Regency Rails - Georgian, Williamine & Early Victorian Railways

[Ruston]

Interesting- I am related to the Horton family of Brierley Hill. They were boiler manufacturers and up until now I had no idea that they built railway locomotives! Do you happen to know the first name, or even an initial, of this particular Mr Horton?

My information comes from British Steam Locomotive Builders, by James W. Lowe (Goose & Son, 1975). It actually reads "...was probably built by Mr. Horton of Brierley Hill, who at least supplied the boiler".

[Compound2632]

The depiction of Norris locomotives on the two gravestones for long led to the erroneous belief that the men had been killed in the Norris explosion:

 

 

Scaife's gravestone says he worked on the Birmingham and Worcester Railway; Rutherford's is more accurate if less effusive. Now why did his widow have to pay for it when Scaife's fellow-workmen paid for his?

 

Edit: Hunt, American Locomotives of the Midland Railway, points out that Rutherford's gravestone was carved first and that the two depict different locomotives. He also reports that Scaife and Rutherford were bystanders when Surprise exploded, not her crew - she was being fired by Henshaw's son* who survived being badly scalded. Hunt also says there is no record of a Norris locomotive boiler explosion.

 

*Henshaw was the builder, in Hunt's account.

Edited May 26, 2018 by Compound2632

[sp1]

My information comes from British Steam Locomotive Builders, by James W. Lowe (Goose & Son, 1975). It actually reads "...was probably built by Mr. Horton of Brierley Hill, who at least supplied the boiler".

Thank you. I have just checked my notes and am pretty sure this would most likely have been a Joshua Horton, born in 1802 in Brierley Hill: it couldn’t have been his father, who died in 1809, nor his sons, who were too young at the time. What a great find! - I’ll have to see if I can find more about his locomotive involvement.

[Ian Simpson]

The depiction of Norris locomotives on the two gravestones for long led to the erroneous belief that the men had been killed in the Norris explosion:

 

Scaife's gravestone says he worked on the Birmingham and Worcester Railway; Rutherford's is more accurate if less effusive. Now why did his widow have to pay for it when Scaife's fellow-workmen paid for his?

 

Edit: Hunt, American Locomotives of the Midland Railway, points out that Rutherford's gravestone was carved first and that the two depict different locomotives. He also reports that Scaife and Rutherford were bystanders when Surprise exploded, not her crew - she was being fired by Henshaw's son* who survived being badly scalded. Hunt also says there is no record of a Norris locomotive boiler explosion.

 

*Henshaw was the builder, in Hunt's account.

 

Joseph Rutherford was the foreman of locomotives at the B&G's Bromsgrove Works, and from all accounts he was very popular with the staff. In 1840 the B&G's loco department was in a very bad way - many of the Norris locos were in disrepair (being designed for American conditions rather than British requirements), the drivers and fitters were still inexperienced and learning on the job, and the loco superintendent William Creuze was rapidly becoming an alcoholic. Rutherford seems to have struggled heroically to deal with the chaos and to keep enough locos running. 

 

After the accident an appeal was launched for his wife Martha and their three children, raising enough for her to set up as a shopkeeper. In addition the company let her carry on living in one of its cottages at the station. I suppose the costs of his tombstone probably came in large part from the appeal money. (Scaife was unmarried.)

 

At the inquest into the accident, the cause was held to be the thinness of the iron plates forming Surprise's boiler. This was probably exacerbated by rust - it had been left standing exposed to the weather at Birmingham's Vauxhall station for several months before its trial on the BGR. The inquest attached a deodand of £60 on the loco after the accident.

 

You might have though that would be the end of its career, but I see there's a Wikipedia entry claiming it was re-boilered and re-named Eclipse, and that it was rebuilt as a six-coupled loco by the Swansea Vale Railway in the late 1850s. To all of which, pending further evidence, I will just add my own mildly surprised "Hmm..."  

 

The locos on the Bromsgrove gravestones were chosen to represent the men's working lives rather than their deaths. Thomas Scaife's stone shows one of the larger banking locos used on the Lickey because he was a banking engine driver. Rutherford's stone shows a smaller Class B Norris loco that made up much of the company's early roster and passed through his works with worrying frequency.    

 

William Creuze's own fate says a lot about the problems Rutherford must have faced working under him.  He was scalded to death when a badly repaired Norris loco had a blowout in April 1841. The details of this accident caused a minor scandal within the company: the driver had left the loco in charge of the stoker on the main line, and the stoker had taken the opportunity to offer unauthorised trips along the line to members of the public - amazingly Creuze was present and allowed it to happen.  

 

Edit: there's a very interesting article on the accident and inquest here. I especially liked Dave Webb's photo of the restored gravestones (and noticed that the company's name has been corrected on Tom Scaife's stone):

Edited May 27, 2018 by Ian Simpson

[Killian keane]

Incidentally, when the 'Surprise' exploded, there was reputedly a spanner left insidethe boiler, origin of 'put a spanner in the works' perchance?

[Nearholmer]

The kind of surprise we can all do without.

 

Is there a drawing/description of the workings of this animal on line anywhere?

 

I’m intrigued by the unusual layout ...... it looks like a sort of samovar-powered machine.

 

K

[Ruston]

The kind of surprise we can all do without.

 

Is there a drawing/description of the workings of this animal on line anywhere?

 

I’m intrigued by the unusual layout ...... it looks like a sort of samovar-powered machine.

 

K

There is a small drawing of the loco in it's rebuilt/re-boilered state in the book that I mentioned previously.

[Annie]

Any ideas on what this amazing locomotive might be?

 

[Edwardian]

Bolton's Nightmare?!?

 

EDIT: Do a Google image search, just for a laugh, as the Bots' best guess is "lner c14 class"!

Edited June 14, 2018 by Edwardian

[Annie]

 

Could be the same engine, but without the cab. A Hetton's Colliery engine by Stephensons.

 

Apparently it's been preserved ( or at least one of the same type/class) after a working life of some 80 years.

 

 

Edited June 14, 2018 by Annie

[Ruston]

Replica of Hackworth's Sans Pareil, at the NRM, Shildon, yesterday.

 

The replica was alongside the real thing, which seems larger and certailny has a taller chimney. Presumably the replica was made to fit to present day loading gauge?

The wheels are so worn that they have become double flanged!

 

I was disappointed to find that what was the Timothy Hackworth museum, and the Soho Works, were closed and locked up. The last time I was there Sans Pareil was in the old Soho Works along with another later Hackworth engine.

[Compound2632]

Any ideas on what this amazing locomotive might be?

 

I don't think I've seen an iron horse ridden side-saddle before.

[Andy Hayter]

Killingworth Billy is, it seems, rather older than previously thought

 

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-tyne-44482970

[Edwardian]

Killingworth Billy is, it seems, rather older than previously thought

 

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-tyne-44482970

 

Fascinating, thank you.

 

And why had I not heard of the great Exhibition of the North?!?

 

Off to Gateshead this summer, clearly.

[runs as required]

The Killingworth loco doesn't have those chunkily distinctive smokebox wing plates bracing onto the running plates.

I tried googling them but got a screen full of platefuls of smoked chicken wings !

dh

[Annie]

The delights of Google searches  

[Ruston]

Any ideas on what this amazing locomotive might be?

 

That same photo is in the Industrial Railway Society Durham handbook, which says it is on the Hetton Railway of the Hetton Coal Co. and was built by George Stephenson in 1822 but rebuilt around 1903.

[Edwardian]

The Killingworth loco doesn't have those chunkily distinctive smokebox wing plates bracing onto the running plates.

 

 

So, it's not a Billy with a fringe on top?

[Compound2632]

 but rebuilt around 1903.

 

I thought that dished circular smokebox door looked far too modern.

Edited June 15, 2018 by Compound2632

[Andy Hayter]

Fascinating, thank you.

 

And why had I not heard of the great Exhibition of the North?!?

 

Off to Gateshead this summer, clearly.

 

Well if it's any joy James neither had I heard of it.  I lived in the North East for nearly twenty years in the 70s - 90s.  Maybe it wasn't there then.

[runs as required]

For more about this summer's Great Exhibition of the North starting on 22 June click here

[Annie]

Stalemate at the Causey Arch on Tanfield Wagonway, County Durham, 1750

Painting by Brian Fawcett.

 

Edited June 17, 2018 by Annie

[runs as required]

Is he threatening the red coated lackey with his whip - or operating the timber switch rail?

[Annie]

My impression was that there was an element of threat in the whip.

[Nearholmer]

Is it me, or has the artist struggled a bit with the immensely difficult task of drawing horses in perspective from above?