steves17

Some great stuff here guys 👍

Been trying to compile information on this fascinating little class and noticed there's fair amount of contradictory information on them but Their origins seems to hark to 1870 when Frövi - Ludvika Järnväg

ordered a batch of back-to-back saddle tanks.

They arrived in 71 and a follow up order was made in 73. The Cornish order, E643 was made just prior to the Swedish Central Railway's as theirs was designated E660. The saddle tanks had a capacity of a 1000gals over the 780 figure for the combined side tanks but while the wheelbase and drivers were equal the cylinders for the Cornish engines were larger 16.25"x20" over 14"x18. and likewise the heating surface was greater 823.5sq. ft. vs 741sq. ft.

Trevithick obviously had some influence on the design but as can be seen Sharp Stewart must of done a lot of the heavy lifting. William Richardson Roebuck ordered the 18 tanks in 73 but the 15 unnamed engines were completed in 74. They arrived as the roundhouse and other parts of the network were still under construction. Roebuck was caught out by the overproduction of China clay and the envisaged traffic on the CMR was never reached. As such it's believed a number of the 18 builds were never steamed while it's not clear if they ever worked back-to-back either. In 77 Roebuck opened negotiations with the GWR to work the line and this was signing was sanctioned on the 10th of August for them to do so on the 1st of October. The GWR kept on 9 to operate the traffic while 3 were sent back to Sharp Stewart to settle some of the outstanding £43200 they were bought for. The remaining six were stored at St Blazey and in the early part of 1880 W.J.Man inspected five of them officially for the Lynn & Fakenham but more so as a favour for John Crabtree, the Managing Director of the CV&HR, who was keen to curtail the renting of engines from the GER. Finances only allowed for one engine to be purchased and Works No.2358 was acquired on the 8th of May. It does not seem the engine returned to its maker and based on the fact that the CMR numberplates are still in place in this photo below it was not immediately repainted dark green, though a spectacle plate was soon added to make reverse running more tolerable for the crewmen. 

Mr W. Bailey Hawkins was both Chairman of the CV&HR and South Hetton Colliery which is no doubt how the engine was sold to the latter in 89, by which time it had already been renamed Haverhill.

It survived long enough for become NCB property but was cut up between the 18th of May & 2nd of July 1948. Prior to a photo taken on the 15th of April 1933 No.2 was already in its final form feating dumb buffers, a built up chimney, an iron and wooden cab and a rear bunker, the original coal space area having been cut back to make some room for this set up.

between books such as 'The Locomotives of the Great Western Railway Part Three Absorbed Engines' which states that the three sold back to Sharp Stewart were given bunkers, while the diagram featured in 'An illustrated History of M&GNJR Locomotives' shows the firm only extended the roof and added some kind of back sheet in place of the original 'walk through' design. Anyhoo I'm wondering if anyone can clear up whether the five sold to the Lynn & Fakenham were purchased and sent to Sharp Stewart & Co for their tender fitting in March 81, or if this is when they were delivered to the Lynn & Fakenham (Absorbed says they were sold at this point while 'The Midland & Great Northern Joint Railway and its Locomotives' states this is when the already delivered three were reunited with the five with their tenders already added).

Also a bit of long shot but does anyone reading this own 'The Colne Valley and Halstead Railway' by Peter Page? It looks a good modern book over previous softbacks on the line, but a bit reluctant to fork out £40+ without knowing if there's anything of note on the lone engine that found its way there and later South Hetton Colliery.

Regards

Steve

Can someone enlighten me about Truro's larger sandboxes? I know when he was first restored to service he had the orange-Indian Red type colour on them to match the frames but the preserved era Bachmann model has green ones. This is also true with the real Truro in later days (1994 is the earliest coloured photo i've found it with green ones so far but my main reference book doesn't go much further past than after it was being dismantled following the 1894 BR livery April fools event but I have a black frame livery pic of him in 1989 visiting the Netherlands) so i'm wondering if the former colour was simply an erroneous assumption that was later corrected for the entwined monogram livery or if the decision was made to instead change it to green for different reasons and if so why?   

Also beside the presence of the frame strengthening lengths below the driving axel boxes am I correct to assume that George Heiron's painting of Truro during his 1904 hurricane descent to be erroneous in that it depicts him with painted numbers on the bufferbeam?

I did try a few search engines first but i'm struggling with this and none of my books cover such a subject-does anyone recognise this type of platform trolley ( the green scooter lookalike with a '3' on it ).

I'm guessing its electric/battery operated and i'm half tempted to say the illustration was adapted from a King's Cross photo from around the 1950s but i've not come across anything similar to it before.