Sold March 2010 Back to Archive

A new 4 inch scale Garrett traction engine, ten years in the building and only test steamed since completion. Beautifully built, fit and finish is excellent throughout, paintwork is executed to a high standard.

There are neat and functional details added to the basic design throughout - the tender is fitted with a water float gauge; there are a set of spuds mounted below the running board; the chimney has the poshest cover we've yet seen for when the engine is laid up; the regulator rod is supported in a brass bearing where it normally rattles over the spectacle plate; the simple hole through which the differential is oiled sports a finely-made sliding brass cover; eccentric straps and bearing caps are all double-nutted with prototypically-correct thin locknuts; studs throughout show an identical length of thread through their nuts; the boiler number is engraved onto a brass plate mounted on the spectacle (which saves the boiler inspector's usual grovelling in the muck and oil down inside the hornplates looking for it); the cast iron driving seat has a support bracket that's a work of art.... I could go on, suffice to say that if I built a traction engine, this is the way I'd like to do it.

Steel boiler by Valentine Engineering, welded steel with expanded steel tubes. 120psi working presure, Ramsbottom safety valve, feed by injector and mechanical pump with bypass. Water lifter for tender. Cast iron cylinder with slide valve actuated by Stephenson's gear, pole reverser on footplate. Mechanical lubricator. Two road speed with differential, screw-down brake, winch behind nearside rear wheel.

Having finished the engine, the builder set to and made a fine trailer to tow behind it, running on cast iron wheels. To transport the whole outfit, he started with a commercial four wheeled trailer and built a soft top to keep the elements off the engine with purpose-made sheets featuring sewn-in bungee cords and velcro seams to make covering the thing up after loading a painless process. Cantilevered from the back is a rack which takes the engine trailer, there are a pair of substantial ramps which, together with the permanently-mounted winch, make loading and unloading a one-man operation.

The engine is road-registered.