Henry Greenly

Henry Greenly (1876 – 1947) was amongst the foremost miniature railway engineers of the 20th century, remembered as a master of engineering design.

See Wikipedia.

Born in 1876, Henry Greenly formed the nucleus of a small group of men who were responsible the development of miniature railways in Great Britain and Europe at the end of the nineteenth century. His most impressive work was the construction of the 15 inch gauge Romney, Hythe & Dymchurch Railway in Kent.



From Maxitrak:


 * Most enthusiasts recognize Greenly’s role in designing large 15” gauge locomotives for the likes of the Romney Hythe and Dymchurch railway and the Ravenglass and Eskdale line. Starting in the early 1900’s he also worked on many designs from Gauge 1 to 10 ¼”. Many of these designs are associated with the Bassett Lowke company, who he worked with over many years.


 * When Greenly died just after the second war his work was continued by Earnest Steel and his wife Eleanor (Greenly’s daughter). The net result is more or less three peoples lifetime work on miniature locomotive design, including an amazing variety of types. They range from Stockton and Darlington Railway “Locomotion” to the LMS steam turbine engine, including a 4-8-2-+2-8-4 six cylinder Garrett, American and French designs a “Model Engineer” traction engine and a two stroke petrol engine. There are no less than seventeen designs in 7 ¼” gauge, thirteen in 5”, fifteen in 3 ½” and eighteen in 2 ½” gauges, plus a range of ancillary items in each size.


 * Some of these designs are complete and detailed down to the last item, others are more vague and rely on the builder being able to make components off a general layout or from one of the standard parts drawings. Some are just a general arrangement drawing and if you are lucky a half chassis plan and an end elevation. A single cylinder drawing appears to be used for a number of different designs, this makes sense if the cylinder is basically the same. However most of the time this is the Greenly double port piston valve cylinder, the complication of which had Earnest Steel making updated slide valve drawings, added to the design at a later date.