3 1/2" gauge Caledonian Dunalastair III.

I was lucky enough to purchase this model at a railway sale in June 2019 and it comes with an interesting archive, showing it was originally built between 1901 - 1906, by William Phelps of Treherbert, and exhibited at The Empire Exhibition at Wembley in 1924-5. The archive says an article appeared about it in The Model Engineer for January 29th 1925, volume 52, issue no. 1239. Can anyone supply me with a photocopy of this article? (All costs paid of course.)

Hello Michael,

I did have access to a full set of ME's, but don't any longer, but your example is no doubt based on the E L Pearce loco described in ME in 1901 in what was the first 'sort of' construction series of a miniature loco.

Phelps of Treherbert doesn't ring any bells with me, despite having a long association with South Wales.

Cheers,

Julian

Good morning, Julian,

Many thanks for getting in touch about this. I do have copies of M.E. for 1901 with the articles by E.L.Pearce and there is no doubt my 'Dunalastair' was built using this set of drawings. William Phelps actually has his own story, which I'm writing up for an article about him, and the engine, for the Caledonian Association magazine. In addition to the 'Dunalastair', he also built a fully working model of a South Wales coal mine which the coal owners used for their exhibit at The Empire Exhibition. It weighed two tons! The story is an interesting one but now forgotten.

Best wishes, Michael.