Beyer Peacock Locomotives for the Great Central Railway - A brief summary by Dennis Wilcock No.215 built in 1865 was one of a batch of four locomotives originally intended for the Sardinian Railways. They were the first locomotives Beyer Peacock supplied to the MS&LR. Note the brass makers nameplate on the forward driving wheel splasher. ANDREW DOW COLLECTION In Main Line No.161 I looked at Beyer Peacock, enabled the combined company to adopt the name the company. In this issue, I will look at the of the MS&LR (incorporated on 27th July, 1846) locomotives that company built for the GCR and coming into general use on 1st January, 1847. The its antecedents. new company was thus able to link the manufacturing powerhouse and port of Before embarking on an examination of the Manchester with Grimsby (and ultimately locomotives, it is worth looking at how the Immingham in 1912), New Holland and the North railway company, as we recognise it, came to exist. Sea. In doing so they were able to transport goods and passengers from the Atlantic to the North Sea The origins of the Great Central Railway (GCR) and onwards to Continental Europe and vice versa. can be traced back through the Manchester, The products of the Manchester cotton mills and Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway (MS&LR) to the coal from the Yorkshire coalfields thus gained the Sheffield, Ashton-under-Lyne and access to these markets. Were the pioneers men Manchester Railway (SA&MR - incorporated on of enterprise and vision? In 2014 a high speed 5th May, 1837) and prior schemes some of which route linking Liverpool with Hull, HS3, was failed to come to fruition. However, it was the proposed. Did someone say MS&LR? amalgamation of the SA&MR with the Great Grimsby and Sheffield Junction Railway (GG&SJR - incorporated on 30th June, 1845), the Grimsby Docks Company (incorporated on 8th August, 1845) and the Sheffield and Lincolnshire Junction Railway (S&LJR - incorporated on 3rd August, 1846) which The elegant Class 23 designed by Charles Sacré. No.246 of 1867 rests on the turntable at Hayfield. This outside framed design was the most numerous of the 0-6-0 goods locomotives designed by Sacré. ANDREW DOW COLLECTION It was on 1st August, 1897, as the London the control of traffic well beyond the bounds of Extension was being built, that the company the railway and thus benefited from the increased adopted the more fitting title of Great Central revenue that it brought. Railway, reflecting its new status as a trunk route into London. The railway companies’ ambitions were not limited to land and sea. In the 1930s the Great Throughout this time and up to the Grouping in Western Railway established air services. In 1923, the company had to equip itself with the March, 1934, the GWR combined with the LNER, locomotives to operate its ever-expanding LMS, SR and Imperial Airways to form Railway services. In stark contrast to today’s fragmented Air Services (RAS). In 1946, the government railway system, the railway companies, right up fearing that the railway companies were to the demise of British Rail in 1991, had a totally becoming transport conglomerates with different philosophy. They sought to own every monopolistic powers, formed the state owned aspect of their business right from the land on British European Airways Corporation (BEA) which the railway ran, the track and infrastructure and the services of RAS were absorbed into that and the carriages, wagons and locomotives. They company. further wished to own the track and infrastructure maintenance facilities and the means of Concentrating now on the locomotives, manufacturing, repairing and maintaining their independent builders were involved in two own carriages, wagons and locomotives. The periods of construction - that before and that after GCR and others went further by acquiring a fleet the railway companies had established their own of steamers that plied up and down the English manufacturing facilities. In the case of the coast and across to Europe. As a result, they had MS&LR Gorton Works, the Gorton Tank, had Beyer Peacock works photographs. Top: An un-numbered Class 15 2-4-0 of 1865 originally intended for Sardinian Railways. Left: Class 23 0-6-0 No.247 of July, 1867 in Works Grey without its tender. BOTH: MUSEUM OF SCIENCE & INDUSTRY/ SCIENCE & SOCIETY PICTURE LIBRARY Left: GCR Class 9F (LNER N5) 0-6-2T No.542 of February, 1894 stands outside Gartsides (Brookside Brewery) Ltd at Gorton c1920. Below: Classmates No.532 (December, 1893) and 519 (September, 1893) outside Manchester London Road c1920. The two locomotives were part of a batch of 66 built over the period 1893/94. BOTH: P F COOKE/RAIL ARCHIVE STEPHENSON been established in 1848 by Richard Peacock but and where Charles Frederick Beyer became was fully engaged in the repair and maintenance Chief Engineer. of locomotives, carriages and wagons. It was not 1846 - Fenton Craven where Richard Peacock until 1858 that Gorton manufactured its first served an apprenticeship locomotives - two Class 5 0-6-0s to be followed in 1859 by a further two members of the class. So 1847 - Fossick & Hackworth for the period from 1841, when the first - W J & J Garforth locomotive, a 0-4-2, was built by Kirtley for the - Tulk & Ley SA&MR, to 1858, locomotive building was in the 1848 - Rayne & Burn hands of the independent builders. During that period a total of 125 locomotives were built for - E B Wilson the SA&MR, GG&SJR and MS&LR. 1849 - R & W Hawthorn Table 1 shows the locomotive builders for the - William Fairburn & Sons MS&LR/GCR. Up to 1858 it reads like a veritable 1853 - Sharp Stewart the company that Who’s Who of early locomotive builders. In order emanated from Sharp Bros when John Sharp of first locomotive built the companies were as retired in 1852 and Charles Patrick Stewart took follows: over and the year that Beyer left the company. 1841 - Kirtley 1856 - George England - Robert Stephenson Many of the names will be familiar but some less 1842 - Sharp Roberts so. Fenton Craven & Co is perhaps one of the 1843 - Sharp Bros the company formed when lesser known companies. It had its origins in the the partnership at Sharp Roberts was dissolved Railway Foundry in Hunslet, Leeds and was GCR 9H Class (LNER J10) No.832 built in February, 1897. This Pollitt design was the forerunner of the famous Pom Pom and continued in production until that design emerged in 1901. ANDREW DOW COLLECTION formed in 1846 but was taken over and became Crampton locomotives which had the single E B Wilson later in the same year. driving axle behind the firebox, enabling them to have very large driving wheels. The two Another of the lesser known companies is Tulk locomotives purchased by the MS&LR were of and Ley. An iron mining company, in 1843 they that design. They were not successful. established an engineering works at Lowca near Whitehaven. They are best known for building Rayne & Burn were agents and almost certainly sub-contracted the building of the Table 1 - Locomotive Builders for the MS&LR locomotive credited to them. and GCR Builder Build Period Number Built 1820 to 1850 was a period of very rapid industrialisation and companies MS&L/MS&L(S)/GCR 1858-1922 926 with some engineering expertise Beyer Peacock 1865-1922 282 became involved in locomotive Neilson & Co/Neilson, Reid 1865-1902 171 building. Some were successful but many were not. Steam technology had Kitson & Co. 1859-1912 130 to be mastered as did the machinery North British 1905-1913 62 and processes required to build a Sharp Stewart 1853-1903 60 working locomotive. It is quite Sharp Bros 1843-1850 52 remarkable how much success was achieved in the embryonic industry. Vulcan Foundry 1903-1921 47 In 1846, Charles Frederick Beyer Burnham, Williams 1900 20 reported that one of his locomotives, R & W Hawthorn 1849-1850 18 No.25, a precursor of the famous Sharp Goods, had hauled 101 wagons Yorkshire Engine Co 1904-1906 15 weighing 597 tons over a distance of William Fairburn & Sons 1849-1859 12 29 miles at an average speed of Robert Stephenson 1841-1853 11 13.7mph. In the period between May, E B Wilson 1848-1865 9 1846 and October, 1847, the locomotive ran 40,222 miles with an W J & J Garforth 1847-1849 8 average coke consumption (early Manning Wardle 1876-1883 6 steam locomotives used coke and not Fossick & Hackworth 1847-1848 5 coal) of 39.74 lbs per mile. These were prodigious feats from the earliest Sharp Roberts 1842 3 days of steam and no doubt gave the Kirtley 1841 3 SA&MR the confidence to buy so Tulk & Ley 1847-1848 2 many of the Sharp products in its Fenton Craven 1846 1 earliest days. George England 1856 1 Of course, not everything was so Rayne & Burn 1848 1 successful. The first three Table 2 - Locomotives built by Beyer Peacock for the the GCR was absorbed into the MS&LR and the GCR LNER at the Grouping. From the total of 1845 locomotives built it Year GCR LNER Designer Wheel Number is notable that the total of Class Class Arrangement Built locomotives built at the Gorton 1865 15 Sacré 2-4-0 4 Tank was 915 with a further 11 1867 23 Sacré 0-6-0 20 being built at the company’s 1893 9F N5 Parker 0-6-2T 17 Sheffield locomotive shed (MS&LR(S)). The period over 1894 9F N5 Parker 0-6-2T 25 which the companies built the 1896 9F N5 Parker 0-6-2T 2 locomotives is also given in the 1896 9H J10 Pollitt 0-6-0 39 table.