THE High Legh Miniature Railway, Knutsford, put a new loco into traffic in late August after a long and complex build. An 0-4-0+0-4-0 battery electric Garratt was completed and underwent a successful test run with 11 coaches at the 7¼ in gauge line on August 16.
Construction was started by the late Arnold Bimpson of Maghull in 1993 as a petrol-hydraulic sit-in loco for Pugneys Light Railway, Wakefield. Problems arose with the rolling chassis and the project passed to several others, ending up with Austin Moss at Windmill Farm, Lancashire.
The‘Bimpson Garratt’was bought by Caleb Lovegrove in February and by March the trailer load of parts was in the workshop. With friend Patrick Mullee they attended to the power bogies, first making them battery-electric powered with a 12v motor on each.
The superstructure was constructed from various items – the‘firebox’from a lorry fuel tank and the cab from an old boat hull, for example. In typical Bimpson style it was a real‘scrapheap challenge’but many people seeing it believe it to be an actual steam locomotive.