Description
This is the Rapido Sirdar Diana model. The Kerr, Stuart & Co. Sirdar was a small 0-4-0 side tank steam locomotive built in the late 1800s and early 1900s, with 58 examples constructed for both export and home use, including two that joined the South African Narrow Gauge Railways as ‘NG1’ class locomotives. Sirdars saw work on industrial, quarry and contractor’s lines across the world, and several examples survive today in preservation.
Diana, Works No.1158, is the most famous locomotive of the class and the model this range is named after. Built in 1909 to a gauge of 2ft 5.5in with unusually large 200-gallon tanks, more than double the size normally fitted to a Sirdar, she was originally intended for a railway in Mauritius but never made the journey abroad, remaining unsold until 1917. She was then purchased by the Home Grown Timber Committee, regauged to 2ft, and delivered to the Kerry Tramway near Newtown in Powys, before later moving to the Oakeley Quarry at Blaenau Ffestiniog. Restored in 2015, Diana has since toured the country and now resides at the Amerton Railway in Staffordshire.
This model features a sandbox mounted on the boiler, a standard chimney and a backsheet with doors, along with a short ‘Hook and Loop’ compatible coupling factory-fitted for out-of-the-box use. A detail bag of optional parts is supplied for full customisation, including a full-length Hook and Loop coupling, and the model is suitable for operation on curves of first radius (228mm) or greater. Built to a museum quality paint finish with highly detailed NEM coupler pockets, this DCC Ready version comes with a 6-pin decoder socket and a smooth, powerful mechanism, leaving the choice of decoder to the modeller.
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