Memories of the WLLR (West Leigh Light Railway) 16mm Live Steam

[bagpipes331]

I have had an interest in outdoor model railways, since a trip to Bekenscot back in the early 1960's.

 

Around 20 years ago, I started out on a 10 year adventure, building and running two versions of my WLLR. If there is enough interest, I thought I would share some of my memories with you, on construction, running, locomotives, stock and the final demise. 

 

I must apologise for most of the photography, I didn't have a digital camera for all but one of the pics!

 

So, to the beginning. Around 20 years ago, I had a very demanding and stressful job and needed to'escape' to a calmer world. A chance reading of an advertisment for GRS brought back the desire to build and run a live steam railway. I dragged my family off to Princes Risborough, and spent a while drooling over the Roundhouse locos, and bought the 1st edition of 'Garden Rail". I was advised to use 45mm track, and In  retrospect wished I had gone with 32mm, as this caused problems with a later purchase. The track was the superb Peco 45mm range

 

I attended the annual exhibition in Kew, and had my first meeting with Ian Pearce, and immediatley fell for the Countess. She seemed very expensive, but as I had agreed with my wife only to have one loco, I went ahead and ordered one.

 

Whilst waiting for her to be built, I set about building two W&LLR coaches and goods vehicles from Brandbright.

 

The coaches had resin sides, ends roofs and internal partitions, with wooden chassis, and white metal window frames and balconies. I think I used Bachmann bogies. The coaches took a lot of work to make everything square, but eventualy came up beautifully. The wagons were mostly wood construction and again were superb models.

 

 

The countess ran on butane at 20psi, was radio controlled with a steam whistle.

 

Because of my time constraints, I employed a local builder to build my track bed, big mistake. The whole lot was built from shuttered concrete, even armed with my very detailed track plan, he managed to reduce my planned 4' radius curves down to 2'6, and created some very steep gradients. 

 

Following the purchase a Pearse  Huslet 2-6-2 No14, I held an open day and invited a friend and his young son. Following an hour or so of running, the boy became restless, so I handed him the transmitter. He immediatley sent the Countess off at breakneck speed, only to derail on one of the sharp bends and incline. Unfortunatley, the coaches overshot and crashed on to the patio 3' below, and were virtualy destroyed. My friend turned to me and said " it looks like they need to go to the paint shop!"

[PaulRhB]

Ah the good old days of rc and little finesse to the control! Nice pictures of the line, not been tempted back by the recent Accucraft offerings?

Electric rather than live steam but just as good looking

[bagpipes331]

Ah the good old days of rc and little finesse to the control! Nice pictures of the line, not been tempted back by the recent Accucraft offerings?

Electric rather than live steam but just as good looking

P1010908small.JPG

Hi Paul,

Is your Countess electric? She looks great.

Without giving too much away, as the story unfolds, I eventualy end up with a coal fired loco and a diesel with sound.....

[PaulRhB]

Hi Paul,

Is your Countess electric? She looks great.

Without giving too much away, as the story unfolds, I eventualy end up with a coal fired loco and a diesel with sound.....

Yes she is and should have sound installed too very soon. I'll look forward to updates then

[bagpipes331]

The  Pearse Hunslet 2-6-2 was proving problematic negotiating the sharp curves, to the extent that I removed the front and rear pony trucks. Also I had fallen for a Tolhurst Engineering 2-6-2 Vale of Rheidol coal fired tank engine with 5 channel radio control. The railway had to be rebuilt. Also due to using 45mm track, the tightest radius would have to be no less than 8’.

 

Again, I had a long wait for her to be built (around 2 years) so I had ample time to design and build the new line.

 

Taking up the old line was very difficult as it was built completely from concrete, and it filled a large skip.

 

Every single piece of track and pointwork was salvaged and relaid (along with a heck of a lot more!)

 

I was determined to build every part of the line myself, then there was no one else to blame for any failure in design.

 

I soon realised  to keep the climb up the garden more realistic, I would need to incorporate  a Ffestiniog style spiral. Also in making the climb, the line would need to run in a deep cutting for several yards. As I staked out the line, I was amazed how high the line would be from the ground at the summit of the spiral. The spiral was constructed from 12mm boil proof ply, supported on 4” square posts

 

 

The new station area and steam bay was constructed from Thermalite blocks, and went down in a couple of days. Initially the spiral looked as though it was on stilts, but once I was happy all had settled, everything was faced off with the  

ubiquitous ‘log on a roll’.

 

 

Another opening ceremony ensued, and friends came round with their locos. After a couple of hours, I sent my Countess round and everyone cheered as she lost her whistles from the cab roof under the spiral bridge. The bridge had settled by about 1/4”. I rebuilt the bridge from thin plate steel.

 

Here's the mk2 version of the bridge

 

 

 

 

I purchased a beautiful station building and goods shed and various railway huts from a company called ‘Off The Rails’. The original station up the top end of the garden was from GRS.

[bagpipes331]

Eventually the day came to pick up my coal fired VoR locomotive from Chris Tolhurst. The hand over took almost a whole day, as a comprehensive driving/firing course was included. I have added a couple of photos of Chris Tolhurst preparing and testing my loco. The three wagons are full of very heavy iron bars.

 

 

The loco had 5 channel radio control or could be operated manually. Functions included: Operating cylinder drain cocks, whistle, blower, the ability to control the % of steam cut off, and forward reverse. The boiler was multi tube with super heater and operated at a pressure of 25LB Sq“. A removable fire grate aided ash removal. All steam functions were performed via tiny trumpet type valves operated by servos (or manually from the footplate)

 

The water tank could be filled whilst under pressure, as could the oil reservoir by closing a small valve in the cab. A blowdown valve and steam lance (To clean the smoke box) were also provided.

 

To begin firing, 3-4 shovels of paraffin soaked charcoal were placed in the fire box, and pre sized lumps of coal gradually added around the fire box. I would then oil round the locomotive. An electric fan placed over the chimney pulled the fumes through the tubes, until around 15LB Sq”  registered on the pressure gauge. The fan was then removed, and the blower slightly opened. If this was opened too far, the water level would fall, cold water injected into the tank, and the boiler pressure would fall, and out would come the fan!! This took a little practice to get right. Once up to pressure, the safety valve would lift, and the blower slightly closed. If pulling a heavy train (such as the 4 VoR coaches Chris built for me) very little blower was required, until  stopping at the station. If the load was light, more blower was required. Once she was in her stride, the rate of steam could be cut off. All this took me a couple of months to perfect, but it was a really enjoyable experience. If I had my gas fired locos out, I could easily operate both together, they were so simple. With the coal fired loco, I really did need all my concentration. 

 

At the end of play, the loco was lifted and fixed to a cradle where the grate was dropped, steam lance attached and smoke box and tubes cleaned through. Any remaining lubricating oil was syringed out, and the loco thoroughly cleaned. This took around 1/2 an hour. (Gas locos, 10 mins)

Although I loved my steam locos, I still wanted a diesel, preferably with sound, so Chattenden, an 0-6-0 diesel mechanical shunter (Working on the W&LLR) was ordered with installed sound.

 

Also at this time, my layout was featured in the ‘Garden Rail’ magazine. 

[bagpipes331]

When I ordered Chattenden from Essel Engineering, the company owner, Steve had not built one with sound before. After a check for dimensions he agreed to add the sound unit and speaker.

 

A few weeks later, I drove to Snowdonia to pick my loco up.

As built, the loco was very plain, with no glazing or cab detail. I then travelled to Llanfair and photographed and measured the real loco.

 

I added cab detail, a driver, glazing and painted the steps and front grille.

 

 

There were a a couple of teething problems with the sound/radio control unit. I contacted Brian Jones who specialised in radio control systems and sound products. After a trip to Lincolnshire, all was ok, and I set about weathering the loco, which by now had been named Dennis.

 

I was never 100% happy with the sound system, as there was no start up/shut down sequence, which took away the realism I was after. Still Dennis was a very strong loco, and was able to pull any of my dead steam locos complete with their train if they ran out of steam.

 

The combination of the time needed to run my coal fired loco, encroaching tree roots and constant weeding, but moreover a longing to get back to main line diesels rang the death nell for the railway. I decided it had to go, and the 1st loco was sold within 15 mins of placing the add. Everything, including track, buildings locos and stock were sold within two weeks.

 

I now model in 7mm in the garage, diesels of course, but would still fancy a rebuilt Bullied!!

[engage]

Hi Rich

            Thanks for telling the story.   It was I am sure a very nice little garden railway with those live steam loco's

and that 0-6-0 coal fired loco must have been a treat to behold and the smell !. A man has to do what a man has to

do but what a sad demise for such a nice railway. However life must go on, so what have you got in that garage ?

 

 

PS apart from one or two the pics are not that bad.

 

Cheers

John

[bagpipes331]

Hi John,

I now have a 12' (Scenic section) 0 gauge layout, with a small fiddleyard through the wall in to the utility room. I will be extending this later this year, to do a 180 back in to the garage to a proper fiddle yard on the oposite wall to the layout.

Being a diesel fan, brought up on diesel hydraulics, I have a Western and a Hymek, and several other diesels all with sound. The layout is a single platform (takes  the western and 4 mk1 coaches) with run round, built against a retaining wall topped with a row of terrace houses. At the far end is a stabling/fuel point and siding for TTAs. To the front left is a small goods shed and coal yard. I now have to find room for a cement terminal for my presflos. See links below.

 

However, I am very reluctantly selling on my Western, as it will not be able to negotiate the 38" curve to the fiddleyard. Also going are my clay hoods (Lack of room for facilities) and my GUV, again lack of room for suitable parcel facilities. (See classifieds)

 

The following link and youtube clip gives a little glimpse....

 

first steps with weathering

 

[engage]

Hi Rich 

        Thanks for the above posting.  Now as I understand the situation, you have the majority of your layout in a garage and say it also

runs into the utility room and you talk of altering the track so that it will also come back out of the said room, What I would like to know

is how the track gets into the utility room in the first place ?    Did we have to knock the wall I ask and how on earth did we manage to

get permission from the domestic authority to carry out such alterations in the first place ? and now we are planning a return track

Yes, I noticed your advert, one moment I read that you don't want to sell and then I see an advert ,      I have got this ongoing senility 

problem so I get confused quite easily but I know where you are coming from now.   I am the proud owner of a Hymek in BR blue and

although the train does not really fit in with every thing else on my layout the Hymek gets to pull 6 GWR Mk 1s,  as I am sure you are 

aware it looks like a bit chipped off one of your ginormous loco's    but    as I always say to each his own !

Glad to hear you have got some ongoing plans,       would hate to think you had nothing much to do and got under the wife's feet.

 

Cheers

John

[LH&JC]

What a line, and what a fleet you had I'll have to stick with my gas-fired pot-boilered slip eccentric Millie for now dreaming of a Tolhurst Quarry Hunslet.

[bagpipes331]

What a line, and what a fleet you had I'll have to stick with my gas-fired pot-boilered slip eccentric Millie for now dreaming of a Tolhurst Quarry Hunslet.

Nothing wrong with a Millie. Believe me, sometimes less is best!!!!