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A 2 inch scale Durham & North Yorkshire to the John Haining design, serialised in "Model Engineer" magazine in the late 1970s. The Durham and North Yorkshire Steam Cultivation Company Ltd of the North Bridge Engine Works, Ripon built five engines between 1873 and 1885 - none survived into preservation.

In 2 inch scale it makes for a robust, powerful engine - bearings are generously proportioned, the gears are of substantial pitch. Whilst we normally recommend 3 inch scale as the minimum size for regular passenger hauling, D&NY engines are probably the exception that prove the rule - we've sold many over the years which have performed well on the rally field.

This engine was bought part-built by a gentleman well into his eighth decade - it didn't have a boiler at the time, he managed to buy one that by coincidence we'd sold some years ago, still new and unused as it had left here. Finished earlier last year, the engine has been steamed occasionally in his back garden - he's now moved onto restoring a Triumph Spitfire in the single garage that is his workshop, so time came to move the traction engine on.

Work is to a fairly basic standard, paintwork is protective rather than decorative, the Showmans dynamo on the front doesn't add a great deal to the overall look. On the plus side, the boiler is in excellent condition (unsurprising given it's only been steamed half a dozen times), the engine runs in both directions, mechanical and hand pumps both work well, the injector works (if in intermittent fashion). There's a clip of it running outside the workshop this morning here.

Regulator leaked copiously when it first arrived - we've replaced it with the PTFE-insert type which we make and fit to an increasing number of traction engines which come through the workshop these days, most suffering from the dreaded "creeping flywheel" when the regulator's shut.