Garden Rail May 2025

When Dave Pinniger told me he would be covering some Merlin steam locos in his latest look at visitors to the Ambledown Valley Railway, I looked forward to the article even more than normal. My Merlin Mayflower was picked up cheaply a few years ago and has proved to be an excellent performer, although it’s now in need of some new O-rings in the cylinders, as steam is leaking from them during the first run on a cold day. There is a lot of second-hand steam out there. Visit any show, and plenty of dealers will be only too happy to relieve you of some money to add to your fleet. If you are on a budget, this can be a tempting prospect. Dave’s reminiscences are very helpful here, as…

My interest in garden railways began many years ago, back in the late 1990s. When I lived at home, my dad had an extensive OO gauge layout, which ran around all four walls of the spare room. For a reason I cannot really remember, he decided to get rid, probably to reclaim a room in the house. I remember going to a long-gone model shop in Wakefield, on Dewsbury Road, with lots of excitement as he’d arranged to part exchange all the OO gauge locomotives and stock with the hope of getting started in G scale. It was a success, we walked out with an LGB starter set, a few points, and extra track. The hobby had begun. My dad’s railway, over the following years, got bigger and bigger, which…

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One of the first gas-fired 16mm locos to visit the Ambledown Valley Railway was Harvey Watkins’ ‘Gordon Bennett’ way back in 1986. This was a Merlin Monarch that had been subtly weathered by Harvey. Tom Cooper’s Merlin Engineering had a complicated and fascinating story, which is not known to many of today’s garden railway enthusiasts. James Ritson wrote a comprehensive account of the history of Merlin in 1997 in an American magazine called Steam in the Garden, but I suspect that there are not many copies of this that reached this country. I first came across Tom Cooper at an early 16mm Association meeting at Withington, where he was running an 0-4-0T called ‘Anna’ around a circle of LGB track. Tom was importing these engines from Beck, a long-established toy…

The subject matter of this article is a 16 HP Ruston. These small locos were used in a variety of locations, including quarries, peat cutting, construction projects and water works, often working on temporary or lightly laid track. A large quantity in various power ranges, gauges and formats, cabbed and cabless, were produced, and a number still grace various preserved lines. This model had been built from a Saltford Models Kit in the late 1980’s, by the son of a friend. For reasons long since forgotten, the BLR acquired it. However, as there was already one active on the railway (No 9 ‘The Mite’ built in 1986), this new one was moved to stores, occasionally being run, but not allocated name or number. Over the years, it had gradually vanished…

The National Garden Railway Show Date: 12 April, 2025 Venue: NAEC Stoneleigh Park, Kenilworth, CV8 2LH Times: 9:30am to 5pm Web: www.nationalgardenrailwayshow.org.uk Llangollen Garden Railway Festival Date: 7 June, 2025 Venue: Llangollen Pavilion, Abbey Road, Llangollen, LL20 8SW Times: 10am to 4:30pm Web: www.lgrf.co.uk Garden Railway Specialists Open Day Date: 20/21 June, 2025 Venue: 6 Summerleys Rd, Princes Risborough, HP27 9DT Times: 10am to 4pm Web: www.grsuk.com Yorkshire Garden Railway Show Date: 27 September, 2025 Venue: Barrow Hill Roundhouse Railway Centre, Campbell Drive, Barrow Hill, Chesterfield, Derbyshire, S43 2PR Times: 10am to 4:00pm Web: www.yorkshire.16mm.org.uk Exeter Garden Railway Show Date: 25 October, 2025 Venue: The Matford Centre, Marsh Barton Ind Estate, Exeter, EX2 8FD Times: 10:30am to 4:30pm Web: www.exetergardenrailwayshow.com All events are published in good faith. Please check with…