Welsh Pony
My 5 inch gauge petrol mechanical locomotive "Welsh Pony" on shed.
She is powered by a Suffolk Ironfoundary petrol engne and has a home made gearbox using a set of outboard motor bevel gears that provide forward, neutral and reverse drive. Gear selecton is interlocked to prevent it being accidentally changed unless the transmission mounted hand brake is fully on. Drive is taken to the six sprung driving wheels via a jack shaft (second axle from the front). The brass radiator is non-functonal and is made from a copper radiator core in a home made brass casing.
It got named 'Welsh Pony' after I spotted the smart brass nameplates at the Festiniog Railway shop in Portmadoc. I thought it a most fittng name for a chunky little Welsh born work horse.
Welsh Pony's first day at the Joys of Life Railway originally named the PGR (Penrhyn Garden Railway)
The loco was built some years ago to run on the fabulous 5 inch gauge railway at the Joys of Life Visitor Centre near Bethesda, North Wales UK. The site was sold in 2000 and the railway slowly slipped back into decay until the recent hard work of a small team of mainly young enthusiasts who decided to breath new life into it.
See the JLR in the Navigation column >
http://www.thejoysoflife.co.uk/about/railway.htm
http://www.freewebs.com/joflrailway/
http://joflrailway.blogspot.com/
The present owners have been most co-operative and have let us refurbish the trackbed, track, signal boxes, point linkages, etc. So enthusiastic have the owners become that they have recently purchased a new battery locomotive and extra rolling stock. The original railway was left to them complete with a Glyn Valley Tramway battery loco (seen behind Welsh Pony in the heading photo) and a considerable collection of rolling stock, block instruments and mechanical semaphore signals which are now being gradually refurbished. Many engines from around the country have visited the railway at special events including a large model of the Penrhyn Quarry loco Charles. The original loco lives only a few miles away at the Penrhyn Castle Industrial Locomotive Museum near Bangor and used to run from the near by Penrhyn Quarries to Bangor. As the quarry is just across the road from the Joys of Life it is most appropriate to see a fifth scale version running so near its original route! A new page will soon be added to include early photos of the Joys of Life little PGR (Penrhyn Garden Railway)
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