It is not often that Bill gets to haul the train at the National Railway Museum, Port Dock. This is because the locomotive is usually based at Semaphore, except for its annual inspection and maintenance over winter each year where it is brought back to Port Dock. Witness this uncommon occasion in this video from many fascinating camera angles, done with a GoPro clamped to the locomotive.
Bill was built in 1992 by contractor Willis Light Engineering to an enlarged version of Keith Watson's 7 1/4" gauge "Lil Lima" 2-4-0 design. It retains all the features of it's smaller counterpart, including the Briggs boiler design and front end throttle. It also features a modified version of Hackworth valve gear with scissor arms instead of sliding blocks. The engine was built for use on the Semaphore to Fort Glanville railway and is more than capable of hauling it's rake of 5 cars there, as it has done for over 30 years.
The locomotive has a working pressure of 140psi and a tractive effort of 1,402.6lbs. It has a cylinder bore of 130mm, stroke of 180mm, and features 400mm diameter drivers.
This video contains a complete trip (two laps) for each camera angle:
00:00 Cab Ride
08:41 Motion
16:02 Cab Windows
23:55 Track View
Apologies for YouTube's poor video compression at some points during the motion segment, which was completely out of my hands as the video file on my PC does not have such issues.
