Proud owners of a 16mm Baldwin Gas Mechanical

There are things we believe to be beautiful, things we know to be useful and another category of precious stuff. These are our playthings. Don’t be misled by a word rooted in ‘play’. These ‘toys’ have stimulated curiosity, companionship, competition and rivalry. They bind together the events and processes of the world. They are prized objects which encapsulate a personal or national history. A model of a Baldwin Gas Mechanical, also known as a petrol locotractor, brings together two chapters of human history. Every knobble and bump tells a story. The battered prototype in this picture has many tales to tell. If you want to create new stories, you can run it on your layout. Otherwise you can keep it on display.

The Baldwin Gas Mechanical model is not beautiful in the conventional sense. It was made for running on a 32mm gauge layout with other models and with other Sixteen Millers. The model is accompanied by challenge, fun and companionship. We have been called the playful animal. Cubs and calves put off childish things when they enter the adult world; we don’t ever, quite. Running a model on a layout is fun. It also brings back a lost world, a world of conflict in the case of Baldwin Gas Mechanical. (First World War 1914-18) Once the war had ended, the BGM was repurposed for a world in flux. Beneath the fun, we are looking at a tribute and memorial. The original design for the Baldwin Gas Mechanical was created in 1916 during the 1914-18 War. In 1914, instead of a rapid invasion of Paris or Berlin, the combatants dug in along the Western Front. On each side of the Front, a million or so soldiers faced each other. The quantity of food, water ammunition etc required was mind-boggling. Given the technology of the time, the most practical means of transport was the portable railway with specially designed Prime Movers and wagons. Back in the 1880s, Prosper Péchot had devised a 60cm gauge system for the French Army. In 1888, the Péchot system was copied by the Germans and much developed.

The steam locomotives used in the 19th century soon proved unsuitable for trench war-fare, puffing out highly visible clouds of smoke in daylight and showers of sparks at night. Railway design rapidly looked to petrol power, electric and even, in a German locomotive, to diesel. Although the Eastern Front never had lengthy and extensive trench warfare, some narrow gauge petrol powered locomotives were needed. The USA was a power-house of internal combustion engines. The mighty Baldwin Locomotive Works of Philadelphia, for instance, was relatively close to the thriving motor industries of Detroit. In 1916, some petrol-powered ‘locotractors’ were delivered to Russia. Soon after, the French Army ordered their own ‘locotracteurs’ to a slightly different design and to 60cm gauge, 600 units in all. The Wrightscale model seen above and below has used this design.

In April 1917, the USA entered the War. Among their first military orders were 126 Baldwin locotractors, known as Baldwin Gas Mechanicals, to the French design, and a further 65 more compact BGMs. The British never placed an order during the war but a very celebrated BGM made its way to Britain after the War. See below. Sadly we know of no surviving examples of the Russian design but a number of locotractors – Baldwin Gas Mechanicals – have survived. After 1919, surviving locomotives and rolling stock were sold off, to quarries, agricultural concerns such as sugar beet producers and manufacturers eg beet refineries. A celebrated BGM survives on the Ffestiniog preserved railway. It was originally acquired in the 1920s when the railway served slate quarries. It was re-engineered in the 1950s and given the name Moelwyn to celebrate the mountain Moelwyn Mawr, site of many quarries. The BGM in our first photograph was snapped by Malcolm at Tacots des lacs circa 2000. It was originally a US locomotive; you can tell, not just from the ‘U.S.A.’ painted on the side, but also the number 7108. Baldwin supplied 126 locotractors to this design to the AEF, numbered 7001 to 7126. The locomotive has had a hard life, losing its wheels and running gear as well as its chimney and lamps. Tacots des lacs (lakeside jalopies) was created by enthusiasts in flooded and abandoned sand workings. At the time, they had rescued a lot of 60cm gauge material as well as the BGM pictured – on the understanding that they were restored. In case you were asking, the battered locomotive standing behind is possibly a mash-up of locomotive parts. Eric Fresné describes just a chimera. Its lower part consisted of a steam chassis upon which was built a diesel loco. Malcolm fell in love with the locomotive preserved at Froissy, seen in a photo taken in the 1990s. Delivered by Baldwin to the French Army, it had already been lovingly restored to museum quality. It has long been designated a Monument de France.

For the reasons given above, he realised straightaway that a model would be a fine addition to a 16mm scale layout and he has been making them for roughly thirty years. The historians Stuart Baker, Eric Fresné, Dr Christian Cénac and Rich Dunn all have a soft spot for this piece of military hardware. See Richard Dunn ‘Narrow Gauge To No Man’s Land – US Army 60cm railways of the First World War in France’ Benchmark Press Eric Fresné ‘70 years of sugar beet railways in France’ LR Presse see especially page 103 Sarah Wright ‘Tracks To The Trenches’ Birse Press For images of Moelwyn search www.festipedia.org.uk