7 1/4 inch gauge "Romulus" 0-6-0 with tender

A 7 1/4 inch narrow gauge "Romulus". Completed in 1997, it was built as one of a batch of six locomotives based on Roger Marsh's popular freelance design, modified by the builder to produce an 0-6-0 locomotive with Walschaert's gear and piston valves.

The previous owner bought the engine in 2002 and ran it until 2013 when it was taken out of service for an overhaul which included fitting a new commercially built CE-marked boiler; re-profiling the driving wheels; fitting new wheels and axles to the tender; fitting a pair of new R.A.Barker three cock water gauges and repainting and lining the engine and tender.

The overhaul was completed in 2020 - the new boiler steamed for the first time earlier this year with the engine on its stand outside the owner's workshop. Since arriving here we've done various "finishing off" jobs, including fitting a pair of our progressive pop safety valves and remachining the regulator linkage, which was binding slightly - the regulator itself is a ball valve, same type of thing we use in all our new-build engines.

Backhead is well laid out, there are steam valves for blower and a pair of injectors, the injector water valves have extension handles putting them within easy reach on the right hand side of the cab. The locomotive is vacuum fitted, piped through the tender for the train, with driver's brake valve in the cab along with gauge and vacuum limiter.

The tender is a thoroughly well thought out design - running on six wheels, like the locomotive the centre wheels are flangeless to allow negotiation of tighter radius curves (we do the same on "Feldbahn" and "General Gordon"). The tender itself is air-braked, a compartment at the rear houses compressor, gauge and a pair of dry-fit batteries, all mounted in a purpose-built cradle which can be easily removed for maintenance. There is an air pressure gauge mounted in the locomotive cab, operating valve is between your knees in the tender.

Wiring is very neatly done; everything's fused, there's a master cut-off switch, with a charge position allowing the batteries to be charged in situ. An auxiliary power socket in front of the driver's seat can be switched to 12V or 24V, used for powering the steam-raising blower and vacuum cleaner to clean out the smokebox at the end of the day.

Thinking ahead, in a separate compartment under the seat which houses the compressed air reservoir the builder stowed a tool kit, battery charger and spare new compressor should a replacement ever be required in future.

We ran this one last week, it was only the second time the boiler has been steamed from new. The engine steams freely and runs well, the long tender making for a comfortable ride - there's some video of it here.

Pretty much the ideal starter package for 7 1/4 inch narrow gauge, it comes complete with the pair of welded steel stands for the locomotive and tender shown in the pictures.