16mm: the wonder of small

Friends of Wrightscale may wonder how Malcolm came to make his locomotives. He didn’t choose them. They chose him.

The Bagnall Excelsior, the Kerr Stuart Wren and the Quarry Hunslets of North Wales all inspire great love. 16mm model of Excelsior in its 0-4-0 configuration by Wrightscale

Enduring favourites have included the Bagnall ‘Excelsior’, the Kerr Stuart Wren and Quarry Hunslets especially the ‘Alice’ class. Their main characteristics were: 2’ (60cm) gauge, small mass, carrying their own water tank and (usually) 0-4-0 configuration. Their charm even involves contradiction and paradox.

Here are a few thoughts about the appeal of each.

Wrightscale 16mm Wren

The first model in 16mm gauge was the 0-4-0 Wren. In 1980, we met a prototype, Pixie, at Leighton Buzzard, pulling a passenger train and Malcolm was immediately hooked. He then saw a model Wren,  as a 5 inch gauge live steamer and he thought ‘If it can be done in 5 inch, how about doing it in 32mm gauge?’ At the time, the craft of 16mm scale was the preserve of a few enthusiasts and I’m pretty sure that Malcolm was among the first to think of fitting up a locomotive to run on live steam.

16mm Wrightscale Wren

If you can look back on learning - undoing mistakes and the triumph of success, repeated over and over - with any pleasure, then Malcolm looks back on the Wren with great fondness. When he unveiled a working prototype, there was general admiration. Of course there are now many beautiful steam locomotives which run on 32mm track, but this was one of the first reasonably faithful models of a recognisable prototype.  

The Wren has always attracted admirers.  The prototype was the smallest locomotive built by Kerr Stuart but the company’s most successful product. 163 were built between 1904 and 1929 when Kerr, Stuart folded into the Hunslet Engine Co of Leeds. The marque lives on - it was transferred to Statfold Barn. A couple have been recently built, but for preserved railways.

The 20th century Wren prototypes were usually purchased for construction sites. The nature of such railways was ephemeral and the locos were put to work hauling skips of rubbish. The Wren's many admirers may even love it because because of the unglamorous nature of its working environment!. As mentioned above, models have been built in various scales. About 160 Wrightscale 16mm Wrens have been  created over the years, comparable to the number of prototypes.

Wrightscale Alice class Quarry Hunslet locomotive 16mm scale

We had seen a Quarry Hunslet five years previously when we visited the Festiniog Railway but at that time, Malcolm never thought of turning it into a live steam model. When 16mm scale took off, Tony Sant was the first into live steam Quarry Hunslets. He and Malcolm agreed that with so much demand and so many variants of the basic design, there was room for more than one builder. Thus was born the Wrightscale Hunslet Quarry locomotive. Its inspiration was Cloister No 542 of 1891. Makcolm saw this at Kew Bridge Steam Museum and loved it.

The Hunslet Locomotive Company of Leeds was formed in 1864 expressly to build small locomotives.  At that very time, the Dinorwic and Penrhyn slate quarries of Snowdonia, North Wales were looking to expand production. Britain was enjoying a building boom and buildings needed roofing, slate roofing. Both quarries already had a rail system; small wagons were moved around by animal or human power. Moving freight around by locomotive allowed for faster movement of greater tonnages. Locomotives also, perhaps counter-intuitively, were kinder to the permanent way than were horses.

16mm Wrightscale Hunslet pictured from below showing the compact wheelbase.

(Little pause here). It all goes back to Isaac Newton. If an animal is walking beside the railway, its action in pulling the load forward is balanced by an equal and opposite reaction on the path it is using. As a consequence, the path is worn away, the subsoil of the track falls into the hole, soon the track is hovering over a void, and then follow derailments and other horrors. If the action of moving the freight is performed by a locomotive also using the track then wear is more evenly spread. Hollows do not develop at the side of the track..

Prosper Péchot, working on narrow gauge military railways in the 1880s, learned much from the slate railways of North Wales, particularly the benefits of loco haulage. He developed the  Péchot system which went on to be used to supply millions of tonnes of food, water and ammunition to the trenches of the First World War. 

But we return to the great little Hunslets. Dinorwic had experimented with locomotives with vertical boilers but ‘Dinorwic’ aka ‘Charlie’, the first Hunslet, arrived at the quarry in 1870. Over the next 50+ years, 22 were to be supplied to that one quarry concern.

Penryn Quarry were soon buying their own. ‘Charles’ – not to be confused with ‘Charlie’, the first of 14 Penryn Hunslets, arrived in 1882. The names and classifications of Hunslets in these rival companies became quite complicated. In his book, 'Quarry Hunslets: The Great Little Survivors'  Cliff Thomas devotes many pages to disentangling the nomenclature. He distinguishes eleven groups of prototype, some cabbed, mostly cab-less..

One reason why there has been so much interest in model Hunslets is the survival of prototypes widely distributed through the country. Quite often, the quarries sold locomotives on when they threatened to become uneconomic.

Two 16mm scale 'Alice' class Quarry Hunslets

Malcolm specialised in the ‘Alice’ class prototype of which 'Cloister' is a member. This was designed to work in the galleries of the quarry itself. The overall length was 13’ long, though the wheelbase is a mere 3’3” - width 5’4” - height to top of chimney 7’3” - weight 5 ½ tons.  The ‘Alice’ class was nimbler than ‘Charlie’ who weighed 9 tons, had a wheelbase of 4’3” and almost the same effective tractive effort.

The first of the Alice class was delivered in 1886; we can see that narrow gauge locomotive technology was developing fast. This first one was, in point of sober fact, named Velinheli No. 409. 11 of this basic type were delivered to Dinorwic alone and a number of prototypes survive. We can see why models are in demand.

‘Alice’ herself – delivered 1889 Works No 492 - was renamed ‘King of the Scarlets’ (a racehorse.) Confusingly, there was a second ‘Alice’ delivered in 1902 so thank you, Cliff Thomas, for guiding us through the tangled history of names!

One of only nine surviving photos of the Bagnall Excelsior. Here it is in 0-4-2 configuration with straight smokestack at the Portland Stone Quarries of FJ Barnes. Photo courtesy Phil Copleston.

So far, Malcolm’s favourites have been small, early locomotives boasting many surviving prototypes. At the same time, he is also fond of the Bagnall Excelsior, Works No 970. Only one was ever made, and it worked in obscurity from 1888 to 1920 (ish). Though a small locomotive with a tiny footprint, it too inspires great love. Allan Baker claims that ‘a lot of mystique hangs around the early (Bagnall) locomotives‘ - page 4 of 'A Pictorial Album’ Trent Valley Press, 1990. I think he’s right.

The Excelsior 0-4-0 first worked on the Kerry Tramway, a forestry line in mid-Wales. All that survives of this is a single photo. In 1895, rebuilt as 0-4-2, it transferred to the Lynton & Barnstaple Railway as a contractor’s locomotive. Four photos from the period are known. Finally it worked on the Isle of Portland quarries. Another four photos are known. After some years abandoned in a shed, it was scrapped in 1932.

Wrightscale 16mm Bagnall Excelsior 0-4-0, as used on the Kerry Tramway

Excelsior has a special place in the history of the company. From 1876, the Bagnall enterprise was offering locomotives as well as a selection of other ironworks. In 1887, it re-formed as a Limited Company with an injection of new capital. Built in 1888, the Excelsior is the company’s first ‘serious’ locomotive. Unlike the Wren or Hunslet, it carried its water in an inverted saddle tank giving it a distinctive profile. The inverted saddle tank was an introduction by W.G. Bagnall himself and was protected by patents.

It has the charm of being truly tiny, weighing less than 4 tons. The Kerry Tramway original was 0-4-0, with charming balloon stack chimney, but it is generally known in its 0-4-2 configuration, as photographed at the L&B or Isle of Portland.

Two Wrightscale 16mm scale Bagnall Excelsior models

For more information, visit Phil Copleston at the 2020 Model Railway Exhibition, Matford Centre, Exeter June 27^th and 28^th. He plans a publication on the Kerry Tramway and another specifically on Excelsior itself. He’ll let us know more in due course.