Southwold Railway

Hi - as far as I know, all CT locos were diesel, including the Hunslet rack locos (we have one whihc worked above ground, an RFS 4WDH - it is now up for sale, in fact may be already sold). Still, if they also had BEs on 900mm, that'd be interesting, as with the wide wheels they are JUST possible to accommodate on three-foot, by adjusting pointwork check rails. James

 

James, thanks for putting me straight. I just assumed those working underground would be battery.

 

Wouldn’t using 900 gauge locos on 3 foot gauge track make them liable to yaw on straight track and moving the check rails potentially create problems if running true 3 foot gauge locos and stock? Check rails have a purpose.

 

Yes, it's not absolutely ideal - but needs must, sometimes! The RFS loco we have (900mm gauge) has its wheel back-to-backs set at 841mm, which is only 7mm (and therefore 3.5mm each side) narrower than the Southwold Railway's original 848mm. We have been running this loco together with three-foot-gauge stock on our workshop test track (which intentionally includes a sharpish point and some very sharp curves) for a while - it's a matter of adjusting both wing rail and check rail distances to compromise. However, now we are selling the RFS, we can re-adjust the checks and wings to our wider B to Bs - the Royal Navy wagons we are using have considerably narrower wheels than the original SR stock, so give us less leeway.
James

 

Not really relevant to the thread but as a point of accuracy, perhaps half of the narrow gauge locos used on the UK side of the Channel Tunnel contract were combined battery electric / ohw electric, including all but two of the twenty rack locos. Only one or two survived scrapping at the end of the contract. Even if there were any still kicking around I suspect they would have been somewhat over powered and over weight for you; if I recall correctly they started at 170hp or so, and went up to 350hp for the rack locos.