#North Western Tramway Au

[hazel-of-sodor]

Tasha was not the first No.1 on the Tramway. In the first days of the Tidmouth Knapford & Elsbridge Tramway, a makeshift engine was built from a portable steam engine and a wagon chassis to help build the line.

No.1 Glynn was meant to be temporary. The boiler used was already 20 years old when the engine was built, it was loosely mounted, and the rest of the engine was whatever spare parts could be found at the time. The engine was top heavy, and was restricted to 4-5mph to keep it from tipping over. The belt connecting its flywheel to the driving axle didn't fit properly and slipped often due to it being a random spare part rather than purpose made. The engine also proved too tall to pass the first tunnel, as the railways planned tunnel clearence had proven too ambitious and had been reduced.

No.1's expected service time was number in months, maybe years counted on one hand if it was lucky. No.1 was lucky indeed. Built some time between the closing days of 1881 and the dawning days of 1882, No.1 would keep its original form to late 1885, when purpose built coffee pots No.2 and No.3 had entered service. However it didn't leave service to be dismatled or scrapped, instead it went in for rebuild to prepare it for permanent service. The traffic load for the fledgling railway was greater than expected, and managment realized they needed a spare engine in the heavy season, and rebuilding No.1 was their cheapest option, and would raise morale as the crews had become fond of the little iron beast.

As Summer gave way to Autumn and the traffic lessened, No.1 entered the works. The old wagon chassis was dismantled, and modified into proper locomotive chassis, although how much of the new frames were original was highly debatable. The boiler was overhauled and retubed before being reaffixed to the frames. The boiler was not only more secruly mounted, but seated much lower, solving the engines stability issues. The new lower boiler mounting also reduced the engines overall height, allowing it to finally pass through the tunnels to the rest of the tramway beyond. Finally, a new, purpose made drive belt gave the engine the ability to pull with its full strength for the first time.

By all accounts the rebuild was a success, and No.1 banking trains up the mountain grades or shunting in the yards bacame a commom sight on the TK&ER.

No.1 Glynn would serve over 30 years, but by time of the TK&ER's was forced to become part of the new North Western Railway in 1915, the engine was well and truly clapped out. When No.5 was purchased late in that year, No.5 was taken to the newly built Crovan's Gates Works to determine its fate. The results were grim. While the Chassis was reusuable, little else was, with some parts coming apart when in the workmen's hand when they tried to remove them. The works quickly claimed the chassis to use in building their new works shunter, but the question of what to do with the rest of the engine remained. Tnesion already heightened by the TK&ER forced absorbtion by the NWR skyrocketed when rumors spread the engine was to be scrapped. Most local historians and first hand accounts agree that only the fact the country was at war prevented a strike from occuring.

Eager to gain good will with the former TK&ER, the NWR annonced the surviving componets would be combined with a new makeshift chassis and donated to the Tidmouth Musuem for static display and preservation. The new works shunter Tasha shunted Glynn into place in early 1916, in what was by wartime standards a lavish ceromony, and the NWR used the opertunity to pass the No.1 to the new shunter, in recognition that Tasha's chassis orginal belonged to Glynn.

In the present day No.1 Glynn is still one of the musuems prized items, and is well taken care of. Decades of careful restoration work have allowed the engine to be moved once again, and once every blue moon the engine is allowed to steam (albeit at low pressure) for important events, such as the 100th annivery of the Line's construction.

[hazel-of-sodor]

Presenting NWT Lady. The Quarry's original shunter, she served from the early 1900s until the arrival of No.2 in 1951 allowed her to be placed into storage awaiting overhual. The collapse of that section of the Quarry saw Lady lost for nearly 20 years, the shed burried under the rumble, until Tasha stumbled upon the shed in the 70s. The TK&ET Preservation Society restored her, and she would be there flagship locomotive (in service) until the group purchased the Tramway in 1971.

[hazel-of-sodor]

So I've been on a narrow gauge kick lately, So Im made scale templates for the Kato 11-109 and 11-105 chassis, which lead to my newest Au, The North Western Tramway. There was once a little engine named Tasha. She wanted to leave the works and see the world. (yes, its Thomas).

The NWT Au is one where the Ffarquhar Branch line is a narrow gauge tramway, which all the engines redesigned to match. Up first is Tasha, narrow guage Fem Thomas. (why Fem Thomas? there was no one to stop me) along with her coaches. Tasha was built from spare parts at Crovan's Gates to be the work's engine before being transfered to the Tramway.

[hazel-of-sodor]

With the reallocation of No.6 to the Tramway in 1955, another works shunter was needed. The Other Railway supplied a pannier tank of Great Western Design, Montague. No.8 would gain the nickname Duck due to an issues with its wheels causing the engine to have a 'waddling' gait. While this was quickly corrected by the works, the nickname had stuck. He would eventually be given his own branchline in 1967, when the old branchline to Arlesburgh was relaid as a narrow gauge line. The line iwould quickly become known as the Little Western.

[hazel-of-sodor]

NWT No.5. By 1915 No.1 was on its last legs and a replacment engine was needed to help handle the wartime traffic. A search discovered a prototype locomotive originally meant as a canditie for a trench locomotive (beaten out by a hunslet 4-6-0 design) was found. The owners were all too happy to find a buyer for the rejected prototype and she was sold at cost to the NWT. The new No.5 was originally meant to be named Ffarquhar, but the name Smol Lass stuck with the crews.

[hazel-of-sodor]

Presenting the NWT Mavis. A diesel shunter purchased in 1964 by the Ffaquhar Quarry Company to replace the former No.2 coffeepot (who was subsequently preserved by the TK&ER Preservation Society). On her arrival Mavis clashed with NWT No.7 & No.6. She was young and full of her won ideas, and thought the NWT Engines were bossy fusspots. She would eventually become friends with Toby, but Percy still dislikes her, to everyone elses's amusement

[hazel-of-sodor]

Entering service in 1883, TK&ET No.2 Callan was the Tramway's first purpose built locomotive. A coffeepot designed by Bertram Hatt (father to Sir Topham Derek Hatt), No.2 helped finish the line's construction beyond the first tunnel. With the railway's official opening in 1885 and the arrival of No.3, No.2 was assigned the goods work.

The No.2 would serve faithfully for 60 years, but was in poor shape by the end of World War II. Place soley on maintence trains, it would struggle on until its purchase by the Ffarquhar Quarry Company in 1951. No.2 was overhauled and entered service as the quarry's shunter. It would happliy trundle along the quarry network until 1964, when the quarry purchased their first diesel shunter. The future seemed bleak for No.2, and scrapp seemed inevitable. However for over 70 years, those who lived along the line had worked alongside No.2 and a group of them came together to form the Tidmouth, Knapford, and Elsbridge Tramway Preservation Society with the purpose of purchasing and restoring No.2. The Quarry agreed to hold the locomotive untilthe funds could be raised. July saw No.4, the last coffepot in service with the NWT, arrives to collect Callan for restoration. Four Months later, a ceremony was held were No.2 was offically handed over to the Tidmouth Rail Musuem, joining the original No.1 Glynn.

[hazel-of-sodor]

NWT Oliver! When the Arlesburgh Branchline reopened as a narrow guage line in 1967, The North Western approached the Other Railway for a second engine to run the line, preferably another former Great Western engine. British Railways all but threw a narrow gauge 14xx at them. The Engine, seeing the writing on the wall for steam, had been making escape attempts since 1960. When the NWT approached BR, the engine had already made no less than 8 escape attempts that month. The Engine, his two coaches, and his brake van were shipped to the North Western faster than you could say 'Great Western.'

No.11 'Oliver' made quick friends with No.8 and quickly made his home on the North Western Tramway.

[hazel-of-sodor]

NWT D2 Daisy arrived in 1960 to assist with passenger traffic on the new Ulfstead extension. A DMU, she was quite prideful of how modern she was at first, till an incident with a bull humbled her. She can often be found gossiping with Tasha when not working. She cans till be a proud engine at times, but does her best to keep her pride in check.

[hazel-of-sodor]

Entering service in 1885, No.3 Elsbridge was purpose built for passenger service on the Tidmouth Knapford & Elsbridge Tramway. A enclosed version of already proven design of No.2, No.3's would pull the inaugral passenger train. Much like No.2, No.3 would see a long service life with the TK&ET and later the NWT. 1915 would see No.3 transferred from Passenger service to Goods work in favor of the newly purchased No.5, where it would remain until 1951. No.3 would tranferred to pure maintence of way work until 1956 when it was sold to FQC, joining No.2. It was retired by the quarry in 1969 in favor of a new diesel shunter. The TK&ER Perservation Society purchased No.3 upon its retirement, and it joined the original No.1 and No.2 in the Tidmouth Rail Museum.

[hazel-of-sodor]

Next up in my NWT AU, Toby and his coaches. Bought in 1951 following the closure of their old line to relieve one of the aging coffeepots, No.2 Callan. There was some intial tension with Tahsa, who had been adopted by the coffeeepots when she arrived on the Tramway decades before, but Toby was patient and once Callan was bought by the Fffarquhar Quarry Company and safe, he told Tasha of his own lost siblings. The two are now firm friends, although Tasha is still embarresed bout how she treated him at first.

[hazel-of-sodor]

Is the NWT any gauge in particular?

009! which can be anywhere from 2ft-2ft 6inch. I'm leaning 2ft gauge at the moment, but I haven't locked it in yet beyond not 2 ft 3inch, so as to explain its serperation from the exisiting Sodor Narrow Guage lines

[hazel-of-sodor]

NWT Percy! Following Tasha's transfer to the Tramway, a new engine was needed for the Work's.A search at a less than reputable workshop yeilded a smart looking second (tenth?) hand saddletank. The engine was purchased for an undisclosed sum and named Percy. While he was immediatly given the number 6, he would not actually see the tramway proper for many years. No.6 would serve at the works until 1955, when he was reallocted to assist with the redevolopment of Knapford harbor. The harbor had fallen out of use in favor of the larger Tidmouth, but was being revitalized to assist with the overflow of traffic at the larger harbor. Following this a new works locomotive would be provided by the other railway, and No.6 would relieve coffee pot No.3 Elsbridge, taking over the goods work on the line.