The Gigantic Locomotive Company has announced that they have launched a Frame Appeal for locomotive Colossus.
In 1913, railway enthusiast Captain JEP Howey commissioned Bassett-Lowke to built the second Pacific locomotive for Britain. Captain Howey was going to use this locomotive on his private railway at Staughton Manor, near Northampton, with the locomotive being named John Anthony.
The design was an enlarged version of the Class 30 ‘Atlantic’ locomotive design by Henry Greenly.
During World War I, the stock from Staughton was sold to the Ravenglass and Eskdale Railway. After returning to England, Captain Howey set his sights high and ended up building the Romney, Hythe and Dymchurch Railway.
From 1916-1927, Colossus ran in the Lake District, however, due to the design, added to the heavy workload, the engine became worn out. The locomotive was then scrapped, and any useable parts were used on River Mite.
Fast forward to four years ago, a small group acquired drawings and information about Colossus and had the intention of starting a ‘New Build’ project.
As well as having access to drawings, there are still Bassett-Lowke Class 30 Atlantic’s still in use today.
Design work and small component manufacture has begun, but the foundation for a locomotive is the main frames.
So this year, the Gigantic Locomotive Company are launching their Frame Appeal.
The cost of a frame for a 15″ gauge locomotive is less than a full-size locomotive, so the group are looking for 60 supporters to donate £60 each, either as a single payment or as six payments of £10.
Each supporter will have their names stamped on the frames, and will receive a certificate, a Jonathan Clay print of Colossus and a newsletter detailing progress on the locomotive.
For more information, please email them on [email protected]
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Responses
I hope this project goes well.
fantastic news hope it goesto ravenglass
I had a call from Marks teacher who tells me his joined up writing is improving all the time lol
I think we can ignore this illiterate rant from Mark. Apart from his version of the English language being hard to comprehend, if anyone wishes to donate to such a commendable project, why not??
Well said Bill.
This is a great site for information but it does seem to attract more than its fair share of juvenile, semi-literate and mentally defective commenters.
Exactly my sentiments
These locos will far outlive us all and kids of future generations have a thirst for knowledge and you can’t stand over a full size and understand the workings
Go for it and help future generations to get a feel for heavy engineering it doesn’t come out of a plastic box from Amazon it’s real
Apologies for rant but the guys message was way off the rails
John
Mark’s comment is in English? Could have fooled me.
The article clearly says 15inch and I would have thought that many enthusiasts would know that as the original locomotive ran on the Ravenglass and Eskdale Railway from the first world war until the nineteen twenties it would need to be 15inch gauge
Am confused is thier ment to be a standard gauge new build or miniature build if so it would be hardly colossus huge big etc i would have thought a standard gauge build would bring in more press and more curiosity from the general public after all why make some miniature locomotive that would only break down all the time that’s just asking for people’s money to be of no use ones again in the end talk about time repeating it self again what didn’t work in the beginning with the first locomotive should be a enough of a insensitive to bin this pointless project of building a miniature locomotive that will only be of no use ones again when it breaks down I just hope you would refund the people back their money if that where to happen
Do you have any idea what you a talking about? The original loco was not a failure, it stood up to years of heavy use before it was scrapped.
Anyone with the slightest amount of knowledge about steam railways would know that Bassett Lowke did not make standard guage locos and that both the RHDR and the R&E are narrow guage railways.
Why didn’t you make it clear from the outset that you were talking about a scale model?