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[quote user="54light15"]I've seen a double-ended Fairlie in Eastern Germany about 10 years ago. Built in 1902. It has enclosed drive gear and sat up high with roofed-over boilers. Google rollbockbahn and you'll see pictures of it. [/quote] IIRC, the NG line from Reichenbach to Oberrheinsdord in Saxony had the only three Double Fairlie locos in Germany, out of which 1 survived the closure of the line in the early 1960´s and is now on display at the museum in Oberrheinsdorf, after first being displayed in Dresden and later on stored in Wernigerode/Harz for decades. Interesting loco, which looked rather odd due to the big roof over both boilers and the encasing of both trucks. <img src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fe/I_M.jpg" alt=" " /> (Source: <a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fe/I_M.jpg">https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fe/I_M.jpg</a>) The Ffestiniog Railway has 4 Double Fairlie locomotives and one Single Farlie engine and is, AFAIK, the only line still employing this type of loco. The railway also holds the patents, as Mr. Fairlie donated them to the line. The line from Blaenau Ffestiniog to Porthmadog is the oldest narrow gauge line in the world, having been incorporated by an Act of Parliament in 1832. For 30 years, loaded slate trains would be run by gravity from the quarries in Blaenau Ffestiniog down to Port Madog (as it waqs spelled then) and the empties being hauled back up by horses. In 1863, the line was put "under steam" with diminutive 0-4-0 saddle tank engines, later equipped with a small tender for coal. In 1865, the first Double Fairlie called "Little Wonder" was introduced, which turned the line into a role model for 2 ft. gauge lines world wide. Slate business received its terminal blow after WW II, and traffic ceased in 1946. The original Act of Parliament did not include a clause for the closure or abandonment of the line, so it a new act would have to have been passed to close and dismantle the line. British MP´s had better things to do in those days and the line was saved and slowly being restored to what it is now, one of the most wonderful train rides in the world.
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