In the national collection is an operable model (figure 71) of a British
locomotive of the period of about 1905. Made by the well known English
model makers Carson and Co., and given in 1933 to the Museum by Frank A.
Wardlaw and Frank A. Wardlaw, Jr., the model (USNM 310584) represents
the Caledonian Railway Co. _No. 903_, a 4-6-0 with inside cylinders. The
length of the locomotive and the 6-wheeled tender is 45 inches and the
gauge is 3¼ inches. A locomotive of similar appearance, though not
necessarily identical, is described and illustrated in the British
technical journal “Engineering” for August 31, 1906 (p. 299).
The elder Wardlaw stated that the model was built by Carson for Sir
Henry Lopes, and that he acquired it from Carson when Sir Henry turned
it in on a new one. Wardlaw believed this gasoline-fueled model to have
been the first model locomotive ever built with a flash boiler.
A letter from James C. Crebbin in the July 27, 1933, issue of the
British journal “The Model Engineer and Practical Electrician,” contains
the following statement:
When I was chairman of Messrs. Carson and Co., the late Mr. James
Carson and I collaborated in the development of flash steam model
locomotives.
With the exception of the very small model L. & N. W. “Experiment”
loco which had only one coil, and a methylated vaporising burner, the
boilers had longitudinal coils running the full length of the boiler,
and were fired by means of a Carson Primus type burner. The pressure
container was a drum inside the tender, and was surrounded by water in
the usual square or oblong tank. This water fed the geared pump, which
was driven from the second tender axle.
The most successful of this type was a ¾-inch-scale 4-4-0 Caledonian,
built for Sir Henry Lopes. Mr. Carson always declared that this engine
was the fastest he had ever seen, and during tests he carried out, on
Sir Henry’s track, never dared to give the model more than
half-throttle, no matter what load the engine was hauling.
Mr. Wardlaw, of New York, and a “M. E.” Exhibition Championship Cup
Holder, has a similar locomotive which, I believe, is destined for
exhibition in some museum in U. S. A.
[Illustration: Figure 71.—Operable model of a British locomotive of
about 1905.]