16mm scale Baldwin Gas Mechanical

We missed a deadline and our regular advertisement didn’t appear in the latest ‘Sixteen Millimetre Today’ magazine. You will want to know what you missed. This was the 16mm model of a Baldwin Gas Mechanical locomotiv. We have taken a fascinating prototype and created a model to run on 32mm track.

16mm scale Baldwin Gas Mechanical locotractor that we meant to advertise in winter 2019. Created by Wrightscale

The originals were developed to run on the 60cm gauge railways that supplied the trenches of World War One. We have long had an interest in this vast but forgotten network – more below.

We produced these models about ten years ago, using the best suppliers we could find. Unfortunately, these companies kept closing; and as small suppliers came up for retirement, they too just closed their garage doors. It has required a lot of time and energy in finding new suppliers of the right calibre .

One of our best was Adrian Swain. We were relieved when Sarah Smith of Sarum Models was able to take over as a high quality and efficient supplier.

The steel laser-cut frames were even more of a head-ache. Our first supplier did pass us on to another company but this in turn quietly shut its doors and threw away its working tools. Well! When we did find another company, Malcolm had to redraw the frames and present them in a form that their laser computers could digest. This all had to be fitted in while we earned a living and kept up with family matters.

Here’s what we were going to say in the advertisement.

‘A batch of these interesting locomotives is going to be built or delivery early next year’ If you might like to buy one, let us know your name.’

Unfortunately, we cannot yet commit to a price because our suppliers in their turn cannot yet commit. They all quote a certain event which we keep being told will happen, but which doesn’t. This event hovers like a malign flying elephant, spreading uncertainty throughout the raft of small businesses on which we float. Thus, we will take your name without obligation, and give you an opportunity to buy once you know the price.

That is the substance of the advertisement.

THis part-assembled Wrightscale Baldwin Gas Mechanical shows the chassis frames, a standard Baldwin manufacturing feature. Photo and model MD Wright

We’d also like to share with you our delight in the model.

The prototype popped up in 1917, half-way through the Great War. In the early months, both the Allies and Central Powers realised a sad truth about the War. It was not going to be a war of movement, over quickly once one side had taken over the territory of the other. The French were not overwhelmed by the Schlieffen Plan and the Germans had a secret supply of ammonia for their ammunition. One side and then the other dug in along eastern France and the French Belgian border. Temporary trenches became permanent and the Western Front appeared.

Both sides were faced with a problem that few, at least on the Allied side, had anticipated – how to feed, water and quarter millions of soldiers and their artillery. The French, thanks to almost heroic efforts by an officer in their Artillery, Prosper Péchot, had a 19^th century railway system which could be adapted. The Germans, always on the alert for good ideas, copied this promising system in the 1890s.

Colonel Péchot in 1907. Photograph courtesy of Raymond PECHOT

This wonder-working system depended on 60cm (roughly 2’)  gauge prefabricated track which could be quickly laid, or relaid wherever supply trains were required. Thanks to clever design using sound engineering principles, these miniature railways could support heavy trains, pulled by powerful locomotives. The horses, mules and humans who would otherwise have had to transport millions, yes millions, of tonnes of supplies in thoroughly inhumane conditions were spared. War Horse could eat his oats in (relatively) safe conditions.

The system was rapidly adapted. Temporary track gave way to proper permanent way. Importantly, a substitute was found for steam locomotives. By day, these sent up a plume of smoke, by night, a shower of sparks, an absolute gift for opposition artillery. By 1917, a number of designs of internal combustion engines had reached the tracks. Among the range of models put forward were rail-mounted cars. Outstanding among the Allied designs were the Baldwin locotractors. On the German side, Benzolloks (running on petrol) and Dieselloks appeared

For a number of reasons, the Baldwin Gas Mechanical locotractor built by the Baldwin Works of Philadelphia has inspired the greatest affection.

On account of the numbers built, it was sighted everywhere. When the USA entered the War in 1917, their AEF ordered 109 BGMs and 61 of the 35 hp version. Nineteen (or so) never crossed the Atlantic. An even larger number were made for the French – between 535 and 600, depending on the authority. If you want to know more about the numbering, Rich Dunn gives a good account in his ‘Narrow Gauge to No Man’s Land’ pp 98 to 109. Another excellent account is given in Dr Christian Cénac’s ‘Soixante centimetres pour ravitailler les fronts de la guerre de 14-18’

Partly built Wrightscale 16mm scale Baldwin Gas Mechanical

The BGM was seen in a number of settings – training camps, forestry railways, maintenance, shunting and, most importantly of all, taking supplies forward to the Front. The locotractors had the priceless advantage of being less visible than steam engines. They could run all day and night, as long as they were regularly refuelled. They were much easier to stop and start than a steam engine. As the driver sat side-on, reverse was no more difficult than going forward.  Imagine how this must have improved the lot of a squaddy under fire!

The BGM was truly international. We believe that the French/AEF design originated with an earlier locotractor made for the Russian Government. This was in 76cm (roughly 2’6”) gauge – the eastern front also had light railways though never to the extent of the west.

The BGM had character – so much locomotive perched on so small a wheelbase – the vast yet reassuring ‘face’ - the fascinating louvred sides and the frames, the frames, the frames. It was not so much a chunk of metal, but an embodiment of the spirit of US manufacture. The Baldwin Works combined the rugged individualism with the new techniques of the assembly line.

A Baldwin Works Assembly hall pictured in 1915 showing how rugged individualism could be happily combined with the techniques of the assembly line. Photo courtesy Raymond PECHOT

On the one hand, Baldwin could not have achieved its vast productivity without a system. Each product was built in a huge hangar where a team could perform an operation then move on to perform the same on the next. Yet at the same time, these teams could improvise where needed. If the factory drawing didn’t quite work, the foreman could devise a work-round and trust the team to deliver. The BGM design shows the best of US flair of the period.

An enticing air of mystery still hangs about the BGM. Historians continue to argue about the numbering and hoiw to track down missing examples.  When the US government placed the order with the Baldwin Locomotive Company, they may well have stipulated 20 and 40 horsepower. What they got were 35 and 50. This may have been because the more powerful gasoline engines were more readily available. Certainly, the greater power was more useful under battlefield conditions – more likely to achieve the theoretical speeds of 6.4 kph (4 mph) and 12.8 kph (8 mph) in top gear.

They had disadvantages, the main one being that their power output could be less than a third of a steam loco. It didn’t always achieve the quoted top speed. Soon the people in the field did what they always do - demand more power.

Though track adhesion was quite good – four driving wheels took 100% of the loco’s weight – the corollary of the neat wheelbase was a large overhang front and rear.  It tended to jump off the track. Furthermore, as the design was pushing the envelope of contemporary design, the gearbox and clutch were unreliable. There was another, disadvantage, plain as the nose on its face. The gas/petrol/essence was carried in a tank on top of the bonnet. When it had just been refuelled, this raised the centre of gravity. When it was nearly empty of liquid, the cylinder remained full of hydro-carbon gas, highly vulnerable to stray ordinance.

Some unpatriotic servicemen were photographed driving the British Simplex and the French Schneider 0-6-0 petrol loco.

A lovely example of the 50hp BGM is preserved at Froissy, Somme

The Baldwin locotractor has had a long afterlife, partly because it was, in its own terms, an excellent loco and partly because prototypes were plentiful. Long after the First World War, they were used in military camps in the USA – Camp Humphreys East Virginia, the Proving Grounds at Aberdeen Maryland, Fort Benning etc. Many were sold as War surplus.  Moelwyn on the Festiniog Railway is a heavily disguised Baldwin locotractor. Lovely examples are also preserved in France.

These prototypes keep interest alive; we have had encouraging interest in the model

The Wrightscale model for comparison