Allan Tanners 42209

In 1993 TDME member Allan Tanner started work on what was to become his Magnum opus when he acquired the plans for a 5 inch gauge John Hill design ‘AME’ 422 Class. These are normally powered by 12 Volt batteries but Allan being the innovator that he is used a 3HP Briggs and Stratton engine that was on hand. From a centrifugal clutch driving a 10 tooth sprocket, power is transferred to a 40-tooth sprocket on the end of a gearbox from a 45hp Johnson Outboard motor to give forward, neutral and reverse.

A 12 volt battery supplies power to a Yamaha motorcycle starter motor which drives sprockets, chains and gears (from an old photocopier) to the front of the sher drill to gear it down sufficiently to turn the motor to get the whole show moving. Allan was having trouble breaking the starter dog with the initial torque of the starter motor. He overcame this problem by introducing the coil springs from a car window-winder to take up the initial shock.

Control is by an umbilical to a panel on the riding car with a ‘dead man's” lanyard in case of mishaps. Electronic control operates servo-assisted throttle and choke with gear changing achieved with the help of a cam from a Holden Windscreen wiper motor. Braking is achieved by Vacuum brakes on the riding car. The loco has a falcon car horn to warn of its approach and the running lights are run from two torch batteries.

Despite having no trades experience Allan brought a Hafco AL900A lathe and has machined his own bogie frames, brakes and sprockets and turned the wheels, axles and smaller studs and bolts himself. As well as making the stand for his loco he has also manufactured a small turntable and rail-bending machine.

The beautiful paint job was the work of the Automotives trades group of the Tamworth TAFE in the State Rail Authority ‘Candy’ colour scheme. Allan completed his 42209 in 2002 and when John Hill author of the original AME 422 class series visited Tamworth described Allan’s 42209 as the best rendition of his design that he had seen and it is a tribute to Allan’s skills.

Extracted from One Man’s Models, Alan Tanner written by John Black for the Nov-Dec 2005 of Australian Model Engineering.

Bob Elwins 3646

On the 4th of March 2006 Bob Elwins 3646 had its first on track steaming; Bob obtained the plans and castings for 3646 from E&J Winter. The only departure from the plans was the use of gunmetal instead of cast iron for the cylinders, valve liners, etc to avoid a potential rust problem as Bob thought he would not be running the engine very often with water sitting around the works a potential problem.

3646 took bob 6 years to build to the present stage. During the first four years of construction Bob had a part time job and construction was slow. He made many phone calls to Ernie Winter, Dave Evans, Joe Huntley and other when he got stuck, a friend in Armidale with oxy equipment performed the silver soldering jobs which were too big for the propane torch on hand. Stan Clark rolled the cab and Frank Newman welded the firebox door.

The boiler was professionally made by Dave Evans. Nearly all materials, BMS, gunmetal and brass were obtained from E&J Winter as were most of the machine tools along with some from John Buckley.

Remaining tasks are the turbo generator and lights, some dummy plumbing around the Westinghouse pump and painting.