Double Fairlie - Exploring the Ingenious Design of the Festiniog Double Ended Fairlie
Discover the fascinating history of the Festiniog double-ended Fairlie, a unique locomotive designed with the innovative double Fairlie system. Explore its impressive features and learn about its exceptional performance.
Published on Aug 16, 2023.
Scale: 1:76 | Gauge: 9mm | 009 | Kit
If you were modelling the Ffestiniog railway this was a must have kit. It is all whitemetal and the instructions are simple enough to follow but actually building a model that runs well does take a bit of fettling.
The donor chassis is a GP50 Diesel and does need a fair bit of work - not for the novice builder! A new donor chassis is a little bit more expensive than the kit and together getting this kit built and into running condition might leave you wishing you had considered one of the new ready to run (R2R) better detailed models now available for not much more money.
The main downside of the Double Fairlie is that it is iconic and although there were other Fairlie Patent double ended locomotives constructed and used in a few places, these locomotives really do look completely out of place on any freelance layout.
For many years this was the only kit available for a Double Fairlie then Backwoods brought out an etched brass kit. Now there are the Bachmann ready to run models.
Double Fairlie - Exploring the Ingenious Design of the Festiniog Double Ended Fairlie review conclusion
This is a good model but is old and lacks the detail and performance that the newer ready to run models have.
Rating: 2 out of 5
What is good
- White metal so heavy
- Iconic locomotive
- Slightly cheaper alternative to R2R models
Could be improved
- Complex for a white metal kit
- Detail not as good as new R2R models
- Not much cheaper than R2R models
- Looks out of place on any non Ffestiniog Railway layout