinghouse built very similar locos for the war effort and examples of these exist in France

Martin

Is there more than one in France?

In terms of other types of loco built by Dick Kerr, there was a quite famous pair of 2'6" gauge 0-4-2 inverted saddle tanks that worked in a sleeper depot in India until relatively recently, and may well survive.

I've see photos of two that were converted to standard gauge.
Both had been fitted to wagon frames with drive from the loco axles to the wagon axles. One looked completely original, apart from siting on a large frame, the other had been rendered unrecognizable. Don't know which railway they are on but there is also a baldwin 50hp PM there so that may narrow it down a bit.

Martin

PS can someone tell me how to quote/post properly!


Is there more than one in France?

In terms of other types of loco built by Dick Kerr, there was a quite famous pair of 2'6" gauge 0-4-2 inverted saddle tanks that worked in a sleeper depot in India until relatively recently, and may well survive.