Locomotive Dept

Currently the CHLR has four sources of motive power - two battery petrol outline locos & a powerful Little John loco that take all freight & passenger workings and also a battered Wickham Trolley and trailer for the works department.

Loco No.1 - "LOLA"

This loco came to Kent to help build the line - obtained by the management from a well known auction site, this loco arrived in a matt black finish and was named Wee Yin - we understand that it came from a railway in Shetland or from the very north of the country (if any 16mm'ers recognises it from the pics below, please do get in touch to share a bit more of its back story which I'll happily put on here)

Here Wee Yin is in charge of the 1st revenue earning service on the line, a trip working from recycling yard to Junction station for offloading to the standard gauge line. 

The loco is of freelance design  - if anyone can shed more light if it looks like it is based on an original design, please do get in touch. The body and motor sat on a home made chassis and whilst had worked for a number of years, it did shift around and the motor drive sometimes slipped off the gear. So once Loco 2 was up and running, Wee Yin was booked into the works for a refurbishment, new livery and a name change.

I've always liked green locos so that was an easy choice for the line, with red beams. We gutted the windows and fitted some new ones (that actually need a tidy up again as I did over do the superglue a tad ( I claim its scale bird poo for now!). Jock, the driver of this loco, was also fitted out with more suitable narrow gauge railway staff colours ( we think his origins are ex military but no one dare ask him!).

Everything was re -assembled but because of the handmade construction of the original name plates (plasticard and small individual letters), the plates had been destroyed. A quick search via a range of 16mm suppliers and I came across the excellent John Lythgoe's website (www.johnlythgoe.com). I was amazed at the range of nameplates that were available and started to have a think about a theme - should I copy names already in existence or should I personalise more - I used to like the themes used by different railways and BR classes  - whilst pondering one of my dogs kept barking and getting my attention - and the thought came to me - our pets, past and present - as it is a garden railway, what better theme to have.

So Wee Yin became called Lola, our English Springer Spaniel  - name and number plates for this loco and number plates were order and duly arrived, beautifully produced by John.

So after a month in the works, Lola has re-entered service in her new guise. Now sitting on a new chassis and motor from VWMonkeyBlue on ebay, she is far more reliable  - I still need to get the lead weighting right as she struggles with our heavy passenger coach but is more than happy working timber workings up and down the line as well as the morning & evening workers train with its open coach.

More detail such as oil cans, decking and lamps are being added all the time with the aim of keeping Lola at the forefront of operations for the coming years.

Below is some footage of her in the spring busy moving timber kinderling down the line to Junction station for onward use by a wide range of customers.

Feb 17 Update - Lola has now been 're-chassis-ed' - to follow her rebuild visit 

- http://gardenrails.myfreeforum.org/about10885.html

Here is her most up to date official CHLR photo

Loco No.2 - "Jessie"

To supplement the first of the line's loco's, we wanted to keep things simple as we developed the line - so decided to stick with diesel outlines and decided for a HGLW simple kit. We'd already purchased a couple of freight wagons from this supplier and found the construction to be within the capability of our fledgling works department.

Construction was straight forward and after some initial test runs in undercoat grey (sadly the film unit missed that) , No. 2 was launched onto the railways in December. It was named 'Jessie" after our Terrier - name plates again supplied by John Lythgoe.

Jessie, being more powerful, can be utilised on either freight services or the tourist train on Sundays. 

Jessie and Lola are both remotely controlled via transmitters and one of Peter Spoolers TX20 controllers. 

Bob is the driver of Jessie - a keen driver who is always peering ahead to check that the line is clear and makes great use of a reversing mirror when returning back down the line.

Loco No.3 - "Kenny"

So after cutting my teeth on budget entry locos, I took the plunge and invested in Roundhouse Little John loco, numbered number 3 – again it follows the green body and red beams of the existing fleet. 

Ultimately it will be named Kenny after our dear departed pet cat but until I can find a set of plates that will fit on the body (probably will need to be OO gauge or similar) he’ll be plate less.

Many very positive articles have been written about this Roundhouse model and I can happily agree with everyone of them – loads of power on tap but also an ability to crawl along the line at very scale ‘slow’ speeds. Still getting used to the controller that I find a bit harder to control than my TX20 but I think that’s the joy of driving different engines etc.

No.3 busy on a Vine Leaf & Cuttings Train in the summer of 2016

The weight of this loco has given me confidence to weigh down my other locos as I can easily see the benefits of doing so. This train will pull my whole freight and coaching stock if I wanted to but as my line is very elevated, I’ve avoided the temptation as keeping an eye on so many axles will be a job of my twisty railway would be a bit of a job.

The loco is driven by Karl, a driver acquired from Busybodies – he isn’t one for smiling but has a good safety record and was deemed the best driver for the current pride of the line.

No.3 eases away from Woodyard with a weighty scrap train