Sweet Pea 0-4-0T NG Contractor's Loco

A free-lance design by Jack Buckler but very heavily influenced by 2' gauge Bagnall practice. Designed to be as simple as possible to build the basic loco design features a marine type boiler and Hackworth valve gear. The very simplicity of the design lends itself to modification and there are a wide variety of variations of this very popular loco. As it is based on a 2' narrow-gauge locomotive it builds into a comparatively large model in 5" gauge, weighing around 65kg giving good adhesion.

Jack Buckler revisited the Hackworth gear design and published further drawings in Engineering in Miniature (UK) magazine in 1999 and 2008. Simon Bowditch designed an improved Hackworth gear using Charlie Dockstader's program and published details with a dimensioned drawing in Engineering in Miniature (UK) magazine, Volume 30, Issue number 12, June 2009.

There are a number of designs for alternative valve gears by Simon Bowditch covering Woolfe, JMG, Helmholtz, Walshaerts, and Strong, valve gears. These were published in Engineering in Miniature Magazine during 2009 in a series of comprehensive articles in the order listed above commencing with Volume 31, number 1, July 2009 and ending in Volume 31, Number 5, November 2009.

Nigel Thompson designed and described all the fittings including dimensioned drawings required to convert Sweet Pea to Walshaerts valve gear using Simon Bowditch's designs in an article in Engineering in Miniature (UK) magazine, Volume 34, Issue 12, June 2013.

Jack Buckler further developed the design into Sweet William for 7 1/4 or 7 1/2 inch gauges, and Sweet Violet for 3 1/2 inch gauge. He also designed a six-coupled version with improved stability called Metre Maid.

Drawings and castings are available from Blackgates Engineering.

A full construction series written by the designer Jack Buckler, including drawings was published in Engineering in Miniature (UK) magazine commencing in Volume 3, Issue Number 5, October 1981, page 144. There is also a comprehensive construction book written by Jack Buckler containing full drawings called 'Build your own Steam Locomotive, Sweet Pea', available from TEE publishing.



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