31st 'Sweet Pea Rally' at Leyland Society of Model Engineers 1st & 2nd June 2024

In this video we see some of the live steam action from at the 31st Annual Sweet Pea Rally held at the Leyland society of Model Engineers on the 1st & 2nd June 2024. Over the weekend many visitors brought there sweet pea steam locomotives for a steam up and a run around the tracks within Worden Park.

The original 5" gauge sweet pea locomotive was designed and built by the late Jack Buckler. He approached Blackgates Engineering in the mid 1970's to see whether castings could be obtained for a model he was building for his friend Dr.Jackson. This was the beginning of the long association between Jack & Blackgates, and subsequently "Sweet Pea" was born as a commercially available design.

He followed this design with a 3 ½" version (Sweet Violet) and a 7 ¼"g (Sweet William). Many hundreds of Sweet Pea locomotives have been built and it is rare to see two that look the same. Blackgates Engineering run an Annual rally which is hosted by clubs around the country, starting with the first at The Leeds Club at their Eggborough site in 1993. Jack was often in attendance and was extremely proud to see his offspring performing on the track, and there can hardly be a track anvwhere that hasn't seen an example. The design was published as a series of construction articles in "EIM and this was followed by a book a few years later.

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