Steam Engines by Rail

[drmditch]

I have a Langley kit for a Fowler BB1 Steam Ploughing Engine, and have been trying to work out a suitable vehicle to carry it on my railway.

The only pictures I can find are one in Tatlow V1, of a Fowler Ploughing Engine on a GNR 15 ton machinery wagon, and one rather hazy picture of a Steam Road Roller being loaded onto a Lowmac (details unclear but possibly of GCR descent) at Warcop in the 1950s. (In Peter Walton's book on the Stainmore lines.)

Neither of my two Lowmacs (Ex GER 14 ton MAC K or my recently completed ex NER 20 ton MAC L) seem to be suitable for the 20 and 1/2 ton Ploughing Engine. It might be suitable for the MAC L loadwise, but it is too long to fit comfortably. The only solution I can think of is to build one of the NER 35 ton Traction Engine wagons (of which four were built and stationed in Leeds, presumably for the transport of Fowlers products), or a 35 ton Rectank wagon.

The websites I've located for Steam Ploughing suggest that Ploughing Contractors moved their engines by road, but presumably there must have been some long distance travel by rail. Road Rollers also would have been needed all over the country.

Does anyone know of any information and/or photographs showing such loads?

(Edit -07/02/2014 - Have found some data which suggests that the Langley kit may be slightly over scale. Since the original BB1 would have been a close fit to the loading gauge anyway this will be a real nuisance! The only vehicle I could make to carry it would be an NER A13 bogie machinery wagon, of which there was only one, and will be really complicated to make!)