5 inch gauge "Halton" 4-6-4T for restoration

A large 5 inch gauge 4-8-4 locomotive to Greenly's "Halton Tank" design, originally conceived in the 1930s for construction by apprentices at the RAF training establishment at Halton.

An old engine, this one did service as a club locomotive on the South Coast until a couple of years ago when an inexperienced driver took his eye off the water gauge, resulting in a partially collapsed superheater flue.

Bought by a club member, the intention at that time was to blank the tube and continue to run it. As is the way of these things, the project then started to get more ambitious - one set of valve gear was removed to assess the possibility of fitting Walschaerts in place of the Baker gear, the regulator and headers were stripped from the boiler.

Now partially dismantled, the parts removed have been stored with the engine in a large box, the previous owner has also acquired a CD of drawings for the engine from the Greenly Archive.

No idea how many of these ever got made. Before the war I suspect it would have been seen as too big for most amateur builders - since then possibly a couple of dozen might have been built. We've had one complete example ever, I'd be interested to know how many others were built and have survived.