1856/Works no. 139/2-2-2WT/Inside cylinders 14"x 19"/Driving wheel 4' 6"/Standard gauge/Manchester, Sheffield & Lincolnshire Rly/No. 123 "Carlisle" 

 

1856/Works no. n/k/2-4-0/Outside cylinders 15.5"x 20"/Driving wheel 5' 0"/Standard gauge/South Yorkshire Rly/No. 13 

 

1856/Works no. n/k/2-4-0/Outside cylinders 15.5"x 18"/Driving wheel 5' 0"/Standard gauge/London & South Western Rly Engineering Dept./"Hawkshaw" 

 

1857/Works no. n/k/2-2-2/Outside cylinders? 14"x 22"/Driving wheel 6' 6"/5' 3" gauge/Geelong & South Suburban Rly/No.1 

 

1857/Works no. n/k/0-6-0/Outside cylinders? 16"x 22"/Driving wheel 5'0"/5' 3" gauge/Geelong & South Suburban Rly/No.2 

1857/Works no. n/k/0-6-0/Outside cylinders? 16"x 22"/Driving wheel 5'0"/5' 3" gauge/Geelong & South Suburban Rly/No.3 

1857/Works no. n/k/0-6-0/Outside cylinders? 16"x 22"/Driving wheel 5'0"/5' 3" gauge/Geelong & South Suburban Rly/No.4 

1857/Works no. n/k/0-6-0/Outside cylinders? 16"x 22"/Driving wheel 5'0"/5' 3" gauge/Geelong & South Suburban Rly/No.5 

 

1857/Works no. n/k/0-4-0WT/Outside cylinders 9"x12"/Driving wheel 3'0"/Standard gauge/Sandy & Potton Rly* See Addenda/"Shannon" 

"The engine was built in 1857 by George England & Co, Hatcham Ironworks, New Cros, London as a well tank 0-4-0 with wheel diameters of 2ft 10 1/2" and cyinders 9 1/4" x 12", for the proprieter Capt. William Peel RN of the Sandy & Potton Railway and cost £800. In 1862 the locomotive was sold to the LNWR, together with all other assets of the railway, for £20,000. She was numbered 1104 in the LNWR's duplicate list and put on trial in 1862 on the Cromford & High Peak Railway. This trial only lasted for two weeks as the engine did not perform well on the steep gradients and tortous curves of the CHPR. On return to Crewe she was employed on works and local station duties and renumbered in 1872 to LNWR No. 1863." 

Reg Wilkinson "The Wantage Tramway" Oakwood Press 2nd Edition 1995 

 

"In 1862, "Shannon" was sold by the Bedford & Cambridge Railway to Joseph Firbank, the railway contractor, who later disposed of it to the LNWR." 

The Railway Magazine November 1975 p579 

 

"She was bought by the Wantage Tramway. "after a long and successful inspection by a Mr Daniel Young of Witney (who charged £7 13s 0d. for his services) the Directors decided to make an offer to the LNWR (who were asking £350) for 1863, but the reply received from Mr FW Webb at Crewe was not what was expected. The letter stated that when the LNWR fixed a price for an item they had for sale that was the figure they wanted and offers were not required! In addition as the Wantage Tramway had dragged its feet in making a reply the locomotive in question was being purchased by another party. However after hurried consultations a cheque was dispatched for £365 8s. 1d in May 1878 and Shannon (under her own steam) was moved from Crewe to Oxford. An agreement with the GWR allowed her to transfer to the GWR metals at Oxford and continue her journey, again under her own steam, to Wantage Road station. Soon after arriving at Wantage she was officially known as No.5 and occasionally referred to as "Jane", though she never carried this name...during her service she was little altered, never receiving a new boiler, though new cylinders were fitted in 1882. In 1896 she went to Swindon works for heavy repairs and, in early 1921 (again at Swindon) received new tube plates, new tubes and a back plate, plus steam brakes, being returned to service on 7th March 1921. After the overhaul No.5 often ran 65 miles a day, making 12 return trips. In 1929 she left Wantage once again but this time to the Avonside Engine Co. in Bristol for a "general overhaul" returning in February 1930. In 1939 a further overhaul at the GWR Sindon works saw her repainted in green with the lettering "W.T.Co. No.5" painted in yellow on the cabside and a works plate carrying the words "Registered by GWR No.209 1941". On the 25th April 1946, after the closure of the tramway, the GWR purchased the locomotive "Shannon" for £100 at then clearance sale. They moved her (coupled into a goods train) to Swindon in May and then overhauled her yet again, the work also including repainting and adding nameplates to the boiler with the name "Shannon". After a meeting in Swindon it was decided that a fitting resting place would be on the platform at Wantage Road GWR where she was placed in 1848.." 

Reg Wilkinson "The Wantage Tramway" Oakwood Press 2nd Edition 1995 

 

185?/Works no. n/k/0-4-0T/Outside cylinders 9 1/2" x 13"/Driving wheel 2'10"/Standard gauge/ ? / see below 

This loco turned up in Boulton's siding at some indeterminate point before 1871, being purchased from a contractor, Mr Frederick Furniss, at Havant, where they had been engaged in making, and for a time in working, the Hayling Island branch of the LB&SCR (which opened for goods traffic 19th Jan 1865). Furniss called her No.2, but Boulton named her Portsmouth. She was "an 0-4-0 

outside cylinder side tank engine by George England & Co. to which some one had added a pair of trailing wheels, probably with the purpose of steadying her for passenger work over the Hayling Island main line. These trailers had another result- they constituted No.2, a class by herself, for they were larger than the drivers! Thus equipped for credibility continuing the express connections from the Metropolis, "Portsmouth" found herself an 0-4-2, with 9 1/2" x 13 " cylinders, 2ft 10ins coupled wheels and 3ft trailers....( compare with Reg Wilkinson's figures for "Shannon"- their wheelbase appears to be the same too) Her career under Boulton is obscure until 1871 when she was hired to the Phospho-Guano Company, Seacombe, on which occasion her name was changed "by desire" to "Phospho". In October, 1872 she went to Brown, Bayley & Dixon, Sheffield; then to Liverpool; then finally about 1877 to Sheffield once more. Mr Boulton is understood to have done very well out of this little engine." 

AR Bennett "The Chronicles of Boulton's Siding" p147-150. 

 

1858/Works No. n/k/2-4-0/Outside cylinders 15" x 18"/Driving wheel 5' 0"/Standard Gauge/London & South Western Railway Engineering Dept./"Brunel" 

 

1859/Works No. n/k/2-2-2/? cylinders 14" x 22"/Driving wheel 6' 6"/5' 3" Gauge/Victorian Government Rly/No.12 

1859/Works No. 142/2-2-2/? cylinders 14" x 22"/Driving wheel 6' 6"/5' 3" Gauge/Victorian Government Rly/No.13 

1859/Works No. n/k/2-2-2/? cylinders 14" x 22"/Driving wheel 6' 6"/5' 3" Gauge/Victorian Government Rly/No.15 

1859/Works No. 145/2-2-2/? cylinders 14" x 22"/Driving wheel 6' 6"/5' 3" Gauge/Victorian Government Rly/No.17 

 

1859/Works No. n/k/2-4-0WT/? cylinders 11"x 17"/Driving wheel 4' 0"/5' 6" Gauge/Bombay, Baroda & Central India Rly/No.3 

1859/Works No. n/k/2-4-0WT/? cylinders 11"x 17"/Driving wheel 4' 0"/5' 6" Gauge/Bombay, Baroda & Central India Rly/No. 4 

"On 6th January 1860, the Locomotive Superintendant, (GN Anderson) made a report 'regarding the quality and workmanship of the two six-wheeled tank engines.' The two that arrived in India became BB&CIR nos. 3 and 4; they were probably similar to Nos. 1 and 2, previously supplied by EB Wilson (Nos. 568/9 of 1857), namely 2-4-0WT, with 4' coupled wheels and 11" x 17" cylinders, (interestingly the same dimensions as those of England's 1862 tank for the Somerset & Dorset, though that one had side tanks). 

In February, 1865, No 4 was sold to the Bombay Reclamation Company, No.3 (together with No.1) were sold to the Indian Government in March 1868 for the Abyssinian expedition (See Addenda), but these two engines were returned in March 1870, and were condemned in December 1876. " 

CH Dickson SLS Journal 1962 p144 

1859/Works No. n/k/2-4-0WT/? cylinders 11"x 17"/Driving wheel 4' 0"/5' 6" Gauge/Bombay, Baroda & Central India Rly/? 

1859/Works No. n/k/2-4-0WT/? cylinders 11"x 17"/Driving wheel 4' 0"/5' 6" Gauge/Bombay, Baroda & Central India Rly/? 1859/Works No. n/k/2-4-0WT/? cylinders 11"x 17"/Driving wheel 4' 0"/5' 6" Gauge/Bombay, Baroda & Central India Rly/? 

1859/Works No. n/k/2-4-0WT/? cylinders 11"x 17"/Driving wheel 4' 0"/5' 6" Gauge/Bombay, Baroda & Central India Rly/? 

"In 1858, the Bombay, Baroda and Central India Railway ordered six 5' 6" gauge ballasting engines; in January 1859,it was reported that two were ready for shipment in London, two more would be ready in three weeks, and two in six weeks. In fact the locos do not appear to have been shipped until several months later. Two were shipped by the Indian Ocean and had arrived by Jan 1860. Meanwhile on 2nd November 1859, news had reached London that the ship Jessica, containing the other four engines, had been abandoned at sea and was a total loss. The four lost engines were not reordered from George England- they were replaced by four similar engines built by the Vulcan Foundry (No's 449-452 of 1860) which became Nos. 15-18 on the BB&CIR" 

CH Dickson SLS Journal 1962 p144 

 

1859/Works No. n/k/2-4-0/Outside cylinders 15" x 18"/Driving wheel 5' 0"/Standard Gauge/London & South Western Railway Engineering Dept./"Hesketh" 

 

1860/Works No. 160/2-4-0T/? cylinders 15" x 20"/Driving wheel n/k/5' 3" Gauge/Melbourne & Suburban Rly/"Hawthorn" 

1860/Works No. 161/2-4-0T/? cylinders 15" x 20"/Driving wheel n/k/5' 3" Gauge/Melbourne & Suburban Rly/"Richmond" 

 

1860/Works No. n/k/2-4-0T/Outside cylinders 15" x 22"/Driving wheel 4' 0"/Standard Gauge/London & Blackwall Rly/No.10 

1860/Works No. n/k/2-4-0T/Outside cylinders 15" x 22"/Driving wheel 4' 0"/Standard Gauge/London & Blackwall Rly/No. 11 

"The goods engines, Nos 10 and 11 were not named. Of 2-4-0 type, with side tanks extending forward to the rear of the smoke box, they had a very short wheel base, with the trailing axle in front of the firebox, and consequently a very long overhang at each end. The outside cylinders were 15" by 22" and the coupled wheels 4' in diameter, that of the leading wheels being 3'. Both were broken up in 1882." 

H L Hopwood, The London & Blackwall Railway, The Railway Magazine Vol LX Jan-Jun 1927 p341/2 

In 1866 renumbered 101 and 102 by Great Eastern Rly. Renumbered again 1010 and 1020 as shown below. Scrapped Jan and Feb 

1882 respectively. (CH Dickon) 

1861/Works No. 156/2-4-0ST/? cylinders 16" x 22"/Driving wheel 5’ 0”/5' 3" Gauge/Victorian Govt. Rly/ No.14 

 

1861/Works No. 157/2-4-0ST/? cylinders 16" x 22"/Driving wheel 5’ 0”/5' 3" Gauge/Victorian Govt. Rly/ No.16 

 

1861/Works No. 158/2-4-0ST/? cylinders 16" x 22"/Driving wheel 5’ 0”/5' 3" Gauge/Victorian Govt. Rly/ No.18 

1861/Works No. 159/2-4-0ST/? cylinders 16" x 22"/Driving wheel 5’ 0”/5' 3" Gauge/Victorian Govt. Rly/ No.20 

1861/Works No. 164/2-4-0ST/? cylinders 16" x 22"/Driving wheel 5’ 0”/5' 3" Gauge/Victorian Govt. Rly/ No.22 

1861/Works No. 165/2-4-0ST/? cylinders 16" x 22"/Driving wheel 5’ 0”/5' 3" Gauge/Victorian Govt. Rly/ No.24 

1861/Works No. 166/2-4-0ST/? cylinders 16" x 22"/Driving wheel 5’ 0”/5' 3" Gauge/Victorian Govt. Rly/ No.26 

 

1861/Works No. n/k/2-4-0/Outside cylinders 14” x 18”/Driving wheels 5’ 0”/Standard gauge/London & South Western Rly Eng. Dept/”Locke” 

1861/Works No. n/k/2-4-0/Outside cylinders 14” x 18”/Driving wheels 5’ 0”/Standard gauge/London & South Western Rly Eng. Dept/”Stephenson” 

"6th December 1860. Owing to earthslip near Colyton and to permit proper ballasting of Exeter-Yeovil line, two ballast engines ordered from G England of similar dimensions to previous locos from this firm. 21st February 1861. Paid £5600. These were No 3 "Stephenson" (withdrawn March 1884) and No4 "Locke" (broken up October 1889). " 

CH Dickson SLS journal 1961 p144 

1861/Works No. n/k/2-4-0/Outside cylinders 16” x 18”/Driving wheels 5’ 0”/Standard gauge/London & South Western Rly Eng. Dept/”Smeaton” 

"Ordered 7th March 1861, another ballast engine for use on Exeter extension. Paid £2800 2nd May 1861. Broken up 12/1892" 

CH Dickson SLS journal 1961 p145 

1861/Works No. n/k/2-4-0/Outside cylinders 16” x 18”/Driving wheels 5’ 0”/Standard gauge/London & South Western Rly Eng. Dept/”Telford” 

"Ordered 14th March 1861, another ballast engine for Exeter line doubling. Paid £2800 2nd May 1861. Broken up Feb/1883" 

CH Dickson SLS journal 1961 p145 

 

1861/Works No. n/k/2-4-0T/Outside cylinders 11” x 16”/Driving wheels 3’ 1 0”/Standard gauge/London & South Western Rly Eng. Dept/”Scott” 

"Purchased from George England for £1890 on 23rd January 1862. Broken up June 1909" 

CH Dickson SLS Journal 1961 p 145 

1861/Works No. n/k/2-4-0T/Outside cylinders 11” x 16”/Driving wheels 3’ 1 0”/Standard gauge/London & South Western Rly Eng. Dept/”Scott” 

 

1861/Works No. n/k/2-4-0/Inside cylinders 15” x 18”/Driving wheels 5’ 0”/Standard gauge/Somerset Central Rly/No.1 

1861/Works No. n/k/2-4-0/Inside cylinders 15” x 18”/Driving wheels 5’ 0”/Standard gauge/Somerset Central Rly/No.2 

1861/Works No. n/k/2-4-0/Inside cylinders 15” x 18”/Driving wheels 5’ 0”/Standard gauge/Somerset Central Rly/No.3 

1861/Works No. n/k/2-4-0/Inside cylinders 15” x 18”/Driving wheels 5’ 0”/Standard gauge/Somerset Central Rly/No.4 

1861/Works No. n/k/2-4-0/Inside cylinders 15” x 18”/Driving wheels 5’ 0”/Standard gauge/Somerset Central Rly/No.5 

1861/Works No. n/k/2-4-0/Inside cylinders 15” x 18”/Driving wheels 5’ 0”/Standard gauge/Somerset Central Rly/No.6 

1861/Works No. n/k/2-4-0/Inside cylinders 15” x 18”/Driving wheels 5’ 0”/Standard gauge/Somerset Central Rly/No.7 

1861/Works No. n/k/2-4-0T/Inside cylinders 15” x 18”/Driving wheels 5’ 0”/Standard gauge/Somerset Central Rly/No.8 

 

" On 21st December 1860 tenders were invited from a number of reputable builders. Those received were read over and discussed on 1st February 1861 when the lowest by George England of Hatcham Ironworks, New Cross, London was accepted, and on the following day eight four-coupled engines at £1850 each and six four-wheel tenders at £300 each were ordered for delivery in August and September 1861. On 22nd March 1861 Gregory reported that on his instructions one of the tenderless engines was to be modified and fitted with a water tank at an extra cost of £150 (this was No.8, presumably the tank was a well tank, placed between the frames). Unusually for the period construction went ahead as scheduled, so by 1st July the six tenders and four of the engines (1, 3, 4 and 5) were assembled and awaiting orders for delivery. Unfortunately the Somerset Central was unable to accommodate them and on 29th September wrote requesting heir storage under cover at their expense until the Templecombe-Highbridge line could accept standard gauge engines. (The Somerset Central ran from Highbridge on the broad gauge (7ft 0 1/4") Bristol & Exeter Railway to Glastonbury, later being extended to Burnham-on Sea and to Wells. It was worked by locos and stock from the B&ER. Eventually a third rail was laid to accommodate standard gauge stock. The standard gauge Dorset Central Railway was making its way North from Wimbourne by degrees and they eventually joined up and amalgamated to become the Somerset & Dorset Railway.) As space was unavailable at New Cross this request was refused and resort was made to the London & South Western's offe of free siding space in the open at Salisbury. Robert Andrews was appointed locomotive superintendent at £300 per annum on17th August 1861 and on 9th October he was ordered to make arrangements for all eight engines to be steamed within ten days and the faults discovered notified at once to the makers for immediate rectification." 

"Somerset & Dorset Locomotive History" by D Bradley and D Milton David & Charles 1973 p17 onwards 

 

"The first four, Nos 1, 3, 4 and 5, were built in 1861 by the above-mentioned firm (England), and are illustrated by Fig 2 (Drawing of No.3). Unfortunately very few particulars of these engines are obtainable. The cylinders were 15" in diameter, having a piston stroke of 18". The leading wheels were 3' 6" in diameter, and the driving and trailing 5' 0". By reference to the illustration it will be seen that the leading wheels had outside bearings, and inside to the coupled wheels. There was no dome on the boiler, and the firebox was flush with the barrel. They had two spring balance safety valves over the firebox. The chimney had a copper cap, and a brass casing over the safety valves. The boiler was fed by injectors. These engines had four-wheeled tenders. In 1874 these four locomotives were sold to Messrs. Fox, Walker, & Co., Locomotive Engineers, Bristol." 

"The Somerset and Dorset Joint Railway and its Locomotives" by FS Hollandsche Locomotives & Railways April 1900 p.50 

 

 

ADDENDA 

 

1) The Sandy & Potton Railway 

"Captain Peel's Railway. 

On Tuesday, June 23, 1857, the 3 1/4 miles of railway between Sandy and Potton (Bedfordshire) were opened for public traffic. The line had been built at the expense of Captain Sir William Peel, RN, VC (1824-1858) without any statutory authority. He never saw his railway in operation, as he died at Cawnpore on April 20 1858, after 13 months absesce in China and on Indian Mutiny service, during which he led the naval brigade that dragged the 68-pounder guns hundreds of miles to the second relief of Lucknow. Steam-operated goods traffic was carried from the outset, and public passenger traffic from April 1858. This private railway was taken over in 1862 by the Bedford & Cambridge Railway, an off-shot of the London & North Western Railway, and was re-opened as part of a through line on July 7 of that year. A survivor of the original enterprise is the locomotive "Shannon", whch was built by George England & Company, of the Hatcham iron Works near New Cross, and cost £800. It was called "Shannon" after the steam frigate commanded by Captain Sir William Peel, and was named by his mother, Sir Robert Peel's wife, on June 17th 1857. " 

The Railway Magazine August 1957 p588 

"From June 1857, to about January 1862 the "Shannon" worked public goods service (on the Sandy & Potton) and from April 1858, passenger service on "Captain Peel's Railway" on the four mile line from Potton (Beds) to Sandy Junction (Great Northern Railway)" 

The Railway Magazine July/Aug 1946 p255 

 

"Built privately without the need for an Act of Parliament, the Sandy & Potton Railway about 3 1/2 miles long, was made in 1856/7, Mr Culshaw of Biggleswade being the contractor for the works and buildings and Mr Benjamin Shaw Brundell, of Doncaster, the engineer. The line was the sole property of Captian William Peel , RN, third son of Sir Robert Peel, and a large landowner in the neighbourhood-indeed most of the railway was on his own land. The line started in the yard of the Great Northern station at Sandy, and ran through it for a little way, the GNR allowing this on condition that it would be removed if the GNR required the site for its own use. The terminus at Potton was near the south end of the town and had a goods shed, coal yard and small engine shed, the furniture of which included a well that was said to be the source of more anxiety than water. To work the line, a small 0-4-0 well-tank was supplied by George England & Co of Hatcham Ironworks, and ran it's first trip on the line on June 17th, 1857, when it was named "Shannon" (after Captain Peel's 50-gun steam frigate), the ceremony being employed by the Captain' mother as he was overseas. Indeed, Captain Peel never saw "his" railway for, after distinguished service in the Indian Mutiny, when he commanded the Naval Brigade, and was made a KCB, he died at Cawnpore on April 27th, 1858, aged 33. On June 23rd 1857, "Shannon" went from Potton to Sandy and back with a coach of private friends, and on return a dinner was held to officially inaugurate the line. Earlier, Messr's Englands representative had narrowly escaped a scalding from a burst hose at the engine shed.. First appearance of the Sandy & Potton in Bradshaw was in April 1858, when a service of four trains each way daily (except Sunday) was adevertised. All trains connected with GNR services at Sandy, and soon after their introduction, the GNR granted through bookings to London from Potton. 

On the death of Sir William Peel, the line passsed to his brother, Mr Arthur Wellesey Peel, and on August 6th, 1860, an Act incorporating the Bedford & Cambridge Railway Company received the Royal Assent, the new company being authorised to purchase, compulsorily or otherwise, "the existing railway or tramway between Sandy and Potton". The B&CR was a creature of the London & North Western Railway, which subscribed £70,000 of its capital and appointed three of its five directors (one of whom was Mr A W Peel). Its offices were at Euston station. 

From January to July 1862, Sandy & Potton trains disappeared from Bradshaw, while the line was reconstructed: they re-appeared in August as part of the Cambridge branch of the LNWR, opened to the public on July 7th, 1862. There had been a formal ceremony on July 4th when a special train of 26 coaches carried the directors and their friends from Bedford to Cambridge and back; before this, alterations had been made at Sandy to improve traffic interchange with the GNR, and a short piece of the origianl S&PR at Potton was abandoned, thecambridge line being carried through the north end of the town. On June 2nd 1864, the Bedford & Cambridge obtained an Act by which it leased the line in perpetuity to the LNWR, and in about 1872 the single line between Sandy and Cambridge was doubled. With the exception of the part between Bletchley and Bedford, the old Oxford-Cambridge line of the LNWR was closed to all traffic from January 1st 1968." 

The Railway Magazine November 1975 p575 

 

"("Shannon") had originally started life on the Sandy & Potton Railway, the brainchild of an extraordinary Victorian, Captain William Peel, VC. Third son of Sir Robert Peel, he saw naval service in many parts of the world and died in Cawnpore in 1858 without seeing his railway in operation. In 1852 he had purchased the land for the railway, which formed a part of his programme for improvements to his estate, about 1,400 acres lyi8ng between Sandy and Potton, and he brought this hitherto worthless land under cultivation. As the railway ran throughland owned by the Captain, it needed no Act of Parliament and opened to passengers in November 1857. To judge from reports, the ceremonial opening of this 3 1/2 mile line in July 1857 was quite an event. Starting from a junction with the Great Northern Railway on the Biggleswade side of Sandy, it curved away on a direct course for Potton, where a banquet was held to celebrate its opening. The 500 guests dined in the Market Place, being entertained by the Bedford Militia Band and artistes who 'gave a variety of glees and songs in superior style'. Apart from "Shannon", which was 'built expressly for the purpose' and was named after the ship the Captain had commanded in India, the rolling stock comprised another tank engine (Little England or Pygmy Giant?), a brake van, two wagons and one trolley. The signalling system was rather primitive; it consisted of a red flag, which was waved when a passenger wished to entrain. Although the line fulfilled its purpose of carrying heavy flows of agriculturl produce, an extension towards Cambridge was greatly desired. Instead of extending itself, however, the Sandy & Potton was purchased by the Bedford & Cambridge Railway, a line authorised in 1860, and "Shannon" was put to work hauling contractor's trains over it's former stronghold." 

 

Forgotten Railway: Chilterns and Cotswolds by R Davies & M D Grant David & Charles (2nd edition) 1984 p117 onwards.