Edward Brook of Honley village (1799-1871) founded the Fieldhouse fire clay works in 1850, near Deighton, Huddersfield. The engine was used to haul railway wagons up an incline to the main line for sending the clay to many parts of the country for the manufacture of bricks etc.

The original engine can still be seen at the Ravensknowle Park museum in Huddersfield. There are no maker’s name or foundry marks that can be used to identify the maker or designer but the design has some unusual features as can be seen on the 1:12 scale model. The reversing of the connecting rods makes the engine more compact, so taking less less overall space.

As the engine is a single cylinder designed to run in one direction, a facility for starting is provided, a ‘Gab’ rod is fitted to the valve rocker and this can be disengaged allowing the valve rocker to be SWUJl2 by hand to ‘kick’ the engine off, the Gab then drops onto a peg to continue the operation of the engine.

The steam chest is, unusually, at one end of the cylinder to allow space for the rocker mechanism. For lowering wagons a foot operated band brake is provided to control the descent to the filling area.

This interesting model was shown by Les Nelson at Harrogate.

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