Builder/Type: Hudson ‘Go-go Tractor’
Works number/year built: 39924/1924
Previous bases: New to Lanarkshire County Council, Cairngryffe Quarry near Biggar; Abbey Light Railway; Welsh Highland Heritage Railway; Statfold Barn Railway.
Notes on the prototype: The Go-go Tractor and the Muir Hill are basically standard Fordson tractors mounted on railway chassis. When built, the tractor unit was available from Fordson with a 2 forward, 2 reverse gearbox to give equal performance in both directions. The Go-go tractor arrived at the railway as a kit of parts for the chassis with some very rusty remants of the bodywork. From this is was rebuilt, but using an ex-agricultural tractor with 3 forward and just one reverse gear as that is what was available (the tractor has also spent many years stood in the compound beside the shed, and was a restoration project in itself!). This meant the loco was very good at going up the line, but painfully slow at returning. Also, being powered by petrol and paraffin, it was also quite thirsty. Therefore the loco was only used for demonstration during group visits.
Notes on the model: The tractor part of the model is from a Duncan models kit (kindly given to me by ex-ALR volunteer Andy Jagger). The chassis sides are 3D printed to my own design and the canopy is a mixture of brass and plasticard. My old colleague Bob Phelps expertly did the lining with a bow pen for me. Originally it ran with limited success on a KBscale CH03 chassis, but this has been replaced with a much better running chassis made by Mark Clarke / Locos ‘n’ Stuff that is identical to the chassis used on Druid and Odin. As the prototype wasn’t air braked it top-and-tailed with Druid whenever it hauled the passenger train during special events and openings. As the chassis are the same, this is also possible in model form.
