I started working on this locomotive, a long time ago, while in university, in 1981 !
After I had done my first attempts at Model Engineering, by building a vertical steam engine, a Stuart V10. See the Stuart Website.
This went rather well, working on the castings on my first lathe, an Emco Unimat 3.
As a next step I started on this locomotive.
The locomotive is designed as a narrow-gauge, contractor’s locomotive. These were produced, a.o., by Orenstein & Koppel, and used on construction sites, landscaping, etc.
The design was published in the Dutch magazine “De Modelbouwer” in the early 1980’s under the name Gea/Gezina. Drawings for it are available from their archives. (details to be added).
When I started to build the locomotive, I decided to build two copies. One I planned to keep, and the other finished one, I planned to sell at the end.
And my original timeline for the project was 4 years:
- A year for the frame, wheels,
- A year for the cylinders, moving parts
- A year for the boiler
- Final year for upper construction, small parts, etc.
Well, after 29 years this planning was apparently not correct!
In this period many others things happened off course in my life, but in between I kept on producing bits and pieces for both locomotives.
For one, first named “Loc A”, but now named Alberdina, I assembled all parts into a working model. For the second one, “Loc B”, most parts have been made, but not assembled yet.