“828 Newly Outshopped at Cowlairs” - From the page of the Caledonian Railway Co. McIntosh 812 class Locomotive No 828

This engine is a veteran: the Caledonian Railway “812” 0-6-0 class of 1899, designed by JF McIntosh at St Rollox Works, Glasgow, developed from Dugald Drummond’s “Standard Goods” of 1883. 96 of the locos were built.

828 at the Strathspey Railway. Photo © R.L.A. Ball 2010. Used with permission.

Typical features to spot: 0-6-0 wheel arrangement, round cab lookouts, no cab window, but cut-out with handrail. Completely flat footplate, and front splasher combined with sand box. In reality, only one of this class has been spared — no 828. As an occasional passenger loco it was entitled to the “Caley blue” livery shown here - the reason perhaps this was the twins' favourite colour. Until recently this loco ran on the Strathspey Railway. It is now undergoing a major overhaul, details of which can be followed on the Caley 828 page, which has fascinating detail on the most powerful CR loco to survive into the modern era.

Donald and Douglas' original livery: BR Black
From the cover of Steam Railway, April 2001 with apologies.

Pictured in BR black as no. 57566 just prior to overhaul. Donal' and Douggie's original colour in “The Twin Engines” (1960).

From Tony Grigg's notes on “The Island of Sodor”:
Numbers 9 “Donald and Douglas”
Both locomotives are 0-6-0 (812 class) tender engines built from 1899 onwards by the Caledonian Railway to the design of Mr Macintosh. There was a mix up when the engines arrived in Sodor in 1959 as originally only one locomotive had been ordered, but two arrived. They are believed to be numbers 57646 and 57647, but no one is quite sure which one is which! Both are based at Tidmouth to work freight services on the Island of Sodor.

Martin adds: As noted in the Preamble, the Fat Controller’s order number of 57646 is a subtle in-joke: "Now then, which of you is 57646?" he asks. If he had checked BR’s rolls, he would have known that neither of them could have been, as the highest number of the 812 class is 57645.


The Rev. Awdry's Model of Donald

The Rev. Awdry's model of Donald
The Rev Awdry's “Donald” (there is no “Douglas”) in a display case at the Narrow Gauge Museum in Tywyn.

This was built in 1959 to serve as a model for the artist of book 15, John T. Kenney. It was made from a carved up Triang 3F (like James II later) but with Caledonian boiler mountings and new BRMSB wheels. As in the book, this model started in black and was later painted to the present blue lined with red. (Many thanks to Pat Hammond for this information. Photo © Martin Clutterbuck 2006)

Modeller's Corner
For those wanting to model Donald/Douglas or the 812 class in 4mm/ft, a soldered brass kit minus wheels and motor is available from Caley Coaches. This site also gives a lot of extra infomation about the class including scale drawings, allocation details, old photos and more, besides being a premier resource for modelling the Caledonian Railway in all aspects.

Bachmann's version of Donald and Douglas availabe from Amazon US
Bachmann version of Donald and Douglas

Collector's Corner
Learning Curve Wooden Donald Learning Curve Wooden Douglas
LC Wooden Donald LC Wooden Douglas
RC2 take-along Donald RC2 take-along Douglas
RC2 take-along Donald RC2 take-along Douglas

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