Nellie

[Bonzo]

Before WWII, Rowland Emmett perceived "The Far Tottering and Oystercreek Railway" and it was illustrated in Punch Magazine.
I made this model in 1951, the subject of a cutout book published by Puffin at 2s6d (12.5p). A 15" gauge version of the engine ran at Battersea Park London as part of the Festival of Britain in that year.
I visited the exhibition with my father and remember being disappointed that it was not steam powered. Apparently, a diesel electric set was used from a war-surplus searchlight generator.

[Wyvern]

Fascinating story and model, thanks for sharing!

Wyvern

[southwestforests]

Models of Rowland's trains, and freelanced derivatives of them, are popular with railway modelers in the Gn15 scale/gauge combination. Looking at the tiny boilers on a lot of the designs I winder if they could have produced sufficient steam for haulage of anything for any time longer than a few minutes.

[Vermin_King]

Interesting model. Thanks

[Tom Greensfelder]

I have a copy of the paper model and would be willing to upload scans if there's interest and the moderators will permit it. It dates from 1951.

[Madbrit]

Tom,
The original book is a rarity and I've been given to understand that there isn't a copy in the Penguin/Puffin archives. I managed to buy a copy last year (for considerably more than 12.5p). There might just be a copyright problem with uploading scans so it might be provident to check with Penguin before doing so, or offering to do so.

Derek

[Tom Greensfelder]

Thanks, Derek. Surprising they don't have a copy. I guess we're both lucky. I believe that books enter the public domain in the US after 50 years if their copyright hasn't been renewed, but that wouldn't necessarily apply for England. So, I'll let it go for now.

[Bonzo]

I have now found out that The Rowland Emett Society website offers a free download of the book in pdf format. They say that they have permission to do so from the publishers.

[Zakopious]

It reminds me of the Toonerville Trolley which was an important part of the comics when I was a child.

[JohnM]

I've had a look around the Rowland Emett Society website, but didn't find any downloads on offer. I didn't take the 'Join' step though, so I guess it was behind an 'only open to members' link, like the Books page.

OK I've found it. ... It was given out with the April 2016 members news letter. Can't actually access that without joining ... So I've applied to join ... Awaiting email. ... Cool, instant reply! I could be in.