It's now five years since I purchased the Stafford 'Gentoo' and in that time the engine has derailed four times.  Thankfully the Stafford had a full width front buffer beam which slid on the rails and supported the front of the locomotive protecting the cylinder drain cocks., but the Feldbahn doesn't have that feature.  The photo on the left shows the front of a full size Koppel locomotive and you can clearly see that it is fitted with a beam of steel angle section forming a derailing bar.  If the loco derails this will support the front and prevent the cylinder drain cocks from hitting the rails (or ground) and also help to stabilise the locomotive to stop it rolling over.  So not wanting to tempt fate I decided to fit a similar bar to my Feldbahn.

So here's the derailing bar fitted to my Feldbahn 0-6-0 'Gentoo 2'.  Made from a length of mild steel angle (1" x 1" x 3/16" thick) it's simply bolted to the front of the loco with slightly longer bolts replacing the original four bolts in the Feldbahn's buffer plate.  In my case the width of the bar had to be limited slightly so that the cylinder drain cock extension pipes I had fitted could "squirt" past the ends of the bar, but by bending the extension pipes outwards slightly the derailing bar is of sufficient length to protect everything and to support the front of the loco if it ends up sliding along the track. Quick to make, and to my eye not to ungainly, it's a useful addition to the Feldbahn that I hope never to use.