I really love miniature engines, there is just something so fascinating about seeing a tiny thing work just like a standard engine would. The Tinkerbell engine is one of my favourites, i mean if you don't smile when looking at this thing you haven't got a heart.

That giggle when Lawrie blew the first whistle 👌 He gets to do this all the time, yet he still reacts how I would if I ever got to blow a steam whistle.

Love the controls: "Darling have you seen our steak knives recently?" "Errrmm ... no dear."

Dawww she's precious! I love the yellow livery, looks sharp. The fact she's a collection of random non-locomotive odds and ends is the best.

My 18th birthday was a driver experience day with Talos, all my mates behind me on the carriages. Was the best birthday EVER - a few years late am now building my own 7 1/4" loco.

[Former MVR driver] We routinely change the water on the small engines to reduce priming. I suspect Tink was left empty as it's not routinely used. Normally, when filling the boiler, you would continue cleaning out the smokebox and other tasks, before panicking when you realise you've over filled the boiler! EDIT: Also, my regular engine used to be Hartfield (tank engine with a roof). I can confirm, on hot days, you cooked! It was a lot more spacious and comfortable day to day than Tink though. On wet days, there wasn't anything to stop a stream of water from the wheels being squirted into the cab, so you ended up with soaked feet and generally soaked through. Sad to have left the railway behind, but needs must.

Tinkerbell’s origin reminds me of Ephiram Shay. It is, essentially; ‘Man DIYs train and revolutionizes specialized railways’.

Ah, Tinkerbell, the grand dame of 7 & 1/4 inch gauge. If I ever get the machinery, I'd very much like to build an engine like her. A lot of the design philosophy to build her just makes it easier all 'round to build a locomotive using off the shelf parts instead of having to machine them, also makes for an engine that's designed to go work all day instead of being a scale model. Ball valve for a regulator, roller bearings instead of plain ones, car piston rings for the cylinders, a marine boiler and firebox to eliminate the need for staybolts, etc. I'd be sorely wishing I could take 'er or one like her home with me!

It's a very different experience when you go to tell off your driver for rudely using up all your steam, and you end up yelling at yourself.

I love the whole minimal railway concept. They are not models but working small locomotives and trains. They can do a good honest days work too!!

Gosh, it looks like a busy day! Those trains are full.

'Miniatures' really do surprise in their performance. I was born and brought up within spitting distance of the Leyland Model Engineers base at Worden Park and watched it evolve from the early 60's to today and owning a loco myself. Not the lightest 70 yr old around but my 3 1/2" 0-4-0 Large boilered 'Titch' some times performs way beyond what you'd think it should!! Keep up the good work..🚂🚃👍😀🇬🇧

Excellent. I once drove a Tinkerbell around Moors Valley with no train behind and I had to keep stopping to build up pressure. It was embarrassing. But no train meant no exhaust to pull the fire so it kept dying

This railway is my childhood. I vividly recall going on the train, going to the massive terminal hub and then getting off to go home after playing in the adventure playground. Ice cream was a very big requirement

I would love to have this gauge train on a large property. I personally would want to make it practical like having tracks go around the whole property and build the tracks like giant model train tracks so changing or adding rail would be easy.

One of the best times I've had driving was when I was part of a 7.25" gauge society. They had a Tinkerbell with "massive" cylinders and it could pull 8 loaded coaches, uphill, at a little under 50% regulator and at about 15% cut off, without breaking a sweat. I miss it loads!

33:08, that point. That understanding of the appeal of a miniature engine. I feel that too, and it is rather easy to explain these days for me too. With a standard gauge, or even just a narrow gauge engine, you stand in front of it, in all its steaming glory, and you have that craving, that desire to own one yourself, but that small, nagging voice at the back of your head keeps whispering "Where do you get the money for it? Where would you store it, run it, service it?". But a miniature engine? A 7 1/4 inch loco, like little Tinkerbell here? That voice is silent. No, not silent, it is agreeing! "Yes, that would fit. You can store it, you can repair it, you can run it, and even if you don't have the space at your own home, you can put her on a trailer and drive where there is space for her!", and that appeal, that knowing, that you can actually have such an engine and use her as well, that is what drove me to order a 7 1/4 inch locomotive myself. For I have no shops to build one, but I could maintain her if I had one. And soon, I will. And that, is the beauty of such miniature steam. That even those who wish for their own engine, their own, true railway, but lack the funds/estate/other means to do so, can reach that epidome of this hobby after all, is something that everyone can reach after all. And with that, comes the beauty, joy, and happiness, of sharing the joy, when you drive around the line you are at, a train of passengers behind that enjoy it just as much as you do.

That sound is magic, my 5" loco is out of commission at the moment while I re-fit the injector but listening to tinkerbell chuffing around that track makes me want to go out and drive

“For something as old as it is, built before the 70’s”. As someone born in 1968, all I have to say is “Wow” 😮! 😂😂

If you like Tinkerbell you might be interested in a 7 1/4 gauge Thomas II (or Thomas 2). They are stronger, have more tractive effort and are properly built for hauling long heavy passenger trains! There is one at the Beer Heights Light Railway (Pecorama) which is only down the road from the Moors Valley although the Thomas II they have was built to look like a Quarry Hunslet.

Fantastic video Laurie. You nearly brought a tear to my eye. By the way the handbrake wheel used to open sky lights at Rolls Royce Coventry and the knob on the smoke box door was cut from a MTB engine room telegraph that my Father was contracted to make in WW2. When first started I was a skinny nine stone six foot tall. A few months later when Tink was completed I weighed 15 stone. Keep up the good work.

I am genuinely suprised at how well this thing works. It seems to have tons of character, and more power than you'd think!

I love my Tinkerbell class Mr Smee. It’s great fun to drive

What a lovely soft sound it makes, and as you say, it's great to experience it being worked hard as well. Those coaches are delightful too, if a little bit confusing when you see the size of a real human in them.

Tinkerbell reminds me of 'The Bug' from the Romney, Hythe and Dymchurch Railway, only on a gauge that's just under half the size of Romney's and without a tender. Incidentally 'The Bug' is also the name of a Dire Straits song.

Brilliant Lawrie, Great video on a fantastic 7 1/4" gauge loco. I'm in the early stages of building my own variant of Tinkerbell, which I'm documenting the building of on my own KZfaq channel. I'm building mine with a normal locomotive boiler, me and marine boilers don't mix 😂. I knew you'd cook your knees, glad you enjoyed it. All the best, Matt.

Really enjoyed this video, love that my favourite miniature railway has been featured. The locos there all have their own personalities just from looks alone.

This has to be one of the most british engines I've ever seen: No, not in proportions, style, or all that. In a "Oh let's find all these spare parts and throw them together (presumably) in a garden shed somewhere," Kind of way

the sounds of that engine brought back the memory of our visits to the now closed down Dobwalls railway back when I lived in Cornwall

It's so cute! The turntable is kinda interesting seeing it's like a long block of metal instead of traditional rails

This engine is so unusual, I love it. I also love how because it's so small, even though it sounds like an A4 thundering down the ECML, in reality it's going about 10 miles per hour.

A charming little engine running on a super track!

I would say that it is probably my "local" railway. Some lovely little, and not so little locos on that line, the galas are a grand day out! Surprised you chose Tinkerbell to film given some of the others, but excellent none the less.

i like how she happily chuffs down the track

Yes!!!! i've been waiting for this video for a while, so happy its out

Very quirky, glad someone had the idea of it! Glad you enjoyed it!🙏🙏

Dam this brings back memories. 7 1/4 inch loco's can be really good fun if you know what you are doing with them. The only few things I had to do different was to clean the tubes after the end of the day with having the boiler warm or hot. Depending on how often the loco is driven we kept the boiler full at the end of the day.

Lawrie's Mechanical Marvels😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍

7:52 I think you're looking for the word "footplate". because it is, in my humble opinion

I'm always amazed how stable something so heavy can be on such a small gauge track. It seems like the moment you lean to look past the funnel it should all topple over.

Love love love 7/14. Very fortunate to have driven a few at the cvr. SO MUCH FUN !!

Brilliant! Looking forward to more miniature content

One of your best videos!, nice to see scamp 049 in the intro, those things are a ton of fun to drive!

This thing has been built like our car. Bits of this and that, things that work. Flawless!

i really enjoyed watching that, i would definatly like to see more of this on the channel

I completely agree that these miniature locomotives are more difficult to run than the full size, especially with the smaller locomotives like my 1/8 scale Little Engines American because the firebox is only 4"x5" your always putting water in, chucking wood on the fire, and trying to keep it from slipping on a 2.5% grade. it's wonderful!

See, trundling along in a proper little narrow-guage-style 0-4-0 or 0-4-2 that I can actually sit IN seems a lot more appealing to me than being hunched over the top of the "cab" of a scale model that you have to straddle - like what is the case with so many 7.5" and 7.25" gauge locomotives.

Love the reference to the " Bouquet " (Bucket) from the British comedy " Keeping Up Appearances ". Another great railway video, thanks for sharing.

That just brought me back to being a kid I swear I had a storybook on Tinkerbell and it was my favourite book I really enjoyed your video

That is a cute little thing. Its a interesting story on how it inspired many other offspring of similar designs.

It's loveley to learn more about these engines! Grew up being really excited to ride on these trains at this track.

I learned tos drive steam locos on a Tinkerbell... One owned by Dr Brian Rodgers on his Porter's Hill Railway. Many fond memories of driving these little beasts of a loco

A beautiful bouquet

I was thinking of West Moors Station, and of course, it is near Verwood.

Thank you for sharing this video Lawrie! I've been wishing to drive one of these Tinkerbell-class locos for a driving expereince! Maybe in the future.

This is the LMM I’ve been waiting for! I’ve loved Tinkerbells for years but still not see one in the flesh. Very jealous Lawrie!

Driven many a mile in Tink, definitely my favourite loco at the MVR

5:30 "Let me show you the power of Talos Stormcrown!"

You would have loved the tailway at Dobwalls laurie. I had the pleasure to drive the big boy there not long before it closed.

Hello Lawrie from your fellow Suffolk pal Samuel. I like where you're going with covering little engines as their own thing. Really incredible little engines they are those Tinkerbells. I can see the fun in getting to run them. Regards, Samuel Farris.

Omg its so small! Also, love that livery 👍

I've been to the moors valley railway so many times but I never thought Lawrie would go there.

Tune in next week, when Laurie shops for his new loco at Station Road Steam

I drove Horton on a driver experience course there a good few years ago, I loved it there.

Thank you for a very nice video Lawrie, it certainly brings back memories ! I got the drawings and castings for my Tinkerbell from Roger Marsh at his Hinckley Brittania workshops, he was working on a batch of gauge 1 locomotives at the time, a good 40 years ago. When I drove my loaded old Opel Kadett of the ferry ramp in Hook of Holland it made a loud 'thump', waking up the customs officer (!) Good thing I had an invoice labeled 'scrap iron" with me. As you know it has a marine-type boiler and I had to show the certificates of the steel components and the grinding work in preperation for welding to the (then state owned) Dutch Boiler Inspectorate. As I was abroad at that time I left the parts and paperwork at my parents house and when two men of the inspectorate showed up they apologized for what they thought was a clerical error, a locomotive boiler pre-weld inspection at a house in a residential area. Those where the days 😊. Couple of years later I was able to visit Jim Haylock while he was still at Tucktonia in Christchurch. Do hope to go to the MVR one day !

Hi Lawrie! Great Video, I hear you're coming to visit Rocks By Rail in April, can't wait to meet you!

Incredible video Laurie and at my local railway too! I start volunteering there soon and hopefully I’ll drive tinkerbell! (Id rather Offa though 💪)

Man I do love a Tinkerbell, such a great video Lawrie 👏🏻🙂

I think it's a beutiful little locomotive, I think it's amazing that it was originally cobbled together from random spare parts.

I have been working on a 7 1/4" railway! So this is very interesting video.

I did a driving day up there last year on classmate 'Hestia', absolutely tipped it down all day, lovely little things to drive though

*Tinkerbell is really Faaast!* It's faster than ALF, faster than your Ruston, faster than Centinel, faster than Hunslet. It is faster than many of standard guage locos that you showed in your Lawrie Goes Loco series.

Tinkerbell is my favourite miniature loco 😊

Tinkerbells are some of my favorite engines. 7-1/4" gauge is very much underrated.

Cute little engine See you on Saturday at Doncaster

Ever so cool that.

I didn't care for the look at first but as you went through the provenance of each part I realized it's exactly the sort of locomotive I would build, if I were to ever build a locomotive. I wonder if the high-tech coaling method was developed by some relative of that Bucket woman. "It's bouquet!"

does the into mean were getting more little loco episodes? havent seen the videos with those clips, if so im looking forward to it, minimal gauge and running miniature rail like a mainline realy interests me. it kinda feels like itd scratch the itch for those of us who cant buy narrow or standard gauge locos lol.

Waiting for Lawrie to buy a Tinkerbell now

I love the little railway your driving on. You can arrange to drive one of there steam engines for the day. Loved it.

This is very exciting to see. I worked at MVR for several years! Would be interested to see your thoughts on some of the larger locos. Zeus was probably my favourite to drive.

I'm actually getting a lot of inspiration from this, both from the locomotive itself and from things I could improve on it. I've been thinking about building a 7.5" gauge (which is what we run in most of the US) "Forney" style locomotive, but one critical design factor is that I don't want to have to use an engineer's car. The whole thing (or at least the frame, boiler and drivetrain all in one piece) needs to be able to sit in the back of a Volkswagen Jetta, and having to carry additional rolling stock basically prohibits that.

Excellent video, looks like you had good fun. I've always had a soft spot for miniatures and this video makes me think you've picked that up aswell. Everything you said about how it's actually 'proper' and has it's own charm is what I try telling my colleagues ! I recently moonlighted from standard gauge to the 15" Romney, Hythe and Dymchurch and I have to say I think I preferred it ... the scale speeds on something that size was truly immense. You should try and hook yourself up with them for a video !

As you were firing the engine getting steam up I paused to add wood to my stove noting that the firebox of my small woodstove is about 5 times the size of the one for Tinkerbell. Thanks as always for taking us on the ride. I need to see if I can convince the family to visit our local miniature steam RR which has both 15" and I think 7.5" gauge plus another smaller one. Was one of my favorite outings as a kid. The 15" size you ride inside, if the club is offering rides you can ride on the 7.5" gauge. Redwood Valley Railway is the name. Apparently at one time a couple of the engines went visiting your side of the pond somewhere.

Buckė joke had me in stitches

Oh wow moors Valley! One of my local 7.25 inch railways. I've also driven this engine

17:21 It sounds like someone screaming!

I loved the video and aspecially the outro (which i assume is someone from the railway)

I thought a railway like this only existed in my imagination. I'm so chuffed to be proven wrong.

Welcome to the Tinkerbell club. And a lucky bugger to play on the original. You think that’s top heavy, ask around in the miniature railway cycles or watch some of my clips. Lady Pauline another tinkerbell but quite tall. That’s top heavy.

Lawrie seems absolutely chuffed to be driving tinkerbell.

Hopefully this means in the near future we get a LGlL on the Ravenglass or Romney railway. Also, the Bucket is a very high tech french invention by the looks of it

Not sure what it is about Miniature steam but it really is something special. not sure if its because its more achievable to own your own steam loco, or the the fact that its cheaper to run xD. You should get your self down to the Romney Hythe and Dymchurch Railway near me! One Hell of a Miniature playground! 15 inch Gauge railway spanning 21.7 KM!!!!!!! That would make a cracking vid! all the best!

really wish there was an american version of your channel between big meuseums like irm or strasburg to our narrow gauge mesums like the colorado rr meuseum or nevada northern and even miniture rr like train mountain would be cool to see and learn about through the eyes of someone like you

I love this tiny thing . I also like pester pan the movie too . Call back to that . I may build this in Lego someday too

Tinkerbell is a little ripper!

There's something fascinating about miniature engines. Truly magnificent! Will we see more 7¼ inch gauge locos in the future?

How long before Lawrie shows up at the shed with one of these? I'd give it a year, tops 😂

17:20the whisle"PAAAAAAAOOOOOOOP

Hey Laurie, I have a crazy idea... You should get a tinkerbell. Make a loop of track in the backyard or whatever. It'd be wicked :D