Sold August 2007 Back to Archive

Little to say about this pair of engines really, the track record of the builder (in my opinion one of the best traction engine builders currently working) and pictures both here and on the archive speak for themselves.

4 inch scale Fowler K5 ploughing engine, built using drawings from the Reading University Fowler archives. Steel boiler by Holt, maker's 300psi hydraulic test certificate, expanded tubes, feed by injector and mechanical pump. Water lifter with hose mounted on running board. Twin Ramsbottom safety valves. Cast iron cylinder, slide valve actuated by Stephenson's valve gear with pole reverser on footplate. Mechanical lubricator with supplementary displacement lubricator.

Two road speeds with winding drum beneath boiler, complete with coiling gear. The builder has ingeniously hidden a differential under the final drive gear guard - not original fitment on a ploughing engine, but it will make the engine much easier to handle on the rally field.

This is a seriously large engine in 4 inch scale - it's just over seven feet long and about three quarters of a ton, very similar to the larger road locomotives in this scale.The engine is brand new and unsteamed, it was completed in 2005.

Length 85 inches
Width 32 inches
Height 46 inches

Rear wheel 24 inches diameter
Front wheel 19 inches diameter
Flywheel 18 inches diameter

Weight approx 3/4 ton