The BIGGEST OO model on the market? - Heljan's impressive Garratt 

LMS ROTATING GARRATT BUNKERS Rotating coal bunkers as fitted to ALL except two of the 33 Garratt's, was a system of automating "coal trimming". The fireman on a coal fired engine often has to climb into the coal bunker to shovel "tons" of coal forward to the front of the tender. So that he can then reach it from the footplate. Coal bunkers as a result often had a floor that partially sloped forward, which encouraged the coal to slide forward as the fireman used the coal nearest to the footplate. But on long tenders the Sloping part was often only near the front. So on the very large Garratt tenders as built, the system of sloping floor was very limited in its help of making coal slide forward. Hence the steam operated rotating drum system, ensured that virtually all the coal would slide forward as required, whenever the drum was given another rotation or two !!! The class was withdrawn between 1955-58. Before the days of the "preservation movement". GARRATT's ALMOST WORLDWIDE ! The Garratt concept originally designed by an Australian called Garratt, was quickly sold to the Beyer Peacock locomotive manufacturer in Manchester UK. The Garratt principle of articulated locomotives was admirably suitable to the problems in many British Empire Colonies & elsewhere. Where lightly laid railway lines meandered into the interior, for the primary purpose of extracting valuable commodities. That would be transported to the nearest coast, so these commodities could then be shipped to Britain. WHY THE "GARRATT" IS SUCH A CLEVER PRINCIPLE ! The problems were the lightly laid tracks, & the nasty curves, to try and avoid expensive structures such as viaducts & tunnels. Hence if you built a steam loco like a "Garratt" with two "engines" (wheels, valve gear & cylinders) on two separated chassis. With girders slung between the chassis's & articulated in three sections. You first cured the problem of axle load on lightly laid tracks, by spreading the weight over a much greater distance. You solved the problems of nasty curves by having two shorter chassis's instead of one extremely long rigid one. You provided huge power by having two chassis's powered by one short but very large diameter boiler. Itself only possible because there were no wheels beneath the central "bridge" girders, where the smokebox boiler & cab are located. Over the two chassis's you then had huge space to provide a large coal bunker, and very large water tanks. As a result more than a THOUSAND Garratts were built to operate in Australasia, Asia, South America, Africa & Europe. Only North America did not have Garratts. In Britain only the LMS type as modelled, and the solitary LNER "Wath Banker" for standard gauge service were built. 34 in total. South Africa was one of the biggest users on both its 3ft 6in gauge main network & 2ft 6in gauge feeder lines. Australia & New Zealand had quite a few. As did places like India, Nepal, Ceylon, Burma, Thailand, Sudan (Desert version), Iran, Turkey, Madagascar, Maritius, Sierra Leone, Northern & Southern Rhodesia, Congo, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Uganda, Mozambique, Angola, Tanganyika, Egypt, Algeria, Libya, Bolivia, Brazil, Columbia, Peru & Argentina, In Europe Spain & Russia in addition to Britain. The most outrageous Garratts were built by the French (under licence from Beyer Peacock) for use in Algeria. They were a huge semi-streamlined 4-6-2+2-6-4 EXPRESS passenger design, that supposedly could streak across the Sahara Desert at reliably recorded speeds of around 80mph !!!

Just running thru your back catalog and came to this. What a stunning loco - and for a measly £90! I’d live to get hold of one of these - or the new LNER one - to see it run round my layout. I’d have to go out and buy a big rake of coal wagons to go with it, of course. Oh dear. What a pity 😊. Keep up the vids Hylt - I know you’re in the land of modelers block right now but your mojo will reappear. Just think of this thing running round with 40+ coal wagons. That’s Inspiration right there!

Stunning video yet again! Started the generator especially so I could watch, lol. Only in SA!

Lovely model, I have one too in LMS livery as well as a DJH kit built South African GCA Class Garratt. Certainly the Suid Afrikaanse Spoorwee was a prolific user of the type! Groeten uit Nederland, Joachim

Wow . First time I’ve seen one running . It looks great

Hey Hylton, liking your channel. I learned about your load shedding issues last week from my SA colleagues, sounds challenging so well done for persevering. Nice video, thanks. David

I think they are developing a model of the LNER Garratt, which is even bigger!

Makes me think I should finish my DJH Garrett model.

Wow Hylt that’s an impressive locomotive. I have never heard of. Garret before, very unusual and looks great on your layout, especially as it has the South African connection. It’s a shame that none were persevered as I bet that would look amazing in real life. Well at least Heljan can allow modelers to bring them to life again. A great purchase and video. All the best Mark

Very nice Hylton...memories of the Citrus trains...Apple express on the "Langkloof" route to Port Elizabeth🎉South Africa..through our stock farm....owned by my late parents John & Miems Lines

I love the Garrett and am looking for one. Good buy. Btw I love Lima locos and have tons of them - perfectly good and simple locos.

They were used extensively here in NSW, Australia, very successfully too over the steep grades we have here.

For me, the Garratt's hold an important place because I grew up within walking distance of Beyer Peacock who made them, and now live in Australia where they still run on preserved lines. I actually live a few Km from the Puffing Billy narrow gauge line which has at least a couple of them in steam. I do hope your Heljan model works well as many folks complain about running issues.

As an American the Garratt is quite literally a foreign concept, but a truly fascinating one. You mentioned that someone does make an expensive model of a South African Garratt, are there any other locos from SA that have models made? They seem to be some very interesting designs, but I don't think I've ever seen models of them, although where I come from even European locomotives are hard to come by.

Really nice addition to the layout! Will we eventually see grain hoppers being banked up the incline to the distillery?

Wow what a great price!!!! Circa £190 secondhand in the UK😂😂😂

Hi Hilton, Your Hailo is way off to the side. Can't you put it above your head. Oh my god, 90 pounds, I mised that one. I only know of one model train shop in Cape Town.

Congrats mate,the Heljan Barratt can be very finnicky and unreliable but yours looks great 👍Runs nicely too.A great addition to your fleet. Love the Boilerplate get it on the wall asap.All the best from the UK 🇬🇧

Nice loco, get yourself a 12v car battery. If you keep it charged, it will power a train layout and a 12 volt light bulb or 2.

New Zealand only ever had three Garratts, and they were a complete failure for many reasons, in stark contrast to the Australian and South African examples. Incidentally, at least three foreign Garratts have ended up being shipped to New Zealand in preservation (one of them is GMAM No. 4083, and another is a 15A class from Zimbabwe). As much as I'd like to get an LMS Garratt myself, she looks too big and impractical for my set-up. I think the largest steam engine I've got is either the LMS Turbomotive or a BR Standard 9F.

its ok. but wait till Big Bertha comes out, in model form next year

Hi. I suggest not using the dum dum dum background music. I'm in my 70's and for us oldies it makes it difficult to distinguish what you are saying and is also rather annoying. Stopped me subscribing. No doubt a few will tell you that's no great loss. They are entitled to their opinion, just like I am.

This model has been reviewed any times IT IS NOT a good model I bought two and ended up sending them back they were both unreliable and had trouble traversing point work IF YOU ARE prepared to work 9n them their faults can be ironed out but be prepared