Sold March 2020 Back to Archive

A 5 inch gauge Dubs 0-4-0ST with tender, modelled on a prototype that was one of the earliest locomotives supplied to China by the Glasgow-based company in the nineteenth century.

The engine has come to us from the builder, a prolific engineer now in his ninth decade and still going strong. Nowadays concentrating on smaller models, he decided it was time to move this two man lift locomotive on.

The boiler had had a twice working pressure hydraulic test at 180psi for 90psi working - structurally sound, although with one pinhole weep on the foundation ring which appears to have gone undetected in many years judging by the verdigris surrounding it - we suspect it didn't leak under steam.

Not steamed in several years, it runs well on air but will undoubtedly need some work to recommission. A worthwhile project, it's an unusual, attractive prototype.