A "Baldwin-style" 2-8-0T+T (combined side tank and tender loco)
built by Murray Lane, Howick, NZ.
POEM was designed for a railway at Manu
Ariki Marae a few miles north of Taumarunui in the central north
island of New Zealand. She was to be able to haul a load of 54
adults up their 1 in 100 gradient, including a short stretch of
1 in 40 on a bend. Due to a lack of suitably trained staff at
the line they decided not to buy the loco in the end and Murray
retained her for himself. The railway
is still open and now extends to just over 3km (just under 2
miles), or a 25 minute
run.
- POEM is unusual in that the builder
(Murray Lane) combined features of several different locos to
build this one. It is vaguely reminiscent of a World War I
American
ALCO or Baldwin trench loco, but it is a 2-8-0, not
a 2-6-2.
- POEM is a combined side tank and tender
loco making it more like a sugar-cane loco. There were no
eight-coupled sugar-cane locos in Fiji,
though there were
still a few in Java (as of 2006 and most of those were German-built).
- POEM uses
Allan straight-link valve motion, which was unusual on
full-size locos and even rarer on miniature locomotives.
- POEM will have to be repainted, it
simply doesn't look right to have a blue and purple steam
loco. That said, many of the sugar-cane locos in Java (and
Australia) were painted some fairly garish colours.
Murray was originally going to build a model of Palm
Oil Estates
Management (P.O.E.M.) railway locomotive #3 but she would've been too small
for the intended use so he changed the design to the
semi-freelance 2-8-0; but he kept the name POEM.
Murray said that POEM has been running
for about five or six years and he has rebuilt those parts that
were not satisfactory, so there is little chance of it
developing a fault that he hasn't already uncovered. For
instance he re-made slide valves as the original phosphor-bronze
ones distorted and he made new cast-iron ones. Murray is a superb engineer and there is no faulting
his workmanship.
This is a loco built for hard use and is
not a finescale model. The paintwork is a bit tarnished in places
but the underlying loco is in very good condition.
Specifications |
|
Mechanical |
| Wheel arrangement |
2-8-0 |
| Cylinder bore & stroke |
70 x 94mm |
| Length of engine |
2085mm |
| Total length with tender |
3675mm |
| Height |
900mm |
| Width |
600mm |
| Engine weight empty |
490kg |
| Engine weight loaded |
567kg |
| Tender weight empty |
180kg |
| Tender weight loaded |
360kg |
| Wheel diameter - driver |
166mm |
| Wheel diameter - pony truck |
114mm |
| Wheel diameter - tender |
275mm |
| Fixed wheelbase |
615mm |
| Water capacity |
120 litres |
| Coal capacity |
35kg |
| Boiler |
| Type |
Briggs |
| Capacity |
30 litres |
| Internal diameter |
200mm |
| Total length |
1200mm |
| Length between tube plates |
843mm |
| Grate size |
300 x 294mm |
| Fire tubes (20 off) |
19mm OD |
| Ash pan |
330 x 320 x 100mm |
I will probably repaint POEM in the same scheme
as VICTORY on the
Bredgar & Wormshill Light Railway:
I may also take the opportunity move the headlight to the
top of the smokebox and to rename her (to PETER after my father).
If I do, I might move the nameplates to the side-tanks.
John Bremner and I spent an hour or so discussing our
discoveries so far on POEM.
- There is some quite bad surface rust under the flare on
the tender sides. This will need to be rubbed down and
repainted.
- John made up a prototype (crude) replacement bracket for
the regulator that swaps the pivot and rod holes around thus
making the regulator work the "correct" way.
- After a quick chat with John he made up a new headlight
bracket to mount it on top of the smokebox.
- The chimney looks slightly too short to my eyes.
- Both John and I agree that the cab sides are too low.
We're looking at options to raise the floor of the cab to
the tops of the frame - about 70mm. This should make the
proportions about right for the Baldwin/ALCO originals.
