Andrew Barclay 0-4-0 Fireless Locomotive

A 7mm scale (O Gauge) model of an Andrew Barclay 0-4-0 fireless locomotive.  The model includes a few of the castings from the Eric Underhill kit but it is almost entirely scratch built, including the footplate, cab buffers and buffer planks, steps, dome, exhaust, cylinders, valve gear and cab interior and other details.  The wheels were cast in brass from my pattern and press-fitted with steel tyres for split-axle pickup.  Calderstones was built for the Calderstones Certified Institution for Mental Defectives in 1925 for work at their hospital in Whalley, near Blackburn in Lancashire.  Originally called Farnham Slade, the locomotive was renamed around 1929 when the name Calderstones Hospital came into use.  Although the prototype was scrapped in January, 1952, similar locomotives are preserved, such as No. 1477 and No. 2243 at the Buckinghamshire Railway Centre, and No. 1984 at the Foxfield Railway.

A conventional arrangement of outside cylinders and inside Stephenson's valve gear.
 

The cylinders are usually at the rear of a fireless locomotive because there is no need for them to be at the front to induce the draft up the chimney of a fire-tube boiler, as in a conventional steam locomotive.  Exhaust steam is passed from the cylinders to an exhaust pipe at the rear of the cab; the small pipe drains condensation away. 

I am delighted that my model inspired R B Cornwell to write The History of the Calderstones Hospital Railway 1907-1953.  For more information, please contact mark_c_cornwell@yahoo.co.uk. R B Cornwell is also the author of The History of the Whittingham Hospital Railway 1884-1957.

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