My Standard Goods Fleet Part 3: The Laird Crosshead Engines: 5154 and 5340

5154

The idea of converting the ‘Alligator’ crosshead (standard on the Eureka 50 class) to a Laird crosshead came about towards the end of the construction of the 55 class. When I was searching around for a number for my 55 class, I came across a photo on Weston Langford’s website (www.westonlangford.com) of 5154 descending the horseshoe curve at Locksley. The Laird crosshead was quite prominent, along with the ‘Morts Dock’ (3650 gallon turret) tender trailing behind. ”That would be a unique loco to have.” I thought. So, when the 55 was completed, I thought ”Well, I don’t need another loco, so why not convert one of my existing goods engines for this project?”

I had a stock standard 50 class that I had numbered 5118. The standard 3650 gallon tender it came with would be easy to convert to a ‘Morts Dock’ turret tender. AMRM Issue 153 (December 1988) had a plan and an article about this type of tender ( by Phil Collins). The procedure seemed simple enough,