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Canada Works Birkenhead drawings


Valentin
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I have a great deal of interest in the only surviving engine made by "Canada Works" Birkenhead. This is being preserved in Romania and she was used on the Bucuresti (Filaret) - Giurgiu Railway, opened in 1869.

 

 

Does anyone know if any drawings survived? Of this locomotive or any other built at Birkenhead. Or, where should I look next? Any idea will be appreciated. It looks like I don't know where to start  :no: ...

 

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If only I could find them quickly, I have two or three biographies of Thomas Brassey.  They are interesting and very readable, but don't contain any locomotive drawings (you'll have to trust my memory until I could find them).  The only one I can find tonight is "Thomas Brassey Railway Builder & Canada Works Birkenhead" (Millar, 1993), which has a drawing of the works layout - but no locomotive diagrams.

 

I'm sure you're aware of the general history of Canada Works.  Production ran from 1854 to 1875, and something like 260 locomotives were constructed there.  I don't know whether any of the company's records have survived.  Most of the correspondence I've seen concerned the correct identification and subsequent histories of the locomotives built there, but then that's the mill grist of loco historians rather than modellers.

 

Failing builders' records, there were some dimensioned diagrams drawn up for CFR in 1895, covering their locomotive stock at the time.  The relevant drawing for CALUGARENI (as indeed the full set) appears in "Istorical Tractunii Feroviare Din România, Volumul I 1854-1918" (Lacriteanu and Popescu, 2003), first on p269 (where diagrams of two Canada locomotives - 2-4-0 CFR nos 40-44 and 0-6-0 592 - have their captions reversed), then repeated on p581 and with tender on shown p590.  Before you rush out to try to track down a copy of this book, I should warn that these diagrams are small, poorly reproduced and such dimensions as are given are barely legible (at best).  I don't know whether they were drawn to scale or as mere sketches.  For what it's worth I can send you scanned copies (via e-mail, please PM me if you're interested).

 

Although the locomotive was restored to working order and steamed for special events up to a few years ago, It is now in secure storage and (I understand) no longer operational.  It was declared a National Monument and as such falls under the ownership of the Railway Museum in Bucharest.  It might be worth contacting the Museum to see whether they hold any detailed drawings, or can point you to the source material for the diagrams reproduced in the book.

 

Surviving relics or even photographs of Canada Works locomotives are rare.  Aside from the Romanian drawings, there is (apparently) an excellent model of 4-4-0 ILMARINEN (Can 81/1860) in the Finnish Railway Museum, Hyvinkää..

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Hello,

 

 

All the history I know about Canada Works, and Thomas Brassey, is what is available online (Wikipedia, Industrial Railway Society) but, as I am Romanian, I know much more about "Calugareni", the steam engine preserved at Mogosoaia (near Bucharest). I own all three volumes of "Istoricul Tractiunii Feroviare din Romania" and also "Constructii pentru Transporturi in Romania" (Constructions for Transports in Romania), 2 Volumes, by D. Iordanescu, C. Georgesu, 1986. This is basicaly a history of the Romanian Railways between 1881 and 1981 but has mentions pre-1881 (from 1842).

 

A couple of fellow enthusiasts, friends from Romania, had deeply studied the archives at CFR Museum in Bucharest, and at the National Archives, but couldn't find any documents, nor drawings, related to the Canada Works heritage.

 

A fellow modeller tries to build a 3D model of the CFR No. 43 "Calugareni" and it seems the last chance is to pay a visit to the location where the locomotive is preserved and measure it.

 

@EddieB: I would really appreciate if you could tell the titles of the books about Thomas Brassey.

 

Regards,

Edited by Valentin
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I've had a bit of a rummage and found "The Life and Labours of Thomas Brassey" (Helps, 2006) and there is also "The Railway Builders" (Joby, 1983) which has quite a bit about Brassey.  Brassey is also mentioned in "The Grand Crimean Central Railway" (Cooke, 1990/97).  I think I may have at least one other, but my book collections isn't particularly well organised!

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The Canadian Grand Trunk Railway began with 56 locomotives built at Birkenhead, England from 1854 to 1858. It was engineered by Brassey. There are several photos of what I suspect are from Canada Works on this page, including 4-4-0s and 0-6-0s. Some of the 4-4-0s may originally have been 2-4-0s. These railways bought locos from North American manufacturers after the initial orders. The Canadian Great Western Railway also had some.

 

Researching the Canadian lines might be fruitful as old records and photos are perhaps more likely to have survived.

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An interesting resource.  Sorry to disappoint, but I don't think any of the locos illustrated came from Canada Works.  Of the locos supplied to the Grand Trunk Railway of Canada, the highest running number was 194, and the Great Western of Canada had only three locos from Birkenhead.  Incidentally, all these locos were originally 5'6" gauge.

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An interesting resource.  Sorry to disappoint, but I don't think any of the locos illustrated came from Canada Works.  Of the locos supplied to the Grand Trunk Railway of Canada, the highest running number was 194, and the Great Western of Canada had only three locos from Birkenhead.  Incidentally, all these locos were originally 5'6" gauge.

Yes, I am tempted to agree after doing a bit more digging. The 0-6-0 I was thinking of was definitely built in Canada, it seems. This one (a long way down the page) claims to be Canada Works though

 

http://members.kos.net/sdgagnon/te3.html

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Still not sure, given the number carried, but perhaps the loco had also been renumbered.

 

Canada works built only three 2-4-0s for the Great Western Railway of Canada (1855), their running numbers being given as either 59-61 or 74-76 (there is some dispute and a suggestion that nos. 74-76 were built by Jones & Potts).

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With a bit more digging around, I need to revise my previous response.  Great Western Railway of Canada no. 55 was originally built at the Canada Works, Birkenhead.

 

The photo reproduced on the linked web page comes from the CN Photo Archives, and appears in "Railroad History" No. 147 (1982), the bulletin of The Railway Locomotive Historical Society, Inc. (Boston, MA), which contains a locomotive history of that company.  The website is incorrect in that the GWR only received three locomotives from Canada Works.  

 

The locomotive was delivered in November 1855 as a 5'6" gauge 2-4-0 named "MINOS", with original running number of 61 or 76 (sources differ - and it may be that such numbers were merely book entries and no running number was carried).  Under a numbering scheme introduced in 1862, it was given the running number 55, having been rebuilt as a 4-4-0 in 1860.  It was renamed "ADAM BROWN" in 1870.    

 

The GWR began conversion to standard gauge in 1870, but not all its locomotive stock was converted and indeed many new locomotives were ordered.  Around 1873, GWR no. 55 was sold to the Wellington Grey & Bruce RR (where sister locomotive no. 54 had been sold two years earlier). The third locomotive (no. 53) was retired and scrapped in 1871.

 

There is another photograph of a much-rebuilt Birkenhead locomotive in the same edition of "Railroad History".  Carillon and Grenville RR "OTTAWA" was a 4-4-0 that survived until 1916.  It had started life as a 2-2-2 built for the Grand Trunk Railway of Canada (no. 70) in 1856,  The photograph is from the Smithsonian Institution (Chaney neg. 3445).

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We must accept that this thread is of little interest to something like 98% of RMwebbers, especially because no Canada Works locomotive has, or is ever likely to be produced as a mass market r-t-r model.  Still, in an attempt to engage perhaps another one or two percent, it might be worth commenting that Birkenhead did build many locomotives for the UK domestic market, for which some photographs and drawings do exist.

 

Ten 4-4-0 Crampton locomotives were delivered to the London, Chatham and Dover Railway in 1861, where they became officially the "Tiger" class, or unofficially nicknamed "Brasseys".  Similar engines were built by Slaughter, Gruning and RW Hawthorn.  The Birkenhead locomotives were all named after birds.  As delivered, locomotives from all three builders had a reputation for rough riding and rebuilding as 2-4-0s began almost immediately (September 1862).  Further modifications were made by William Kirtley between 1878 and 1885. In their rebuilt form, the locomotives lasted into the 1890s, five passing into SE&CR ownership (and renumbering) in 1898.  The last survivor was SE&CR 470 (former no. 11 "PETREL") being retired in 1905.

 

A side elevation drawing of the original form "FALCON" can be found in "The Locomotive History of the London, Chatham & Dover Railway" (Bradley), which also has a photo of SE&CR 470.  [Edit: A scaled side elevation of a Slaughter, Gruning locomotive and tender is included in chapter 7 of "The Crampton Locomotive" (Sharman), also noting that the Brassey locomotives were identical.]

 

Six more locomotives were built at Birkenhead for the LC&DR, where it appears that Canada Works provided the only tender for a batch of 2-4-0 locomotives in 1865, and which was accepted with reluctance by the railway company.  Nicknames the "REINDEER" class after the name given the first engine, they were similarly reboilered and updated by Kirtley, surviving into the 1900s in SE&CR ownership.  Two rebuilt examples are illustrated in the aforementioned book.

 

The last locomotives supplied to a British railway were seven "235" class 0-4-4 well tanks for the South Eastern Railway in 1866.  They were short-lived, being displaced by from their regular duties by the end of the 1880s, the last example being withdrawn in 1893.  Depending on the edition "The Locomotive History of the South Eastern Railway" (Bradley) has one or two broadside photographs of class members.

Edited by EddieB
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We must accept that this thread is of little interest to something like 98% of RMwebbers

 

Well in my view that makes it all the more important that information is recorded - the 99% can usually get ready access to the information they need via the Internet, books or specialist societies. If obscure information on obscure subjects is not published somewhere it may quickly be lost forever.

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Sometimes the internet can throw light on obscure subjects.  

 

One of the photos on this gallery http://www.nbrstudygroup.co.uk/galleries/trains.htm is of North British 2-4-0 no. 404.  

 

What the caption doesn't say is that it's from a Locomotive Publishing Company (LPC) print, and the locomotive depicted is one of four such locomotives built at Birkenhead in 1861 for the Forth & Clyde Junction Railway in 1859.  The NBR leased the Forth & Clyde and inherited its locomotive stock in 1871.  The locomotive illustrated, originally F&CJR no. 4 was the last survivor of its class, by some way, being withdrawn in 1903.

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A couple of old locos purporting to be Canada works - the first for Denmark and the second for Italy

 

post-28584-0-28722800-1485466443.jpg

 

post-28584-0-29348600-1485466463.jpg

 

There does seem to be a certain unique style to these locos - and the Forth & Clyde and Canadian GWR one - with the outside frame around the cylinders etc.

Edited by £1.38
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Thank you for finding those photos £1.38 - I think I recognise the Danish one.  Do you have a source for the Italian one?

 

Sticking with the domestic market for the moment, Canada Works constructed two batches, each of six locomotives apiece, for the Eastern Counties Railway in 1856.  Nos 214-219 were 2-4-0 tender locomotives, nos 274-279 2-2-2 singles.  Both were designed by Daniel Gooch.  The 2-4-0 locomotives were nicknamed "Butterflies", in all a class of eighteen locomotives (Sharp Stewart and Kitsons also contributing six each).  Both classes were scrapped in the 1870s.  Locomotive no. 218 was written off after a collision with a Sinclair single near the site that became Whitlingham Junction (Norfolk).  In terms of casualties it was and would remain for many years the most serious head-on collision on British railways.

 

The locomotive history of the Great Eastern Railway and its predecessors was covered in a long-running series of articles in the Locomotive Magazine between 1901 and 1913.  The articles included the now famous line drawings prepared by HT Buckle.  Unfortunately (for this thread) only the "Butterflies" built by Sharps and Kitsons were illustrated in the Locomotive Magazine, however the original form of the single type (loco and tender) is shown.  Picking up on the previous message, it shows similar outside angled cylinders driving via connected rods inside the frame.

 

The entire Locomotive Magazine series has been scanned and are available as downloadable PDF files, or as a set on CD from the Great Eastern Railway Society sales https://www.gersociety.org.uk/index.php/home/sales, available to members and members alike.  The sheets applicable to the Canada Works locomotives are LM002 and LM028, but I would recommend the set on CD (and indeed, why not membership of the GERS?)

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A couple of old locos purporting to be Canada works - the first for Denmark and the second for Italy

 

attachicon.gifCanada-Works-Danish-Loco-18.jpg

 

 

That's a very nice photo of one of the twenty 2-4-0 locos built for the Jydsk-Fyenske Statsbaners (Jutland-Funen Railway) in five batches between 1862 and 1865.  Nicknamed "Canada-maskinerne" they were the first locomotives for that railway, which opened in 1862 and was owned, maintained and operated by its contractors - Peto, Brassey and Betts.  Until 1875, all the line's locomotives were built in Britain - but no more came from the Canada Works.  

 

There's a dimensioned drawing in "Locomotives of the Danish State Railways" (Bay, pub. Oakwood, 1962) which is reproduced, along with a photo (not as clear as the one in this thread!) in "Danske Damplokomotiver" (Jensen, 2001).

 

Incidentally, the arrangement of cylinders and frames follows the "Crewe Type" of Alexander Allen (which gives me another source to check).  The inclination of the cylinders was to allow the pistons to be removed over the front buffer beam - apparently problems with piston rings were quite frequent at that time.

 

[Edited: The Danish locos were 2-4-0s, not 2-2-2s.]

Edited by EddieB
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Thank you for finding those photos £1.38 - I think I recognise the Danish one.  Do you have a source for the Italian one?

 

Sorry, but I didn't make a note of the source - as for most of my 'informal' collection of images, it could have come from just about anywhere on the Web.

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The Italian picture probably illustrates one of the locos supplied to the Leghorn Railway (Ferrovie Livornesi).  Canada Works built three batches of locomotives for Italian railways; six 0-4-2s for Strade Ferrate Meridionali (SFM) in 1863, fourteen 2-2-2s in 1863 and six 2-4-0s in 1864 for the Leghorn Railway.  The Leghorn 2-2-2s were originally numbered 58-71, becoming Strade Ferrate Romane (SFR) nos. 1-14 in 1865.  Six survived to the Rete Mediterranea (RM) takeover in 1885, given names a renumbered in a new 1-6 sequence.

 

After withdrawal, some of the LC&DR locomotives built at Canada Works were sold as "parts" to Italy, ostensibly for scrapping (though there is some belief locally that they were put back into service there).

Edited by EddieB
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The L&NWR Connection.

 

Talking of the "Crewe Type", I'm reminded of the Loco Profile publication of that title (LP15), which mentions the development and construction of such locomotives at the Canada Works in Birkenhead, but concentrates upon locomotives of that style built at Crewe.  It is at pains however to dispel the misnomer that the "Crewe Type" was entirely associated with that locomotive works and that the claims by Alexander Allen as originator are over wrought. 

 

There is a link between the Canada Works and the London & North Western Railway through a number of locomotives built for the Shrewsbury & Hereford Railway and which subsequently passed into L&NWR ownership: six 2-4-0s (built 1857-59), four 2-2-2s (built 1857-58) and three 0-4-2s (1860).  All were withdrawn by the L&NWR in the 1870s, but one of the 2-4-0s, at least, went into industrial service at the Seaton Burn Coal Company.

 

The linked illustration of the Grand Trunk Railways' locomotive "Trevithick" (which was actually the first locomotive built at its Point St Charles workshops in Montreal), earlier in this thread, reminds us that the first Locomotive Superintendent of the GTR was Francis Trevithick, who had connections to the L&NWR.  Not locomotives built at Canada Works, but two former L&NWR 0-6-0s (nos 237 and 238) were supplied to the GTR in 1864, who rebuilt them as 4-4-0s the following year.

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You are a mine of information, Eddie :clapping:

 

A similar drawing to my Italian one appears at the bottom of this page http://members.kos.net/sdgagnon/roch.html. I am merely interested in the odd and the obscure. I probably found my version of the drawing when I was looking for something completely different, as is almost invariably the case.

 

It would be interesting to know what the 'locomotive plan' book the site author refers to actually was.

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To close the chapter on locomotives built at the Canada Works, Birkenhead for domestic railways, we have three locomotives for the North Devon Railway and six for the Scottish North Eastern Railway.

 

The North Devon Railway was operated under contract by Thomas Brassey until 1865, when it was absorbed into the London and South Western Railway.  Brassey brought three locomtives from his Canada Works, a broad gauge 2-2-2s "DART" and "YEO" and b.g. 2-4-0 "CREEDY".  "DART" was rebuilt as a 2-4-0 in 1868 and all three locomotive survived until the end of the broad gauge in 1877.  Both "YEO" and "DART" were then used as stationary boilers at Barnstaple until 1883.  "Locomotives of the L.S.W.R." (Bradley) contains a couple of photographs, including this one of "CREEDY": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Devon_Railway#/media/File:North_Devon_Railway_Creedy_at_Barnstaple.jpg

 

As for the Scottish North Eastern, there were 2-4-0s built in 1856 and three 0-4-2s of 1861.  The locomotives passed into the ownership of the Caledonian Railway in 1866, the former surviving until the 1870s (one written off after an accident in 1872), the later until the latter half of the 1880s.  My information on these locomotives is quite sparse, in fact my only book dealing with locomotives of the Caledonian Railway (written by two authors well-known in railway modelling) seems to assume that CR locomotive history began with the grouping of 1923.

 

Finally (well for the time being at least) and for the benefit of visitors to this thread who might be wondering what all the fuss is about, here a photo of the beautiful Canada Works locomotive that started this thread.  One of the later products of Birkenhead (1869), the "Crewe Type" had by then given way to an inside frame/inside cylinder configuration.  Here is "CALUGARENI" as presently stored in a secure location in Romania.  A loco that was on my "must see" list for many years, that I was able to obtain permission to visit last July.  Enjoy.

 

post-10122-0-70795200-1485526495_thumb.jpg

 

 

Edited by EddieB
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Here is "CALUGARENI" as presently stored in a secure location in Romania.  A loco that was on my "must see" list for many years, that I was able to obtain permission to visit last July.  Enjoy.

 

EddieB, £1.38, Valentin, thank you for your great contributions regarding Călugăreni subject.

EddieB is that the only picture that you have with Călugăreni?

Is Gersociety LM002 showing drawings of Canada Works 2-4-0, and are there any dimensions?

 

For your amusement I found this link http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpool-news/birkenhead-built-victorian-steam-locomotive-12373263 . The funny part is: Mr Allan said: “We don’t know how it came to be in Romania, but finding it seemed like serendipity.”

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Hello lcra, welcome to RMweb.

 

I'm wondering if that is a recent photograph in the link (from the snow and date of the article), as I've seen similar pictures on the web, but thought that the loco had been moved inside "permanently" for protection (from both weather and undesirables).  It does seem strange to see it outside in the winter snow, but indoors during the summer.

 

I have quite a few pictures, but only from my visit last July.  Most are from a similar perspective, with a few detail shots (not helped by the cramped surroundings).

 

GERS Information Sheet LM002 contains only high-quality scans of the articles that appeared in Locomotive Magazine, which didn't include a drawing of the ECR Canada Works 2-4-0.  HT Buckle did produce a lot of drawings (over three hundred) of which around fifty were never published.  Surviving examples have found their way into collections held by the NRM and GERS, who have made and exchanged scans so that both parties have access to a full set of known drawings.  The GERS material can be inspected at the Essex Record Office.  I don't know whether there is a drawing of the Canada Works loco among the collection.

 

No dimensions are shown on Buckle's drawings, but the LM articles summarise the principal dimensions - more of a technical specification than the ones that modellers might desire. No distinction is made between the locomotives from each builder and indeed whether the measurements given are common to all three.

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