What 0-6-0 Tank Engine Designs Were Around in 1870?

[JayWizzleHizzle]

I'm currently trying to model a fictional railway from a certain book series. Pretty much all known about the engines is that they were 0-6-0 designs- we don't know what kind of tanks they had, who built them, or anything like that. Since information regarding the railway is scarce, so I have to make some assumptions about it and go from there. I feel confident in saying the railway, formed in 1870, was a steam railway from day 1 given the distance the line spanned (roughly 15 miles) and the amount of traffic it catered. Thusly, I place the engines at being built in or before 1870. (Perhaps the line used engines owned by the contractors that built it till it had its own engines, but we're never told.) The railway was a small one so it can also be assumed that the engines would have been purchased from a manufacturer in England rather than built on site..

 

My question then is what possible 0-6-0 designs would be the most likely candidates for the railway to be running? I'm trying to look through a list of early private locomotive builders in England, but the list is massive and the information for all but the more well-known companies (Sharp, Stewart & Co., Robert Stephenson & Co.,  Fletcher Jennings, Hunslet, etc.) is minimal at best.

 

At present, my best guess is a Manning-Wardle K class. Manning Wardle is based in West Yorkshire, not too far from where the railway would be located, and produced plenty of engines by this time already. I'm already designing a body to be 3d modeled and printed going off this assumption. Specifically, I'm basing it off Sharpthorn at the Bluebell Railway, built in 1877.

Snazzy, eh? But here's where things get agonizing interesting. Information regarding Manning Wardle designs are scarce at best, and I can't find anything regarding whether or not the K classes are older than 1877 or not. MW definitely made engines prior to 1870, but all I can find were 0-4-0s. So if not a Manning Wardle K class, or even a MW at all, what would be a good candidate for these engines given these constraints?

Edited January 3, 2022 by JayWizzleHizzle

[Mol_PMB]

The database on leedsengine.info should help.

Search for builder like MW, wheels like 0-6-0, sort by date. 

Mol

[burgundy]

You might want to have a look at RTModels, who do a kit in 4mm scale for the Manning Wardle Old Class I.

It is the small one in the middle.

Best wishes 

Eric 

 

Edited January 3, 2022 by burgundy

[eastglosmog]

You could try looking in Bennett's "The Chronicles of Boulton's Siding" (The Locomotive Publishing Co, 1927).  Whilst not the most accurate of books, it contains drawings and details of a number of 0-6-0 tanks of the 1860-1880 period (including a Manning Wardle or two).  Many of the locos were rebuilt as tanks by Boulton in your time period.  As a well known (at the time) second hand loco merchant, Boulton could well have been the source an impoverished minor railway company would turn to.

[brack]

The cornwall minerals railway 060t dated from 1873-4:

 

 

Sharp, Stewart products, they had 18 of them. Half were kept by the GWR and rebuilt as saddle tanks, the last of which made it into the 1930s. The 1361 and 1366 classes were GW built developments of the rebuilds.

The other 9 were sold to the colney valley and Lynn & Fakenham. with some rebuilt to tender locos and some as 240s.

[Nick Holliday]

6 hours ago, JayWizzleHizzle said:

Snazzy, eh? But here's where things get agonizing interesting. Information regarding Manning Wardle designs are scarce at best, and I can't find anything regarding whether or not the K classes are older than 1877 or not. MW definitely made engines prior to 1870, but all I can find were 0-4-0s. So if not a Manning Wardle K class, or even a MW at all, what would be a good candidate for these engines given these constraints?

According to Mabbott's listing, the fourth and fifth locos MW produced, in 1859, were of the Old I class 0-6-0ST, and produced up at least to 1875.  A well-photographed survivor, from 1861, was Siddlesham on the Selsey Tramway, or Lady Portsmouth and Jumbo on the LSWR, dating from 1862.  The first K Class 0-6-0ST appeared around 1863/4.

These were really industrial locos, and not originally intended for passenger service, although later some were used as such, such as on Colonel Stephens'' lines.  Other manufacturers were making similar saddle tanks, such as the ones built by Hunslet in 1866, used on the Great Central main line construction, and well documented on-line, as well as a nice little book, Contractors Locomotives G.C. R. published by Leicestershire Museums ISBN 0 0500435 6 7, if you can get hold of it!

Another interesting source book, if you can find it, is Part Ten of the RCTS GWR Locomotives series, Absorbed Engines. (Also Part Nine - covering 1854-1921) The early locos of a number of lines, primarily Welsh, are documented and illustrated with a wide variety of pre-1870 makers, and styles of tank, including well and side tank, and a few outside cylinder variants too.  Many of these lines started off in dire financial straits and procured the cheapest locos then available to tide them over.  Some, such as the Cambrian Railways, eventually prospered, whilst others continued as minor lines, occupying small niches in railway history. 

If you want something really unusual, but prototypical, you could try a standard gauge Fairlie loco. The Burry Port & Gwendraeth Valley Railway had a couple, one arrived in 1870 and survived until 1891.  The Neath & Brecon Railway also had a couple, but they were even less successful, and only ran for a couple of years, although one was hired to the Brecon & Merthyr Railway for a few months in 1870 before slipping into obscurity.  Perhaps an interesting purchase for your line at an opportune moment?

 

[doilum]

Try googling Bellerophon. Whilst originally a colliery loco it just about meets your time frame.

[Nearholmer]

The Industrial Railway Society has a lot of magazines freely viewable on its website, and there are lots of “old crocks” in those.

[wagonman]

The first MW K class were built in 1864 – and the last in 1914 – but as said these were primarily contractors' locos. For general traffic something larger would be more appropriate. Many of the loco builders had their own standard designs, particularly Sharp Stewart and Beyer Peacock. 00 Works are about to produce a model of the LSWR 0330 class which was actually a standard Beyer design sold to several other railways (mostly overseas) from the late 1860s.

 

It would be useful to have rather more information about the railway proposed, but at 15 miles long it would be unlikely to have more than 2 or 3 locos.

Edited January 3, 2022 by wagonman

[brack]

45 minutes ago, wagonman said:

00 Works are about to produce a model of the LSWR 0330 class which was actually a standard Beyer design sold to several other railways

Dad's had one of these for a few months, it's a nice model and runs well, and as you say a genuine 1870s design. The green Cork, Bandon & South Coast one is probably the best 'freelance-friendly' livery/details rather than the GSR grey, lswr or SR versions.

 

When I looked at some of my reference material as prompted by this thread I couldn't help but notice that 042st or 240t seemed perhaps more common for mixed or passenger traffic at that time period.

 

 

[sir douglas]

as aready mentioned, the K class goes back to the 1860's which was a development of the old I and that goes back to E.B.Wilson designs of the 1850's, there was also the "West Yorkshire" tank, 2 of which from 1867 were absorbed by the Great Northern from the West Yorkshire Railway. MW 250 "Marquis" and 251

https://www.irsociety.co.uk/Archives/54/Marquis.htm

 

 

Queen of 1867 of the Dudley Ironworks

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2e/0-6-0_locomotive_'Queen'_(Manning_Wardle_No_227_of_1867).jpg

[JayWizzleHizzle]

2 hours ago, wagonman said:

The first MW K class were built in 1864 – and the last in 1914 – but as said these were primarily contractors' locos. For general traffic something larger would be more appropriate. Many of the loco builders had their own standard designs, particularly Sharp Stewart and Beyer Peacock. 00 Works are about to produce a model of the LSWR 0330 class which was actually a standard Beyer design sold to several other railways (mostly overseas) from the late 1860s.

 

It would be useful to have rather more information about the railway proposed, but at 15 miles long it would be unlikely to have more than 2 or 3 locos.

From the wiki: "The railway was originally built in 1870 as an industrial line, running along the coast between Crosby and Suddery, with an intermediate station at Wellsworth. It was run by four 0-6-0 tank engines. It eventually developed a considerable passenger clientèle, and served an unspecified number of lead and zinc mines along its route."

 

"...which resulted in the railway extending south along the coast to Brendam in the early 1900s..." This is something I realize now eventually brought the line to about 25 miles if my map notes are correct.

 

This information I'm re-reading gives me a few ideas. I think the K classes could still be feasible, if only because the contractors may have sold them some of their engines, or maybe got them in contact with MW to buy some engines. You could also call it the sunk cost fallacy since I already bought a Hattons P Class to use for its chassis. Still, if it was mostly contractor builds, Sharp Stewart or Beyer Peacock would be likelier options. I'll have to look into what they both offer in regards to 0-6-0 tanks.

 

 

 

 

[Mol_PMB]

As well as Manning Wardle, the other Leeds builders such as Hunslet, Hudswell Clarke* and Kitson were building 0-6-0 tanks in the late 1860s and early 1870s.

Learn about a chap called E.B. Wilson!

* strictly Hudswell&Clarke, then Hudswell, Clarke & Rodgers.