NG15 120, where is it?

Ta Stokepro.

 

the VoR has two overbridges, the bridge to which you suggest and the bridge which is above the west end set of run round points at Devils Bridge. what you fail to remember is the short headshunts at both Aberystwyth and Devils Bridge which I suggest are only 45-50ft in length... so I doubt 121 will be going up the Rheidol on passenger trains.

 

Just to clarify, that was a flippant remark when the general consensus was that it was going to Collection X, and I questioned the legitimacy of it being "restored...with the intention of eventual use on WHR Ltd services" bearing in mind how often something comes back out of Collection X. No need to get tetchy

 

I was not suggesting that, in reality, any NG15 will be seen on services in the Rheidol Vale. Merely answering another poster's idle question as to whether they would fit on the VoR, to which I responded that loading gauge wouldn't be an issue but I didn't know about curves. What I didn't say was that I doubted it would manage the curves, as that would have been speculation. I did indeed forget the overbridge at Devil's Bridge. I admit that the headshunts didn't occur to me.

This was all idle thought you understand - I wouldn't even call it speculation. Just a very very gentle 'what if' scenario.

 

Most British Narrow Gauge lines tend to have tight curves somewhere by default as if the terrain was less difficult they would probably have been built as standard gauge, so anything long wheelbase generally poses a problem at most places.

 

Is 120 one of the two stored in a barn in Hampshire? No, not Surrey (collection X) but further south. I've often wondered which two they are in the barn.

 

Last known status below. None appear to be in Hampshire, unless the exmoor, brecon or rampton one has moved there to be with 120??

NG15s

17 - sandstone, working condition
18 - USA
19 - sandstone 'derelict'
117 - used on apple express (AE) in 1990s, ‘used for parts’
118 - australia, has been in service
119 - in operation on AE now stored
120 - was at WHHR, removed to private UK site
121 - owned by Phyllis Rampton NG Trust or Peter Rampton himself
122 - museum Outeniqua SA
123 - australia, operational
124 - dismantled at Humewood Road but not scrapped?
132 - scrapped
133 - WHR stored at Dinas
134 - WHR under restoration
135 - Exmoor stored
136 - sandstone being restored owned by a swiss man
144 - scrapped
145 - scrapped
146 - Brecon Mountain
147 - plinthed at Avontuur
148 - scrapped

 

The NG15s had a Krauss(?) truck on the leading driving axle, supposedly to allow them to negotiate tighter curves, though how tight I don't know. As for the boiler on 120, the plate on it shows it actually came from a different loco and was made about 1938 IIRC. When 120 was brought to the UK it was described as being the best condition of the NG15s available.

 

The mystery surrounding 120 remains. It was not listed (121 and 146 were) when the Peter Rampton list was published by the VofR shortly after Peter sadly died - see https://issuu.com/rheidolrailway/docs/issue_5a_-_2019__hr_

but 120 is listed as an engine based in Surrey and part of the rampton collection in the new book “Garratts and Kalaharis of the WHR” revised edition 2022 page 149 just published edited by Peter Johnson.

anyone know what’s the full story here? Thanks Colin