The Dilly
Not normally on show, my last visit to the LSR afforded the chance to take a look at The Dilly.
Powered by a Kubota diesel engine The Dilly can provide mains power, very useful for jobs
needed to be done away from the workshop. She was out on display this day as Nigel was
using her to transport Velinheli's recently arrived boiler tubes up to the workshop.
On my most recent visit Nigel was attaching a spray bar to the front of The Dilly (see the images below) so it could be used to spray the track with herbicide. After he had done the spray run i was invited to ride back to Launceston with him. This gave me the opportunity to quiz Nigel about the vehicle. So here is a little bit more infomation. The Dilly was built by the Bowmans, the twin cylinder Kubota diesel drives a 4KVA generator, the electric motor is geared down 15:1 and drives the wheels via a chain. This gives plenty of torque and she can pull a fair sized load. She has plenty of carrying space, you can get a track rail on each one of the running boards, so tends to get used as the general workhorse rather than the Simplex. The Simplex is kept in running order though as it is more powerful and useful for heavier loads. The only places to sit on The Dilly are the diesel & generator covers, which means it has heated seats. According to Nigel, this makes it very popular with the station cats!