Following my confession the other day to owning 38 locos, I had a look through my photos and found a photo of all of them. So I thought I'd illustrate them all here in chronological order (as best I can).

 

First up is my very first loco, a scratchbuilt diesel built on a single Bachmann 45t chassis. It was originally radio controlled but latterly was simply battery powered. This loco was dismantled after a couple of years and went on to become something different.

 

I bought this small loco from a show but it never really ran properly so has spent the last few years parked at the end of a siding.

 

 

Around this time my first steam loco arrived, a Regner Konrad.  This was run and run and run and never faltered. In it's latter years it ran with a tender and headlamp.  It was subsequently sold on and hopefully provides sterling service to it's new owners.

 

 

The next loco was a rebuild of a previous loco. It was a combination of the Bachmann 45t and one of the big haulers. It was battery radio controlled and lasted quite a few years until it too was rebuilt.

 

 

My second articulated loco was this Garratt built from two LGB stainz chassis. It's loosely based on William Francis, the standard gauge garratt that used to work at Baddesley colliery. It survives today. 

 

 

This was closely followed by another articulated loco. This time a representation of Monarch, the Bagnall Meyer that worked at Bowaters and Welshpool. It utilised two LGB stainz chassis and was battery radio controlled. It has since left the railway.  

 

 

The next loco to arrive was this Roundhouse Elsa. It gave sterling service for many years and has since moved on to pastures new at my dad's railway. 

 

I can't quite remember what came next but I think it was this IP Engineering tram kit that I picked up from Stoneleigh one year. This ran on a USA trains motor block and had a simple forward reverse switch. 

 

 

This Aristo SD45 was bought off ebay for a very cheap price. It didn't fit in with anything I had but I just fancied having it. The motors drew 4A to just move so I really struggled to get batteries that had a high enough capacity.  Eventually I removed two of the motors - it had four originally, which reduced the current draw significantly and made it more manageable.

 

 

Another steam loco was next to arrive in the form of this Accucraft Edrig. I changed it quite a bit by adding a spark arrester chimney, headlamp and a bogie tender cab. It also had full radio control. This was later sold on to fund another steam loco.

 

 

I bought this tram off somebody on GSM for £20. All I did was change it to battery power.

 

The money from Edrig went towards this Regner Lumberjack. It was bought ready made and was very tight at first but gradually loosened up. I added r/c to the regulator, a headlamp, spark arrester chimney and re-painted it green. It was subsequently sold.

 

I've remembered what happened to the playmobil chassis off my double fairlie, they want on to power this tramway style garratt. It had an LGB Heidi body and a Stainz boiler. The tank and bunker were made of brass and it was battery powered with a simple forward/reverse switch.

 

After I had an article published in Garden Rail describing the construction of my garratt, I was contacted by a reader to see if I could build him one. This was the result. Basically the same as mine but track powered.

 

The power block from my first diesel was used to make this railcar using a Bachmann coach, the rear of an LGB stainz cab and a radiator from Essel engineering. It was battery powered too. 

 

This Aristo C16 was bought from the show at Llanfair. I repainted it and converted it to battery radio control. It ran with a Big Hauler tender as the original was too small to fit the batteries in. It was also sold on.

 

The next loco was my biggest yet. It was a Garratt built from two Bachmann Annie's which I bought brand new from America. It was battery radio controlled and used the two tenders from the locos as the tank and bunker. This too was sold on to a member of GSM.

 

I think the next loco was this Cheddar Hercules. It is still with me today although it is shortlisted for departure. 

 

 

Here it is hauling a 48 axle passenger train on my Dad's line.

 

I then went through a bit of a geared loco phase and the next couple of locos reflected this. The first was this Bachmann Shay which I converted to battery power. 

 

This Bachmann climax was next which again was converted to battery power.

 

The next loco was this super sentinel twin cabbed machine. It used two Stainz cabs and an Aristo motor block and was battery powered. 

 

 My next scratchbuild was my most ambitious and utilised the two Bachmann big haulers illustrated earlier. It was built for the sole reason to prove that it could be done. The two big hauler chassis were joined by a third unpowered one.  The chassis were shortened and the cylinders moved much closer to the driving wheels. The front and rear chassis are powered and the centre unit is unpowered.  

 

Another shot to prove it does actually go round corners. the centre unit has about 20mm of lateral movement to enable this. It's battery powered with the batteries in the tender and is still on the line although it hasn't run at my new house yet.

 

This Roundhouse William arrived next. I didn't do too much to it other than change the front buffer beam, add 2.4ghz r/c and fit a Summerland Chuffer. It left the line early in 2010. 

 

The Aristo SD45 didn't see much use so i thought I'd rebuild it into something a bit more narrow gaugey. I cut the cab off and the rear of the engine and also shortened the chassis. A pair of Stainz cabs were attached at either end to give the loco some resemblance to an Irish 141. This was also subsequently sold.

 

The rest of the SD45 was combined with the chassis off my Heisler to create this odd looking thing. It didn't last too long before being sold on.

 

To accompany the two large diesels I built this out of plasticard to give me something quick and easy to run. It uses an Arsito motor block. 

 

I used another couple of Stainz chassis to build this double fairlie. I was never happy with the way it looked so rebuilt it into a Monarch lookalike for my Dad.

 

This Accucraft Superior was my Dad's first steam loco but after much persuasion I was able to buy it off him. 

 

Next to arrive was this Accucraft Countess. This is where most of the money raised by selling my other engines went. 

 

The Merlin Hunslet arrived next in a deal which saw Konrad depart.

 

The Piko Harz kamel arrived next and has had nothing done to it other than conversion to battery r/c.