16" Steam Trains: Whiskey River Railway

[Bob]

Video by The Steam Channel
Description:
Climb aboard and enjoy the sights from Railroad Day, 2015 at the Whiskey River Railway at Little Amerricka. This video was made near the shop facility and shows the morning prep work and equipment maneuvers necessary to get the trains ready for the day's operations. This is the first of 4 videos from Railroad Day, Enjoy! Thanks for watching The Steam Channel!

 

[Damon Hill]

Brief glimpse of a 16" gauge 2-8-8-2(!) in the shed. What's the story on that beastie?

 

[Bob]

I don't know the story on that one. They build their own equipment as well as build for other light railways. They have a small website here, http://www.jvlnet.com/~gardyloo/ but no mention of the 2-8-8-2.

Oddly, Steamlocomotive.com has the comment "Being re-gauged to 16 in gauge". Now if they were building it for their own railway, obviously they'd get the gauge right. Did they build it for somebody else (15" is a more common light railway gauge than 16"). Did they acquire it from some other operation? I don't have any info on the history of that loco.

 

[Bob]

This discussion talks about a 2-8-8-4 (not 2-8-8-2) that was built by Ralph MacAllister from Boulder Colorado and eventually sold to Lee Merrick. They note it was patterned after the D&RGW's 2-8-8-2's, so I'm going to guess, and it is a guess, that this is the same loco and they modified the trailing truck.

http://ngdiscussion.net/phorum/read.php?1,86828,86861

That would also explain why it looks so different than most of what they build. Like the famed Cagneys, the Merrick Locomotive Work locos are built for operation, not as exact scale models. This is most notable in the fact that the majority of the boilers do not taper. They also tend to be a bit plain, with few accessories on the boiler. It gives a nice clean look to them.

 

[Damon Hill]

Yes, there were several good-looking locomotives; I think my favorite was one with polished wood cab and running boards along the boiler. For a "scale" locomotive, that 2-8-8-4 is very ambitious and could probably pull their entire collection with ease, provided that apparently rigid frame didn't derail on curves or switches.