R. Stephenson and Co., in 1833, constructed a locomotive for the Saratoga and Schenectady Rail Road of America, which deserves mention from the fact that it had a leading bogie, rendered necessary because of the sharp curves on the Saratoga and Schenectady Rail Road. R. Stephenson named this locomotive the “Bogie,” because the low wagons used on the quarries at Newcastle were locally called “bogies,” and it was from these vehicles that he developed the idea of providing a small truck to carry the leading end of the locomotive in question. Ever since 1833 the swivelling truck used for supporting locomotives and other railway rolling stock has, in England, been designated the “bogie.”

Richard Roberts, of the firm of Sharp, Roberts and Co. (the predecessors of Sharp, Stewart and Co., Limited), in the year 1833, turned his attention to locomotive construction. His initial effort was of a somewhat novel kind. Four locomotives of his first design were constructed, one—“Experiment”—for the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, and the others for the Dublin and Kingstown Railway. The cylinders, which were 11in. diameter, were placed in a vertical position on the frames, just at the point were the boiler entered the smoke-box. By means of cross-heads and side-links the motion was conveyed to a bell-crank, and so transmitted by a connecting-rod to the driving wheels. There was, of course, a similar arrangement of cylinder, crank, etc., on both sides of the engine. The stroke was 16in. The driving wheels, 5ft. in diameter, were placed in front of the fire-box, and had inside bearings; the leading wheels were located below the vertical cylinders, and had outside bearings. The pump was placed in a horizontal position above the frame over the driving wheels, and was worked by a rod actuated by the vertical member of the bell-crank.

The “Experiment” (Fig. 24) was unsuccessful, and was rebuilt, when a third pair of wheels was added, and the position of the cylinders, bell-crank, etc., altered. The valves were, also of a novel kind, patented by Mr. Roberts in 1832. Colburn thus describes them: “The valve, of wrought-iron, was formed of two concentric tubes or pipes, the larger pipe having holes perforated to admit steam from the steam-pipe into the annular space. This annular space was closed steam-tight at each end of the valve, and steam could only escape from it alternately to each end of the cylinder through the slots. The exhaust steam passed from one end of the cylinder directly into the waste pipe, and from the other end it traversed the interior of the pipe of the cylindrical valve. These valves did not work well, as they did not expand equally with their cast-iron casings when heated by steam. For this reason the cylinder valves were soon abandoned. It should be mentioned that, in Mr. Roberts’ first engines, the valve for each cylinder was worked with a motion derived from the opposite side of the engine. No eccentrics were employed, the requisite motion being taken from a pin near the fulcrum of each bell-crank, and transmitted thence through suitable gearing to the valve attached to the cylinder on the opposite side of the engine.”

The engines used on the Dundee and Newtyle Railway, constructed in 1833, partook somewhat of the character of Roberts’s “Experiment,” inasmuch that right-angled cranks and vertical cylinders were employed, the diameter of the latter being 11in., and stroke 18in. These engines were named “Earl of Airlie” and “Lord Wharncliffe,” and were constructed by J. and C. Carmichael, of Dundee. Both these engines were delivered at the end of September, 1833. The “single” driving wheels were placed in the leading position, the axle being just behind the smoke-box. The cylinders were placed on the side frames, about midway between the two ends.

The piston-rods worked upwards, and the motion was conveyed by means of rods from the piston cross-heads. These connecting-rods passed down outside the pistons, and were connected to one end of the bell-cranks, which were fixed beyond the cylinders, with the pivots over the centre of the second pair of wheels. From the lower ends of the bell-cranks the driving-rods were pivoted, the other ends being connected to the outside cranks of the driving wheels. The fire-box end of the engines was supported on a four-wheel truck or bogie. These engines weighed 9½ tons each, and cost £700 each. An ordinary four-wheel wagon, fitted with a water-butt, was used for a tender.

An engine of similar design was ordered from Stirling and Co., of the East Foundry, Dundee, and delivered on March 3rd, 1834.

Mr. A. Sturrock, the first manager of Swindon Works, and afterwards locomotive superintendent of the Great Northern Railway, helped to construct this engine, which was named “Trotter.” Mr. Sturrock was at the time an apprentice at the East Foundry.

The gauge of the Dundee and Newtyle Railway was only 4ft. 6in., but when the line was taken over by the Dundee and Perth Railway the gauge was altered to the normal gauge of Great Britain. The original engine, “Earl of Airlie,” after some alteration, of course, could not run on the railway, but for some years after the change the “Earl of Airlie” was employed as a stationary pumping engine.

Stephenson’s four-wheel passenger engines with a short wheel base were found to be very unsteady at the very moderate speeds then attained, and he, therefore, added a pair of trailing wheels, thus constructing a six-wheel “single” passenger engine. Stephenson considered that the moderate wheel base of these small engines with six wheels would, on the easy curves of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, offer considerable resistance, so he took out a patent, in which he provided that the middle or driving pair of wheels should be without flanges (or flanchès, as they were then called). He claimed that by this modification the six-wheel passenger engine would pass round curves with much less strain and greater safety. The first engine so constructed by Stephenson he designated the “Patentee,” and she was delivered to the Liverpool and Manchester Railway in January, 1834. She had outside frames, inside cylinders, 18in. stroke, 12in. diameter; the driving wheels were 5ft. diameter.

George Forrester and Co., Vauxhall Foundry, Liverpool, in 1834 constructed a six-wheel engine named “Swiftsure.” This locomotive possessed many novel features. It had outside horizontal cylinders; the frames were also outside, thus making the cylinders a considerable distance apart. The connecting-rods were keyed on cranks, at some distance outside the frames, whilst the fact that the driving wheels were not counterbalanced caused the engines of this class to be most unsteady at even moderate speeds, and they were soon known by the sobriquet of “Boxers.” Colburn says: “A few pounds of iron properly disposed in the rims of the driving wheels would have redeemed the reputation of these engines.” The arrangement of cylinders and frames allowed the leading wheels to be placed well forward, the total length of the frames of the “Swiftsure” being 17ft. The driving wheels were 5ft. diameter, and the cylinders 11in.; the stroke was 18in.

In the “Boxer” Forrester employed his patent valve gear, with vertical gab ends and four eccentrics.

A portion of the Newcastle and Carlisle Railway was opened March 9th, 1835, and R. and W. Hawthorn constructed the first engines for that railway. No. 1 was the “Comet,” (Fig. 25), a four-wheel (coupled) locomotive; the cylinders (12in. diameter, 16in. stroke) were placed below the smoke-box, the connecting-rods passing under the leading axle. The wheels were 4ft. diameter. Hawthorn’s valve gear was used in the engines of this class, which was actuated by four fixed eccentrics. The “Comet” continued to work on the Newcastle and Carlisle Railway for a number of years, and was afterwards used as a stationary engine for driving the steam saws at the Forth Bank Engine Works, Newcastle. She was so engaged up to and subsequently to 1863.

About 1836 short-stroke locomotives came into favour, and Tayleur and Co. built ten for the Liverpool and Manchester Railway. Although the cylinders were 14in. diameter, the stroke was only 12in. We need scarcely add the experiment was not successful, although some of the original broad-gauge engines were built with short strokes. These will, however, be dealt with fully later on.

In 1836 R. Stephenson and Co. constructed the “Harvey Combe” locomotive. She was a ballast engine, and was engaged in the construction of the London and Birmingham Railway. R. Stephenson had a minute description of this engine written by W. P. Marshall, and the work in question is stated to be “the most perspicuous and the illustrations of the most elaborate kind of any work describing a locomotive.”

The fact that at once strikes the intelligent reader as peculiar is that, although the “Harvey Combe” was designed “for conveying the earth excavated in the construction of a line of railway,” as Marshall “perspicuously” puts it (but which we should shortly describe as a “ballast” engine), she is a “single” engine! and, therefore, is not much like a modern six-coupled ballast engine. She cost £1,400, and was of 50 horse-power.

The principal dimensions of the “Harvey Combe” were: Cylinders, 12in. by 18in.; driving wheels, 5ft., and leading and trailing 3ft. 6in. diameter; 102 tubes, 1⅝in. internal diameter; total heating surface, 480ft.; weight, empty, 10 tons; with fuel and water, 11 tons 18 cwt. No flanges were provided to the driving wheels. Although the “Harvey Combe” was built for, and had rough usage as, a ballast engine, yet, when at the end of 1837 Nicholas Wood was making experiments for the purposes of his report to the Great Western Railway as to the broad-gauge, the “Harvey Combe” was the principal narrow-gauge engine with which he experimented. With a gross load (including engine, etc.) of 81 tons, she attained a speed of 25 to 53 miles an hour, and consumed 0.47lb. of coke per ton per mile. With a gross load of 50 tons the speed reached was only 32.88 miles an hour, with the above coal consumption.

In 1836, Hackworth built a locomotive of novel construction—viz., with double-acting ram or trunk engines, by means of which piston-rods were dispensed with, the connecting-rods being pivoted directly on to the piston and oscillated within the trunk.

This was the first locomotive engine ever seen in Russia. She commenced work on the Zarskoe-Selo Railway on November 18th, 1836, a religious service being held and the locomotive consecrated before the first train was run. Of this engine the Russian Emperor remarked in English, “It is the finest I ever saw.” An old officer of the Stockton and Darlington Railway, informs the writer that a locomotive on the double-acting trunk principle was also built by Hackworth for that line, and so far as his memory serves him, he believes it was the “Arrow” passenger engine. The “Arrow” had leading and trailing wheels 3ft. 6in. diameter; driving wheels, 5ft. 6in. diameter; 135 tubes in the boiler of 1¾in. diameter; cylinders, 20in. in diameter, and with a stroke of only 9in.!

We have already mentioned the first engine (the “Comet”) supplied to the Newcastle and Carlisle Railway, but several of the other early locomotives used on that line were powerful ones, and their design in advance of the generality of locomotives then in use. Thus, the “Goliath,” one of the first engines supplied to the line by Hawthorn, in March, 1837, hauled a train consisting of 63 wagons of coal, weighing 267 tons, 12 miles in less than 40 minutes.

The “Goliath” had six-coupled wheels 4ft. diameter, cylinders 14in. diameter, 18in. stroke. Total heating surface 550.91 sq. ft. Weight, empty, 11¾ tons; in working order, 13 tons. The “Atlas,” built by R. Stephenson and Co. in 1836, drew a train of 100 wagons, loaded with coal, coke, and lime, and weighing 450 tons, 10¾ miles in 45 minutes, but this was on a falling gradient, varying from 1 in 215 to 1 in 106. This locomotive was also six-coupled, the wheels being 4ft. diameter; cylinders, 14in. by 18in. stroke; heating surface, 553.77 sq. ft., weighing 10 tons 6 cwt. empty, and 11 tons 6¾ cwt. in working trim. Another small locomotive on the Newcastle and Carlisle Railway, named “Tyne,” built by Hawthorn, is worthy of notice, for the reason that the first steam organ was fitted to the engine. This was the invention of the Rev. James Birket, of Ovingham. It was fixed on the top of the fire-box, and was thus described: “The organ consists of eight pipes, tuned to compass an octave, but without any intervening tones or semi-tones. This is the first attempt to adapt a musical instrument to the steam engine capable of producing a tune, and though not so perfect as to admit of all the pleasing variety and combination of sound capable of being produced by the instrument to which we have compared it, there is no doubt but very considerable improvements will be made in this steam musical instrument by the inventor, who is a skilful musician as well as an ingenious mechanic.”

The “Tyne” had cylinders 13½in. by 16in. stroke, and four wheels, 4ft. 6in. diameter; she weighed only 9½ tons. After working for many years, a pair of trailing wheels 3ft. 6in. diameter was added, thus making her a six-wheel engine, with the leading and driving wheels coupled. She continued to work on the Newcastle and Carlisle Railway till the end of 1857, when she was sold, but even at that time the “Tyne” was in good working order. Three other old locomotives were sold at the time—viz., “Eden,” “Meteor,” and “Lightning.”

The “Eden” was built by R. Stephenson and Co. in 1836, and had four-coupled wheels of 4ft. 6in. diameter, and a third pair 3ft. 6in. diameter; cylinders, 14in. by 15in. stroke, afterwards increased to 16in. stroke. Weight, empty, 10 tons, 6 cwt.

The “Meteor” was built by Bury and Co., of Liverpool, and had only four wheels of 4ft. diameter; cylinders, 12in. diameter. The stroke at first was 15in., but afterwards was made 16in. Steam pressure, 55lb. She was provided with hand-gear, the slide-valves working into the front of the steam chest by means of weight bars located between the front buffer beam and the smoke-box end. The piston connecting-rods, of course, actuated the rear axle, but the eccentric sheaves were upon the leading axle, so that if the crank pins upon which the side-rods worked went a bit loose, the side-rods had to be disconnected, and the valves worked by the gear handles. This was rather hard work for the driver and fireman, who, upon such occasions, took it in turns to thus work the valve gear. This Bury locomotive opened the line from Blaydon to Newcastle on Sunday, October 31st, 1839. The man who was fireman on this engine at that time thus relates his experiences:—“The ‘Meteor’ engine was sent to Redheugh Station to work the passenger trains between that station and Blaydon, also coal trains and other things, with this tiny engine of about eleven tons all told. We formed the connection at Blaydon with all trains to and from the west. For this new arrangement of running I was to be called out of bed by a watchman close after two o’clock each morning, to gather up my fire-bars, put them into the box, and get a fire as best I could as usual, and have steam ready by 5 a.m. to take our first train from Gateshead to Blaydon at 5.20 a.m. I had also to clean most of the little engine, the driver doing part. I had to clean up the shed, take all ashes out, coke the tender, etc. To turn the engine the tender had to be taken off, and pushed on one side to get past it, and reunited as often as we made a short trip. There is nothing like it in the divorce court. For this work my pay was 2s. 8d. per day, commencing at 5 a.m., when my driver made his appearance, little overtime being allowed, and we did well to finish by 8.45 p.m. I worked about 18½ hours daily, with one exception, weekly, and on this particular time we had our boiler to clean out, and had to fill by hand buckets—this after our train work was finished. Water being a little scarce in the shed, it was frequently necessary to haul out of the river Tyne and carry to the shed, and pour into the boiler by the safety valve or man-hole by the driver, the fireman having the honour of carrying it from the river quay.

“This work took so much labour and time that our only rest on that particular night and morning was upon the soft side of a plank while the steam was rising in the engine boiler, to leave for Blaydon at 5.20 a.m. with our usual first train. Then we were again at work until 8.45 p.m. There was not a guard for our passenger train, so I had the closing of the carriage doors, etc., to attend to, to fill up my spare time, and to keep myself awake. We had to load coals during part of the day from Wylam, etc., to Dunston, so that there was not much fear of falling asleep. I was coupler and guard for this work. When not otherwise engaged I had my cleaning to attend to, and tubes to keep clean daily, so I was really never committed for going to sleep during working hours. I was at this work over the winter almost the whole of 1839-40, when early one morning I had a fall from the boiler top in the shed, and came down the wrong end first. I injured one shoulder very much, which laid me off work one month. I kept at work all the day after falling, but only one arm was of any use to me, and I was compelled to give up.

“A bone-setter in North Shields had to do the needful for me, as they have often had to do for others before and afterwards.”

The “Lightning” was an engine with dimensions similar to those of the “Eden,” previously described.

Longridge and Co., of Bedlington, supplied the Stanhope and Tyne Railway in 1837 with a very powerful locomotive named the “Michael Longridge.” She had six-coupled wheels, 4ft. diameter; cylinders, 14in. diameter; and a stroke of 18in.

The Grand Junction Railway was opened in July, 1837, and R. Stephenson and Co. (together with other builders), supplied the original locomotives. Stephenson’s engines at this time had become a little more dependable, for we find it chronicled that three of them which had run uninterruptedly since they were first employed had, between July 8th and September 30th, 1837, accomplished the following distances—viz.: the “Wildfire,” 11,865 miles; “Shark,” 10,018 miles; and “Scorpion,” 11,137 miles; and, moreover, they were then still running in perfect working condition. They were six-wheel locomotives, with leading and trailing wheels 3ft. 6in. diameter, driving, 5ft. diameter; cylinders, 12½in. by 18in. stroke; weighing in working order 9 tons 12 cwt.

In 1837, No. 43, of the Stockton and Darlington Railway, the “Sunbeam” (Fig. 26) was turned out by Hawthorn. It was a “single” engine, having driving wheels 5ft. in diameter, and cylinders 12in. in diameter, with 18in. stroke. The “Sunbeam” worked well for 19 years, and in 1863 was reported as being “still in good working order, but too small for the present heavy traffic”. The boiler of the ”Sunbeam” was 8ft. long by 3ft. 2in. in diameter, and contained 104 copper tubes. The “Dart,” No. 41, was built by Hackworth in 1840, at Shildon, and was a four-wheeled engine, the wheels being 4ft. 6in. in diameter. The boiler, containing 122 tubes, was 8ft. 2in. long and 3ft 3in. in diameter. The fire-box was 4ft. high, 3ft. 10in. long, and 3ft. wide. The boiler pressure was 100lb., and the heating surface of the engine 602 square feet; the cylinders were 14in. in diameter, and the stroke 16in. The extreme length of the engine and tender was 35ft. 3in., and the regular speed attained is said to have been thirty miles an hour.