Come In No. 4

The finished Tattoo waits for the passenger to board at Wheal Ponder.

We all have our favourite locos, mine are the Kerr Stuart 0-4-2 tank locos. I’m lucky enough to be able to drive my favourite one and now, finally after a gestation period of twenty five years, I now have a pair of them in model format with the completion of my Wrightlines Talyllyn / Corris No 4 ‘Tattoo’ kit build.

My first encounter with Talyllyn No 4 was as a child at the campsite gate on our summer holidays. The Hackworth style valve gear has always mesmerised me and was notably different to anything else I’d seen. The loco also has two whistles that appealed to the child in me (and some might say still does!)

Talyllyn No 4 was also the first loco I worked on as a volunteer. The design has the advantage of all the moving parts being easily accessible, with a firebox and boiler that will steam on any old coal, and a really nice to the touch regulator (unless you forget to turn the lubricator on). Plus the 0-4-2 design provides a smooth ride for the crew. The one disadvantage is a tendency to be light footed in the drizzle, but there are sanders fitted to overcome that.

Talyllyn No 4 running as 'Peter Sam' arrives at Abergynolwyn in August 1994 with a teenage me leaning from the cab on one of my early solo firing turns.

This image was originally posted to Flickr by Gillett's Crossing at https://www.flickr.com/photos/83763404@N07/10759291155. 

The design is well suited to 2ft 3in gauge lines around six or so miles long. In addition to the Corris example that has proved so successful on the Talyllyn, the Campbeltown & Machrihanish had a ‘Skylark’, the earlier version of Kerr Stuart’s ‘Tattoo’ design. It has also now come to light, that when Sir Haydn Jones took control of the Talyllyn and was considering replacing the loco fleet in 1912, the first design submitted for his consideration was a Kerr Stuart Tattoo.

Wrightlines produced O-16.5 kits for first Talyllyn / Corris No 4 as the last of their kits using an etched brass chassis. Followed by the Skylark that used milled brass for the chassis with both kits having white metal bodies. I bought both when they appeared in the late 1990s. Starting the Tattoo first, it was put aside aside when I built the Skylark and following some issues I had with the Skylark, the Tattoo was periodically brought out to look at working on only to be put away again.

The Skylark and the Tattoo side by side, both built from Wrightlines kits. This comparison accentuates how much taller and wider the Skylark and how much the Corris example was narrowed and squashed to fit the line. The two locos sharing the same sized boiler and chassis.

There are several reasons for the quarter of a century long procrastination. Unease at getting the motion to work being one and finding a sufficiently smooth running motor and gearbox combination that fitted in the firebox, leaving the under boiler space clear and not impinging on the pony truck pivot.

The appearance of EDM Models ‘Skylark’ drive (instigated by Robin Edwards and encouraged by me) being the instigator for this kit being resurrected and completed.

Much has been written (three articles at least in Narrow Lines alone) about the building of this kit so I shall limit myself to where I deviated from the instructions. Following the instructions enables one to build the loco in either Corris or early Talyllyn condition. I however, have built a freelance version combining the two. Mostly early Talyllyn condition with cab entrances on both sides, with the original riveted tank. The pipework has been fitted to depict the original axle driven water pump on the driver’s side and a more modern gravity fed injector on the fireman’s.

The motor / gearbox combination required some material to be removed from a chassis cross stretcher and from the cab floor casting. With a newly positioned hole for the bolt fixing the two together. Not the most difficult task considering the result is a very quiet and smooth running motor combination, no angle grinders in dust bin effects here! This also allowed the space that had been removed on the firebox front and boiler rear castings to clear the originally designed motor and gearbox unit to be filled in with styrene to improve the look of the loco.

The other main deviation being the fitting of an ‘?’ shaped phosphor bronze spring on the top of the rear truck to act as a spring rather than having a fixed stop.

Progress has been slow and steady, but don’t want to rush this build now would I…. The motion took me a fair amount of time to get right, with a few minor tweaks at the running in stage. The fact that there is almost no clearance between the crossheads and the front crank pins caused a little head scratching.

With the loco having a short coupled wheelbase offset to the front alongside a heavy white metal body, getting the loco pony truck spring adjusted to balance the loco on the driving wheels took some time. Even now, the loco is a little light footed, but early tests show that it is happy trundling around with a pair of Corris carriages behind.

So there we are, No 4 is finished and in service on Wheal Ponder. There is a sense of achievement at overcoming the hurdles in this build, though there have been plenty of frustrating moments along the way! It will be strange opening my STABLE (STAsh Beyond Life Expectancy) and not see this particular box staring back at me. But I’m quite happy with that.

Now to tidy up my modelling workspace in our study, it’s become quite a mess whilst concentrating on this project over the last six months, such is the circle of my modelling life.

A trio of Kerr Stuart designed locos at Wheal Ponder. Don't expect them to be the last...