OO/HO African profile model railway in Kenya: 14 - the trains

[John Ashworth]

I've finally got enough track laid to run trains, mainly to test the track-laying and wiring. The two circuits, upper and lower level, are working fine with most locos and stock, although I may need to run an extra power feed to the far end, which is nearly 9m from the feed. The spiral between the two levels works, but not all the locos and rolling stock are happy with it, so I think I need to relay it. Some locos run better than others.

Let's start with a good runner, the SAR/SAS Class 34 diesel, with an 8-car SAR/SAS main line passenger train. Loco is made by Frateschi and coaches by SARM.

[John Ashworth]

Another beautiful SAR/SAS locomotive is class 15F no 3117, built for me by Adrian Hill of Scalecraft in Cape Town. This locomotive was detailed from photos of the actual 3117, which was then being operated by FOTR. I'm proud to have a model of a locomotive which I helped to restore, and which I have driven and fired.

In this photo she's hauling a water tank and a short freight train.

Note the all-white crew - well, this is a South African loco on a layout set in the 1960s and '70s...

[John Ashworth]

Another very good runner. This is a BR Class 15, made by Heljan, actually not a very successful loco in real life. I used to see them as a kid passing through Ilford, out of Stratford depot. Of course it's not authentic for Afrca, but a lot of the diesels built in Britain for African railways (I'm thinking Kenya, Sudan, Rhodesia...) looked a bit like some of the early BR diesels.

This one is hauling the daily fish train. It was common in the old days for a fish train to run as an express each day from the coast to the capital and other inland cities, where the rich and powerful needed their fresh seafood.

[John Ashworth]

The station pilot. I honestly can't remember where this British loco came from. Bachmann, perhaps?

[John Ashworth]

This mixed train consists of an SAR/SAS suburban set plus a milk van. The milk van is kept cool by hollow walls filled with charcoal, with water dripping into them from the roof tanks. FOTR has one, in running condition, another vehicle I'm proud to have played a role in restoring. The rolling stick is by SARM.

This train is in the low-level fiddle yard.

[John Ashworth]

Two locos which unfortunately don't run too well. The Lima SAR/SAS 5E, which must have been hauled dead into the loco depot as it is far from any overhead wires, I got very cheap on eBay. The Heljan BR class 23 is also a poor runner, which shouldn't be the case as I bought it new. It's another British loco which is reminiscent of early British-built African diesels (a Sudanese 1200 class, perhaps?), but I think I'll have to replace it.

[John Ashworth]

This is going to be the breakdown train when I finally get my Hornby steam crane. My brother-in-law got me one cheap on eBay and is holding it for me in UK until I can arrange to have it brought to Kenya. A couple of blokes were due to come out in the next month or so, but that's all on hold now with the Coronavirus pandemic. One day...

The loco is an SAR/SAS class 33 by Scalecraft of Cape Town, but it's an unpowered dummy. Nice looking model.

[John Ashworth]

Two other passenger trains.

The first is a "heritage" dining train, made up of a couple of Pullman cars and one or two others. It will run dining trains for the punters.

The second is a rake of BR Mk 2 InterCity coaches. Not authentic to Africa, but I have seen blue and white coaches somewhere (Uganda, perhaps?), so this can be a 2nd class inter-city train.

I've found the older Hornby coaches don't likethe Peco points much.

[John Ashworth]

I have a British Garratt, made by Heljan. The early versions of this model were notorious for problems, and unfortunately mine is no exception. Only one of the two motors was running. I've dismantled it and am now in the slow process of putting it back together again. Both motors work when I attach wires directly to them, so I'm basically cutting out all the original wiring and just by-passing it all.

My Garratt already has a Sikh driver, in deference to Kirpal Singh and the other Indian loco drivers in East Africa, although he used to drive the mighty Class 59 no 5918 'Mount Gelai', not a humble 2-6-0+0-6-2.

The driver was created by taking the head of a Sikh soldier and sticking it onto a standard footplate crew figure.

[John Ashworth]

I've now found the original box for the small tank engine. It's by Bachmann, and it's a Webb coal tank.

[John Ashworth]

Footplate detail. The loco is Hornby Class J15 0-6-0 no 5444 in LNER black. A nice little runner.

[John Ashworth]

The J15 0-6-0. You can see where I've removed the LNER logo from the side of the tender. I still need to remove the scrape marks, possibly by weathering the tender.

[John Ashworth]

A South African brake caboose stands in the headshunt with the British class 23.

[John Ashworth]

The luxury dining train now has five Pullman cars plus a GWR crew coach. A friend gave me some old model railway stuff which included three rather scruffy Pullman cars. I repainted the roofs, added some passengers inside, and they've fitted nicely into this train.

The train is standing in Platform 2, but in fact I've removed the platform as I intend to replace it with MDF.