7 1/4 inch gauge Class 20 battery-electric

A 7 1/4 inch gauge Class 20, recently arrived in part exchange for a 5 inch gauge Polly V.

We met up with the owner and builder of the locomotive at their club track one hot day earlier in the week, getting a thorough briefing on its creation and operation, as well as a few laps of the track.

Based on a commercially-produced kit, as originally built the locomotive had one powered bogie fitted with a 1hp motor - the other bogie simply held the front end up. Whilst coping admirably with the loads required, when the chance to acquire a second power bogie came along the builder lost no time in installing it, along with iDrive controller, resulting in something akin to a rail-mounted guided missile!

In good running order, complete with a set of batteries and sound card with sampled, speed-related engine sound including startup and shut down sequences - there's some video of it running up and down outside the works here.

Complete with remote hand controller and "dead man's handle" lanyard.