NRM Shildon

Other engines seen on the Shildon visit to the Great

Gathering

 

 

The Great Northern Railway (GNR) No. 1 class Stirling Single is a class of steam locomotive designed for express passenger work. Designed by Patrick Stirling, they are characterised by a single pair of large driving wheels which led to the nickname "eight-footer". Originally the locomotive was designed to carry up to 26 passenger carriages at an average speed of 47 miles per hour."

 

London & North Western Railway 2-2-2 No. 3020 Cornwall is a preserved steam locomotive. She was built at Crewe in 1847. She was originally a 4-2-2 in 1847, but was extensively rebuilt, and converted to a 2-2-2 in 1858.

 

In the 1840s, express passenger locomotive design was focussed on the need for single large-diameter driving wheels of around 8 foot (96"). The wheel diameter is effectively the "gear ratio" of a steam engine. Large driving wheels deliver the high linear tyre speed needed for fast locomotives, whilst keeping the axle bearing and piston speeds low enough to remain within the technology limits of the day.

In 1858, Ramsbottom redesigned Cornwall almost completely. Little survived unchanged, other than the outside frames and the centres of the drivers. The boiler was now moved entirely above the driving axle, without any notches, channels or tubes, to what would now be regarded as conventional practice.
New cylinders and valve gear were provided, fractionally smaller at 17¼" × 24". Wheel arrangement was now 2-2-2, shortening the wheelbase still further to 14' 10". Ramsbottom also included his newly designed tamper-proof safety valves.
Another minor rebuild in the 1870s provided a typically LNWR style of cab, with a short roof and semi-open sides. She was given her current number, 3020, in June 1886.
Cornwall was a famously successful high-speed passenger express engine of its period. Charles Rous-Marten (cited in ) reported an 1884 run from Crewe to Chester behind Cornwall (now far from new, and of antiquated design) at an average speed of 50.7 mph, reaching 70 mph down Whitmore bank. It remained in express service on the Liverpool-Manchester route until withdrawn in 1902.

 

Hunslet Narrow gauge engine No 85

 

Built in 1954, No. 85 was the last of 32 built for the Sierra Leone Government Railways to a standard design by Hunslet. Completed as works number 3815, No. 85 was delivered to the Sierra Leone port and capital of Freetown with sister engine No. 84, the pair costing £21,273. They were set to work on the extensive Sierra Leone Railway, which had a mainline extending 227.5 miles.
By the time No. 85 arrived, the Hunslet 2-6-2s were confined mainly to shunting and banking heavy trains out of Freetown. Their working life was to be short too – with the Sierra Leone Government Railways finally closing in 1974.
No. 85 was brought back to the UK to work at the preserved Welshpool & Llanfair Light Railway, where it regularly hauled passenger trains until April 2010, when its last 10-year boiler ticket expired.

Many thanks to Wikipedia for the notes