Another loco for the Kotanga Tramway.

I'm not so well again lately which isn't helping with making a start on the tramway itself, but is great for building locos and wagons because I can do that on a tray in bed. I was looking around the internet for Lego ideas when I came across this small Garratt loco built by Anthony Sava. He offers plans for quite a few of his locos so I spent $4.00 and purchased a set,
Sava Garratt on flickr

Now the only Garratts to work in New Zealand were the ill-fated double Pacific 3 cylinder ones, BUT in the preservation era (meaning right now) a number of South African Garratts have been imported here for use on enthusiast special trains. If I was to stretch the facts around a little I could say it was quite possible that the Kotanga Tramway has been able to borrow, lend, steal, buy, or otherwise obtain the use of a small Garratt from somebody since the Kotanga Tramway is also a preservation era line.
I particularly liked this Garratt because it uses the same octagonal boiler design that I've pretty much settled on for my own locos, so there will be a definite family resemblance when it's parked on-shed which is a plus. The other thing is that apart from the 'Improved F' and my small Victorian 0-6-0 tank engine I seem to be heading off in the direction of having mainly articulated locos on the Kotanga Tramway. I'm working on a Climax-like 'thing' at the moment as well btw, but it's not being very cooperative unfortunately.
Anthony Sava didn't make his Garratt a powered design, so I'm going to try and fit a mech in somewhere which should keep me amused for a while. As LT says, 'Keep watching', because I'll be reporting progress here.......

LA, I hope that you make a speedy recovery and we look forward to seeing the finished product.

Thanks Brickie This illness is something I live with and some days are better than others. It's not fatal or anything, but it does make me feel really miserable sometimes. Lego is excellent therapy because it helps me keep my mind off feeling grotty and I find building locos and other railway related models from Lego to be like a totally absorbing 3D jigsaw puzzle with the benefit that I end up with a useful item for my layout when it's complete.

My bed is just about totally covered with Lego bricks at the moment as I've been working on finishing off some other railway projects, but when I come to pack it all back into its containers again I'll sort to one side the parts for the Garratt so I can make a start on it perhaps tomorrow afternoon.

Awww but she was so happy when she found that big spanner

Thanks for the good wishes Kaila. Don't worry I manage Ok as I've had this illness for a few years now so I've learned how to work around it and look after myself properly.

Olivia does better with working on locomotives and while i was sorting out bricks for the Garratt she sorted out the problems I'd been having with the new geared locomotive No:4. Not the best photo as my camera battery was nearly flat, but good enough to get the general idea. I need to get three more black wheels though as I've run out of them and had to use some red ones temporarily.