Sold June 2023 Back to Archive

The late Colin Ponder of Leeds was a hugely gifted, highly productive engineer. Whilst responsible for 5 inch gauge locomotives and a 7 1/4 inch narrow gauge garden railway for his grandchildren - along with a Romulus and Hunslet to run on it - he's best remembered for the superb 4 inch scale Fowlers that he built, including the award-winning B6 "My Girl", a pair of K5 ploughing engines, an A4 agricultural and finally a pair of B6 Fen engines, including the one you see here.

For those interested, there's a writeup of one of the first visits I made to his workshop in the archive.

We first met him in 2004 and, over the years, bought all of his engines with the exception of one of the K5s which had been promised to a local schoolmaster (and we did try quite hard to persuade him to part with that one as well!).

All came to us new and unsteamed - once finished, the builder had no interest in running the engines, we had the privilege of putting the first fire in all of them. They went, as might be expected, every bit as well as they looked.

This is one of the pair of B6 Fen engines completed in 2012 - we bought both of them at that time, the original listing is in the archive. With one owner since then it has recently come back to us - whilst away we'd forgotten just how big it was! Since last here it has had rubber tyres fitted and a passenger trolley made, capable of carrying two or three people.

Photographs opposite were taken earlier in the week, the engine has had recent hydraulic and steam tests with new certification issued.

I won't dilate further on this one, the pictures tell the story - suffice to say it's one of the finest Fowlers we've had, from one of the best builders of this marque.

In excellent condition throughout, it is offered with a starter kit of coal, oil and water treatment, set of firing irons and 12 months warranty.

If required, we would be pleased to include a half day's training in the firing, driving and maintenance of the engine.