Sweet Pea "Ivy"

As the more astute readers will have surmised, I have quite an interest in steam engines. I also have an interest in the work of Rowland Emett, the British cartoonist, inventor and general tinkerer. Why not, then, combine the two? My loco, a 5" gauge 0-6-0 Sweet Pea named Ivy, was crying out for a lot of renovation work when I first acquired her. I thought the best thing for me to do was to subtly, over time, transform her into an Emett-style engine, modelled very loosely on such Emett engines as Nellie, Neptune and Hercules. This page will document the ongoing works to that end...

On the workbench for repairs to the valve gear

FT&OCR, in case anyone is wondering, stands for Far Tottering & Oyster Creek Railway, one of the fictional lines that featured in Emett's cartoons.