Meet The Rat!

The Rat (numbered 25 in the MDLR Stock List because Class 25s were known as "Rats") was one of those bonkers ideas modellers get from time to time. I bought one of these with the express intention of causing havoc on occasions at garden railway meetings and creating a diversion when things get boring at exhibitions!

The underpinnings were very simple - an IP Engineering Lister mechanism, a THREE battery box power unit (because I wanted it to be FAST (though I can substitute a 2 battery pack for running on small layouts like Flagg Fluorspar).............

Once the mech was made up, it was glued to the bottom of a very crude plywood "platform"..................

............... with the battery box Velcroed to the top (so it can be swapped if needs be) and a simple on/off switch. The other strips of Velcro.................

............... are to hold the rat down to the platform. Oddly enough, this was the hardest part! The self-adhesive Velcro wouldn't stick to the velour and the adhesive gunged up the needle when I tried to sew the Velcro on. The solution? Clean the adhesive off with thinners!

All-in-all, a fun little project which will hopefully cause HAVOC! Watch out for The Rat - coming to a railway near YOU!

(talking of which, here's the first video, taken at Narrow Gauge North..................)

....................... and here's the second, taken on the Westfield Railway............................

On April 1st (how appropiate - it was "Model of the Moth" on the Association Web Site that day) The Rat visited the Paddock Railway at Hampton Loade on the Severn Valley Railway.......................

On April 4th saw me in Doncaster..........................

.......... and 26th April saw me let loose at Peterborough - first on Saed Y Parc and Dixon Green (the biggest layout in the Show)................

.......... and later on Chalkwood (when the operators had gone home)................

.......... and finally on my own layout, Flagg Fluorspar.

May saw a visit to Ian Shields Ashfields Light Railway (video by Rod Nipper)

2nd June was the occasion of a visit to Bob Newton's line at Rainworth..........................

............. and the following week saw a visit to the Sherwood Oaks Light Railway at Mansfield.