Unknown 4-6-0

This chassis was again bought off Ebay but turned out to be one of my better acquisitions as it's very well made apart from a touch of 'wobbly wheel'. The valve gear is especially well made. I can't trace it to any published design so I assume it is freelance. If anyone out there can put a name to it I'll be very grateful. The unusual shape of the expansion link brackets may help identify it? Driving and coupled wheels are 3-1/2" dia. with spacings of 4" and 4-5/8". Cylinders are 1-1/8" stroke by 13/16" bore with Walschaerts valve gear. Overall length of the frames is 20-3/4".

The chassis is 1/8" thick up to the cylinders but the front section is only 1/16" thick. Gerald Chandler informs me that this was common practice, probably to give a more scale appearance at the front end where the frames can be seen.

The chassis had obviously been dropped at some time and was bent, making the motion very stiff. It was stripped down, the frames straightened out, and the whole reassembled. After roughly setting the valves the chassis ticks over quite well on just a few pounds of air, despite numerous leaks from the valvechest joints. The reverser looks like a commercially made item and would probably suit a 3 1/2" gauge loco better!

 

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