RAILWAY AND CANAL HISTORICAL SOCIETY EARLY RAILWAY GROUP Occasional Paper 256 [ editor’s note: this paper is in reply to a query from Ian Martin in Circular 37: “Can anyone identify this rail from the Kidderminster Railway Museum? It has either a W or M cast into it, but there are no further details.” From Chris Lee: “The iron rail at Kidderminster Museum is a Jessop edge rail. There is a photo of a similar rail on page 9 with description on page 10 (top) in The Railway, British Track Since 1804, by Andrew Dow (Pen and Sword, 2014), NRM archive record photo 1892-1071. According to Dow, the “W” indicates a Wide tread. I have no special knowledge of this rail, but yesterday I was trying to reference some track for a different subject (Penydarren) and recalled seeing the photo during my search.” And see the related Railway & Canal Historical Society, Early Railway Group Occasional Paper [ERG OP] 255, Michael Lewis, ‘The Leicester Navigationʼs Forest Line: a myth debunked’.] __________________________________________________ Butterley Company Edge Rails: their use at Belvoir Castle and elsewhere Rowan Patel The Butterley Company of Ripley, Derbyshire, originally named Benjamin Outram & Co., is well known as a supplier of rails for use in the construction of early iron railways. Butterley began casting rails in the late 18th century and continued to do so until cast-iron rails fell from favour, having been superseded by wrought iron as the material of choice. The company was especially active as a rail supplier from 1794 through until the early 1820s, a large fraction of the period when cast iron was the favoured material for permanent way.2 Philip Riden concluded that Butterley ‘occupied an important, possibly uniquely important, position in the railway scene between the introduction of the plate rail and about 1815’.3 1 [According to the NRM catalogue, 1892-107 is, “Two lengths of fish-belly cast iron rail, Loughborough” – and see Lewis, ERG OP 255 - Ed]. 2 P. J. Riden, ‘The Butterley Company and Railway Construction, 1790-1830’, Transport History, vol. 6, no. 1 (Mar. 1973), 30-52. 3 Riden 1973, 49. 1 Butterley was primarily a supplier of plate rails rather than edge rails. Indeed, the company’s founder Benjamin Outram became the major exponent of this type of rail, having adopted plateways with enthusiasm less than five years after they were first used on the surface (they had previously been used below ground).4 Despite its association with plate rails, however, Butterley also cast edge rails, which the company’s management came to see as superior to plate rails in later years. Riden has stated that ‘large quantities of edge rails’ cast by Butterley ‘went to the North East to John Buddle and John Goodchild’.5 Butterley first supplied rails to Buddle in early 1809, for use at Benwell Colliery just west of Newcastle. These rails were fish-bellied, 3 feet in length and with holes at either end. They were also butt-jointed and sat in chairs containing two holes in each cheek, such that the rails could be secured using cross pins.6 Rails of this type were entirely typical of North Eastern practice at this time,7 but were unknown in the vicinity of the Butterley works, for that area was then dominated by the plate rail, as was most of England. In less than 5 years however, Butterley was to cast edge-rails for local use, and these were of the company’s own design. Rails of this unusual pattern were produced by the Butterley Company at various times from 1813 onwards, becoming something of a speciality for the ironworks in the later years of cast-iron rails. These rails were associated with a number of railways engineered by Josias Jessop (1781-1826), the son of William Jessop senior (1745-1814), civil engineer and an early partner in the Butterley Company. The rails in question saw use on a number of railways in the midland counties of England. They are fish-bellied in form and did not use chairs. In all cases, one end of the rail incorporates a rectangular plate – best termed the ‘foot’. This foot contains a single hole, through which the rails were spiked to stone blocks. The other end of these rails terminates with a complex joint, which interlocked with the foot of the next rail, and in so doing, hid from view the spikes which held the rails down. It is a rail of this type which Ian Martin asked about in Circular 37. Although these rails are all broadly similar, there are notable differences between the rails as used at different locations – forming an interrelated family of rails, which show subtle differences. These differences are distinctive enough, whilst these Butterley edge rails are sufficiently idiosyncratic, that the rail at Kidderminster Railway Museum can be identified with confidence as originating from the Belvoir Castle Railway (Figure 1). Some dimensions of a rail from this line will be provided in this Occasional Paper, and by comparison with these, it should be possible to prove beyond doubt that Belvoir Castle is the source of the Kidderminster rail. Figure 1: A Butterley Company edge rail cast for the Belvoir Castle line (courtesy of Ian Castledine) 4 Rowan Patel, ‘The early development of the Outram-pattern plateway 1793-1796’, Journal of the Railway & Canal Historical Society, vol. 39, pt. 6 (Nov. 2018), 326-30. 5 Riden 1973, 32, 40-1. 6 Information courtesy of Michael Lewis, citing North of England Institute of Mining and Mechanical Engineers (NEIMME), Buddle vol. 23, fos. 55-835 passim (letters to Butterley) and Buddle vol. 4 (letters from Butterley). 7 M. J. T. Lewis, ‘Bar to fish-belly: the evolution of the cast-iron edge rail’, Early Railways 2 (Newcomen Society, 2003), 105. 2 The variations displayed by these rails, as used at different locations, have not been discussed previously. That being the case, it is worth placing some details on record of all the known examples of this rail type, considering the similarities and differences shown by the known variants, along with the date of each use. Rails of this type are known to have been used at the following five locations:-8 Belvoir Castle Railway (1813-1815) Mansfield & Pinxton Railway (1817-1819) Portland Railway, an extension of the M&P (1823) Codnor Park, Butterley Co. lines (c. 1825) Cromford & High Peak Railway (1825-1827, completed 1831) This pattern of fish-bellied rail was first used on the Belvoir Castle Railway, engineered by Josias Jessop and opened in 1815. This line connected the ancestral home of the Dukes of Rutland to a wharf on the Grantham Canal. The rails were probably designed by William Jessop junior (c. 1783- 1852), who took over management of the Butterley Company following Benjamin Outram’s untimely death in 1805.9 Josias Jessop, as both the line’s engineer and brother of Butterley’s manager, was presumably consulted, and may also have been involved in developing this type of rail, although the relative roles which the two brothers had in designing these rails cannot now be determined. The rails for the Belvoir Castle line were supplied by the Butterley Company, and information on the rails cast for the line are detailed in Furnace Ledger B, the company’s second-earliest extant ledger. The earliest relevant entry is on 8th December 1813, when the first ‘1257 Gang Rails’ and ‘Four Thousand Rail Blocks’ are listed. Rails continued to be cast throughout 1814, and up until 1st March 1815, when the ledger lists ‘4 Short Gang Rails’ and ‘Gang Nails’.10 In Butterley Company records a ‘Gang Rail’ is the standard terminology for a rail, generally used in reference to plate rails, but here evidently referring to edge rails. The rails listed in the ledger weighed 40 lb each, and this weight is consistent with surviving rails from the Belvoir Castle line. Butterley did not generally provide stone blocks and wrought iron track spikes, for they simply supplied the rails which they cast.11 However, the company did supply these items for the Belvoir Castle line, since they constructed this railway under contract, rather than simply acting as a rail supplier. Butterley Furnace Ledger B once again provides some details, in the account for 'His Grace the Duke of Rutland'.12 The details given are:- forming making & completing the Railway from Muston Wharf to Belvoir Inn per contract - £2577 do do do from the Inn to the Castle - £695 do do do from the main road at the Wharf to the Brick Kiln 183 yds long - £198 10s These particulars, amounting to £3470 10s, appear to cover the full length of the line, which ran from Muston Gorse Wharf on the Grantham Canal to Belvoir Castle itself. 8 Lewis 2003, 104-5; Martyn Taylor-Cockayne & Stuart Saint, The Portland Path (The Portland Path Project, 2012), 30, 49. 9 Riden 1973, 31. 10 Derbyshire Record Office (DRO), D503/41/1, fo. 733. Further examination of the Butterley ledgers would doubtless shed additional light on the rails discussed in this Occasional Paper. 11 Riden 1973, 39. 12 DRO, D503/41/1, fo. 109. The list comes to the end of the page in Ledger B, which finishes 'Carried to fo. 92 Ledger C', but that ledger (DRO, D503/29/3) has not been consulted. 3 The rail shown in Circular 37 has all the distinguishing features of a Belvoir Castle rail. It also has an ‘M’ cast into the side, which is known to be the case for some rails from this line, there being surviving examples which bear this letter.