Trust member Richard Stone has recently taken ownership of a Roundhouse Mildred class live steam locomotive – a generic model of no particular prototype sized to work well and look acceptable in the garden railway scales. If you ignore what’s going on below foot plate level there is more than a passing resemblance to a Southwold Sharpie and Richard’s loco now bears a set of BLYTH plates. The locomotive is fired by butane gas and control is achieved by a 2.4GHz radio control installation, with servos controlling both the regulator and the reversing valve gear.
It certainly looks good on Richard’s garden line (based on the eastern end of the Southwold Railway) and will be on static display with other large scale models at the Southwold Railway Trust Exhibition at St Edmunds Hall on 4th and 5th May (see Events page).