Steam Days Magazine - October 2020 - Preview

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October 2020 No 374

Editorial and Design Team: Rex Kennedy, Andrew Kennedy, Andrew Wilson, Roger Smith and Ian Kennedy Editorial: 64 Littledown Drive, Bournemouth BH7 7AH Tel: 01202 304849 email: re.gauntlett@gmail.com Ad Team (including Ad Production): Sam Clark, Debi McGowan Tel: 01780 755131 email: sam.clark@keypublishing.com Publishing Production Manager: Janet Watkins Head of Design: Steve Donovan Head of Advertising Sales: Brodie Baxter Head of Distance Selling: Martin Steele Head of Finance: Nigel Cronin Chief Digital Officer: Vicky Macey Chief Content & Commercial Officer: Mark Elliott Group CEO: Adrian Cox

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Trains of thought

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‘American Express’ An American’s view of our steam locomotives, related by Tom Rayner, following his conversation with Harry Tizzard, an Eastleigh footplateman.

Subscriptions Name, address, date to commence and remittance to: Subscription Department, Steam Days, Key Publishing Ltd, PO Box 300, Stamford, Lincolnshire, UK. PE9 1XQ Tel: 01780 480404 email: subs@keypublishing.com We are unable to guarantee the bona fides of any of our advertisers. Readers are strongly recommended to take their own precautions before parting with any information or item of value, including, but not limited to money, manuscripts, photographs or personal information in response to any advertisement within this publication.

© KEY PUBLISHING 2020 All rights reserved. No part of this magazine may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the copyright owners. Multiple copying of the contents of this magazine without prior approval from the publisher is not permitted. Publisher: Mark Elliott.

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Sold off by the LNER in 1929 and thereafter a colliery engine until saved in 1965, North Eastern Railway ‘H’ class No 1310 passes through ex-colliery territory with a Middleton Railway passenger service in June 1976. Middleton Railway Trust

11 The Middleton Railway: History makers Sixty years since becoming the first standard gauge preserved railway to operate a public passenger train, Sheila Bye gives an overview of the colliery railway, concluding with its bi-centenary.

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TRAINS of thought

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After a winter when all 11 Robinson ‘D11/1’ 4-4-0s were in store, April 1958 saw the entire class operating in the Sheffield area, initially all from Darnall shed but by May 10 the pictured No 62663 Prince Albert was transferred to Staveley’s ex-Great Central shed for its one passenger diagram, which ran between Sheffield (Victoria) and Nottingham (Victoria), but with a Leicester evening operation too. This September 1958 view finds Prince Albert in the down sidings just east of Sheffield (Victoria) on a rake of clean Gresley and Thompson noncorridor stock. Keith Pirt, courtesy Book Law Publications

28 STEAM DAYS in Colour 190: The last years of the Robinson ‘D11/1’ ‘Improved Directors’ The transfer of the former Great Central Railway ‘D11/1s’ to South Yorkshire in 1957/58 brought about four busy summers of activity.

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Polmadie’s ‘Royal Scots’ Boasting a long association with the ‘Royal Scots’ spanning August 1927 through to December 1962, Andrew Wilson explains how five of these 4-6-0s proved to be particularly long-serving at this Glasgow shed.

50 Branch lines to Fowey Stanley C Jenkins MA provides a detailed history of two branch lines to Fowey, the former broad gauge route from Lostwithiel and the Cornish Minerals Railway standard gauge line from St Blazey.

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Tail Lamp – readers’ letters

Next month...

Lines through Fowey and Par: A travelogue 1948 Locomotive Exchanges – Freight and mixed traffic The Peterhead Harbour of Refuge Railway Hest Bank – where the ‘West Coast’ meets the sea Inter-regionals to and from the Southern in full colour On sale Thursday October 22, 2020 OCTOBER 2020

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was fascinated in my trainspotting days when certain named locomotives were allocated to a shed because the engine’s name had a connection with that location. I was watching from Railway Walk, overlooking Worcester shed, on the day ‘Castle’ class 4-6-0 No 7005 Lamphey Castle arrived new from Swindon Works in 1946. This engine was renamed Sir Edward Elgar in 1957, the composer’s final home, Marl Bank, Rainbow Hill, being within a mile of Worcester engine shed.

Another locomotive based at Worcester whose name was linked with the area was GWR ‘Bulldog’ No 3353 Pershore Plum. Pershore, nine miles from Worcester, was famous for its fruit growing. No 3353 had been named Plymouth until May 1927, the ‘Bulldogs’ originally given place names were renamed to avoid passenger confusion in case the locomotive name was mistaken for its destination.

In this issue of Steam Days we take a look at a similar situation with five LMS ‘Royal Scot’ 4-6-0s – Nos 46102, 46104, 46105, 46107 and 46121 – named after Scottish regiments and allocated to Glasgow’s Polmadie shed for very long spells, carrying the names Black Watch, Scottish Borderer, Cameron Highlander, Argyll & Sutherland Highlander, and Highland Light Infantry, The City of Glasgow Regiment.

One of these ‘Royal Scots’ brings back particular memories for me as in the early 1950s when visiting my aunt and uncle at their home in Gatley, near Cheadle, Cheshire, I would travel by train from Gatley to Mayfield; alongside Manchester (London Road) station. Passing Longsight shed en route, I witnessed No 46121. This locomotive particularly interested me as I saw it in three different guises over the years, firstly carrying its original name, H.L.I., and then later with just the short backing plate that previously supported its three letter name, this prior to being renamed Highland Light Infantry, The City of Glasgow Regiment in January 1949. Although a Polmadie locomotive for 17 years, No 46121 regularly worked the Glasgow to Manchester expresses, so it was a regular visitor to Longsight shed.

It is fascinating to note that when the name of No 46121 was changed from H.L.I. it went from being the shortest ‘Royal Scot’ name to the longest. The H.L.I. nameplate did not carry the regimental crest, but when the engine was renamed the regimental crest sat above the regiment name, and the words The City of Glasgow Regiment appeared in block capitals in much small letters below the main name.

Following the withdrawal of many named steam locomotives, their nameplates were often purchased and displayed at relative locations such as football grounds, where many of the LNER ‘B17’ class ‘Footballer’ nameplates ended up. From 1968 to 1970 I was employed at Holkham Hall in Norfolk where I daily saw the nameplate off LNER ‘B17’ 4-6-0 No 61601 Holkham on display. Many other nameplates from steam locomotives bearing relevant names now appear in town halls, schools, and at local and regimental museums throughout Great Britain. Enjoy your read and your own memories of the days of steam.

Cover: Collett ‘1400’ class 0-4-2T No 1419 simmers at Fowey station while at the rear of a Lostwithiel auto service in July 1957. Although a through station since the 1895 standard gauge resurrection of the then moribund former broad gauge branch from Lostwithiel, after July 7, 1929 there were no public passenger services between Fowey and St Blazey/Par, so Fowey effectively became a passenger terminus.

Keith Pirt, courtesy Book Law Publications

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‘American Express’

An American’s view of our steam locomotives, related by Tom Rayner, following his conversation with Harry Tizzard, an Eastleigh footplateman. t is a remarkable fact that even during the last years of steam there was an enormous variety of motive power on display on our railways, and perhaps the Southern Region of British Railways, which inherited much of the old Southern Railway stock, had as varied a collection as any. Here, as late as 1960, engines such as Drummond ‘T9’ class 4-4-0s and ‘M7’ 0-4-4Ts, as well as Wainwright ‘H’ class 0-4-4Ts and Stroudley ‘Terrier’ 0-6-0T tank engines, many of which came from the Victorian and Edwardian eras, could still be found working alongside some of the most modern steam locomotives ever built. It seems that on its own, age was no bar to the continued running of an old engine, and it is a great tribute to those early locomotive designers such as Drummond, Wainwright and Stroudley that representatives of many of the classes built by them survived to run

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Before the growth of air travel most Americans reached Britain by transatlantic liner, with Southampton a key port, and the rail journey to London soon revealed Britain’s railways to be an ocean apart from those of the USA, literally and metaphorically. The trade was still very much alive in the late 1950s, with the Southern Region servicing the needs of the shipping companies from Eastleigh in terms of main line power, and with a shunting fleet at the docks. The first class passengers were often whisked away on elite services including Pullman cars, one of which enjoys unusual power in this view. Here Drummond ‘700’ class or ‘Black Motor’ 0-6-0 No 30306 has just passed Southampton (Central) on October 11, 1958, its destination Southampton Docks via Millbrook. With just two coaches, an ex-LNER full brake and the Pullman, very likely after some remedial repairs at Eastleigh, this is probably an empty stock trip to the carriage shed in the Western Docks, so both will thereafter be added to a boat train duty, one for luggage and the other for first class dining. R C Riley/Transport Treasury

alongside the Bulleid Pacifics and the British Railways Standard classes of steam locomotive.

This variety of motive power must have given an added interest to the keen trainspotter, and enginemen would often argue amongst themselves about the merits of the different locomotives on which they worked. Most would have a favourite class or a favourite locomotive. However, despite their preferences, they would invariably remain intensely loyal towards any engine from their own railway or region, and would leap to its defence if it were subjected to outside criticism.

It was this attitude that came to the fore after an American tourist made a rather derogatory comment about a Southern ‘Black

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Motor’ 0-6-0 as it passed through Southampton (Central) station at the head of a local goods train. These ‘700’ class 0-6-0s, originally built by Drummond in 1897, were very much in their dotage by this time, and so the remark was understandable. However, it was perhaps unwise to have made it within earshot of the driver and fireman who were waiting to relieve the crew of a ‘Merchant Navy’ class Bulleid Pacific locomotive heading a Weymouth to London (Waterloo) train on which the American was planning to travel.

The locomotive crew was determined to show the American concerned what their engines were really made of, and during the footplate ride that followed, he was quickly forced to change his tune.

Under both the SR and BR (Southern Region) certain pre-grouping designs drifted from their home territory, with ex-London, Brighton & South Coast Railway Stroudley ‘E1’ 0-6-0Ts – a larger relation of the ‘Terriers’ that also strayed to some extent – proving very suitable for dockside duties at Southampton. ‘E1’ No 32151 is recorded on September 3, 1959 as it takes a mixed goods train over the link between the Western and Eastern docks. It is on the roadside section near the Royal Pier (out of view to the left) and then Town Quay, and passes a Southampton Corporation halfcab double-decker – a Park Royal-bodied Guy Arab III. New from Brighton Works in December 1880 as LB&SCR No 151 Helvetia, this 0-6-0T would serve until January 1960, so for more than 79 years, its Western Division activity beginning at Eastleigh by early February 1951, with allocation to Southampton Docks shed from November 1956.

R Amos/Kidderminster Railway Museum

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In the late 1950s and early 1960s there was still a considerable variety of motive power to be seen at Southampton (Central), at times a veritable parade of London & South Western Railway through to British Railways steam types. Recorded on Saturday, October 11, 1958 is Nine Elms-allocated Drummond wide-bodied ‘T9’ 4-4-0 No 30338 on an up Bournemouth main line passenger train. No 30338 returned to Nine Elms after a general repair and with Nos 30718 and 30719 it saw regular use on duty 48, or standing in on Mogul or ‘700’ jobs. Boasting 6ft 7in driving wheels, the ‘T9s’ were known as ‘Greyhounds’ in their heyday, this example being new from Nine Elms Works in October 1901 complete with a watercart tender, as seen. It would ultimately serve until the end of April 1961, its allocation after June 1959 being Exmouth Junction shed, with only 14 of the once 65-strong fleet still on the books at the start of 1960. R C Riley/Transport Treasury William Adams led L&SWR locomotive matters from 1878, but a call for 30 modern goods engines came at a time of his ill health that before long led to retirement, in 1895, Dugald Drummond taking over. Dübs & Co won the order for building, and Drummond used his own designs for the ‘700’ class, with delivery in March to June 1897. Sturdy 0-6-0s, despite their age only Nos 30688 and 30352 were lost pre-1960, typical ‘Black Motor’ sightings at Southampton being on duties such as that captured on February 19, 1960 – No 30306 approaches Millbrook with a westbound Bournemouth line goods. A ‘700’ was regular on the 10.43am Eastleigh East Yard to Ringwood and Poole goods for many years, stopping at yards en route, but the afternoon train shown is likely an out of course duty. Originally L&SWR No 702, the pictured 0-6-0 was renumbered in 1898 and rebuilt with a Maunsell superheater in April 1929. In the period under review, Eastleigh only had two ‘700s’, Nos 30306 and 30316, and likely it was one of these that was seen by the American visitor. R Amos/Kidderminster Railway Museum A view from the country end of Southampton (Central) on March 10, 1959 records Urie ‘S15’ 4-6-0 No 30502 passing the signal box and entering the station with a train of ‘Presflo’ cement wagons for Bevois Park yard; alongside the up main line just short of St Denys station. Until Robert Urie’s era L&SWR 4-6-0 design was rather under performing, but the arrival of his first ‘H15’ at the end of 1913 set the standard and led to the ‘S15’ in May 1920, which was likewise intended for heavy goods work, as well as the ‘N15s’ for top link passenger duties. The ‘H15s’ numbered 26 engines (including five rebuilt from Drummond ‘F13s’), while 20 ‘S15s’ were in service at the grouping – the pictured locomotive being new in July 1920 – with another 14 added in 1927/28, and ten more in 1936, the later batches under Richard Maunsell’s tenure. R Amos/Kidderminster Railway Museum

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This particular journey was unusual in two other respects, firstly because of the somewhat unorthodox method of firing, and secondly because of the complete reversal of the roles of the footplate crew, but we must now let the fireman, Harry Tizzard, who actually did the driving, tell the story.

I always thought that Pacific locomotive No 35016 Elders Fyffes was one of the best ‘Merchant Navy’ Pacifics they ever built, and I remember that she was the one we had on a beautiful summer’s evening when I was firing in the top link at Eastleigh with Lenny Baker as my driver. He was a nice old boy, and we had gone down to Southampton (Central) to relieve the Weymouth crew on what was the fastest train of the day, the 5.35pm Weymouth to Waterloo express. This used to be taken over by Eastleigh men at Southampton and would leave there at 7.16pm, arriving at Waterloo at 8.40pm.

We had been doing this turn all week and on this particular night we were at the end of the platform waiting for the train to run in, and there was this American standing there with a big cigar and quite a lot to say. He

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In service since September 1925, on July 22, 1960 a less than steam-tight ‘N15’ or ‘King Arthur’ class 4-6-0, Eastleigh shed’s No 30790 Sir Villiars, is booked to Fratton duty 210 – 3.30pm empty stock Eastleigh to Southampton (Central) and then, as seen, the Fridays-only 4.09pm to London (Waterloo); arrive 6.15pm. One of the so-called ‘Scotch Arthurs’, 20 locomotives completed by the North British Locomotive Co in Glasgow between May and October 1925, so during Richard Maunsell’s time as SR chief mechanical engineer. Sir Villiars would continue to serve until October 1961. The siding in view on the left is for a power station and by this time it immediately crossed Civic Centre Road. Although a key route in modern times, Civic Centre Road was not part of the initial downside road access to the station and the infill to create the Western Docks, the Solent previously being very close to the station. R Amos/Kidderminster Railway Museum

seemed to be taking a great interest in what was going on around him, but was clearly unimpressed with what he saw. Suddenly an old ‘Black Motor’ came trundling through the station, tender-first, with about 20 on, and as it went past with its very distinctive beat, the American looked at it in disbelief and said at the top of his voice, “Gee, look at this, do they call this an engine?”

A few minutes later ‘Merchant Navy’ Pacific No 35016 ran into the station with her train which, if I remember correctly, consisted of 11 or 12 large Bulleid coaches and a ‘swinger’. She was stopped at the head of the platform and I jumped up on to the tender to top up the water, knowing that the fire would almost certainly be in good condition. This was because the chap I was relieving that week had been in the army with me and to make my job easier he would fire all the way from

Weymouth to Southampton and fill the firebox to the very limit – he used to roll it in.

This style of firing was only suitable for certain types of locomotives such as the Bulleid Pacifics and was the complete opposite of the more accepted practice of firing “a little and often”. Among Eastleigh men it was known as giving the engine a ‘pill’, and on this particular turn it made an enormous difference because it meant that we hardly had to touch the shovel again for the rest of the journey.

Because there would be very little firing for me to do, Len and I used to have a race that week to see who could get onto the footplate first after finishing taking on water.

The last to get into the cab would have to do the driving, while the other could sit in the fireman’s seat and, to a very large extent, just enjoy the view.

I remember that on this particular evening I was up on the tender holding the pipe and I could see Len down on the platform talking to the American. “All right, mate” I shouted, “That’s enough water”, and with that Len shut off the valve and I slung out the pipe and made a dash for the cab but, as invariably happened, by the time I arrived, Lennie was already in there sitting on the fireman’s seat with a big grin on his face, and to my surprise the American was with him.

Laughing, Len came across to me and whispered, “We’re going to shut him up for having taken the ‘Mickey’ out of our ‘Black Motors’; you know what to do, give her the gun.”

“All right,” I replied, and with that we shut the side doors and started away.

“By cripes!” said the American, “It’s hot up here, isn’t it,” and it was because it was a very warm evening.

Arriving at Southampton (Central) with the 11.30am Waterloo to Bournemouth (West) service in about April or May 1958 is ‘Lord Nelson’ class 4-6-0 No 30860 Lord Hawke on Nine Elms duty 34. One of the last three London-based ‘Lord Nelsons’ – Nos 30858 Lord Duncan, 30859 Lord Hood and 30860 Lord Howe – May 1958 saw these transferred away, Lord Hawke to Bournemouth and the others to Eastleigh, but by November 1959 all 16 members of the class were on the Eastleigh books as a dedicated fleet of top link boat train engines for the Western Division. Four cylinder 4-6-0s completed between August 1926 and November 1929, they were rated ‘7P’ by BR, their last use coming in October 1962. The clock tower on the horizon is part of Southampton’s civic centre, a building completed in 1939. To the left is a provender store, with ex-L&SWR coaching stock stabled beyond, while the poster on the far right advertises cross-channel car ferries. G Siviour/Kidderminster Railway Museum

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Anyway, away we went and walloped her up through Eastleigh and on up the long climb through Winchester and Micheldever to Worting Junction, and down the other side through Basingstoke. Our ‘Merchant Navy’ Pacific was on song that night and we were really going like the wind. Through Brookwood the speedometer went right off the clock, and we were doing well over 100mph. It was an extraordinary journey and they let us have the road all the way, with the result that we finally ran into Waterloo at 8.25pm – no less than 15 minutes before our scheduled time!

As for our American, he thoroughly enjoyed it, and at the end of the trip he was there washing up in the bucket in the same way as we were! A few moments later, his wife came along the platform to join him.

“Mildred”, he shouted across at her in his American drawl, “Mildred”, he said, “What a ride! These engines sure go, they sure do go!”

And as he left he handed us a fiver to thank us for the trip!

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A near carbon copy of Harry Tizzard’s recollections, at the London end of Southampton (Central) on June 11, 1964 we find rebuilt Bulleid ‘Merchant Navy’ No 35016 Elders Fyffes, its crew engaged in topping up with water, the crowd on this occasion being sailors. New to traffic between February 1941 and April 1949, the class of 30 air-smoothed ‘Merchant Navy’ Pacifics was systematically renewed under Ron Jarvis, with their re-entry into traffic coming as a steady flow between April 1956 and October 1959. Rated ‘8P’ by British Railways, Elders Fyffes dates from March 1945 but is seen after its June 1958 rebuild and subsequent addition of AWS equipment. At the time Nine Elms-based, No 35016 awaits departure for Waterloo. Kidderminster Railway Museum Collection

Bulleid ‘Merchant Navy’ Pacific No 35029 Ellerman Lines leaves Basingstoke station in the distance as it passes beneath Reading Road and then alongside Barton Mill sidings as it makes haste for Waterloo in April 1960, around the time of the cab ride in classmate No 35016 Elders Fyffes. It is nothing short of extraordinary that 10 of the 30 ‘Merchant Navys’ reached preservation, with the pictured locomotive now a sectioned exhibit at the National Railway Museum, such numbers were only possible thanks to their purchase as scrap by Woodham Brothers, and then the lack of scrapping!

Keith Pirt, courtesy Book Law Publications

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On December 28, 1963 ‘Merchant Navy’ No 35016 Elders Fyffes rests upon termination at Waterloo. The single headcode disc and the fact that coal is visible at the back of the tender suggest that this is a Basingstoke semi-fast duty, and a tail lamp is already on the front buffer beam ready for the light engine move to Nine Elms. The crew chat alongside, awaiting the removal of the coaching stock before their next move. Sadly the condition of the locomotive leaves much to be desired, the shipping company’s flag – a white horizontal diamond carrying ‘E & F’, the lettering and background being blue – going unseen on the nameplate. A subsidiary of Elder Dempster Lines, Elder & Fyffes was set up in 1901 to bring bananas, and a limited number of passengers, from Jamaica to Britain. Southampton was a key destination, with mechanized transhipment equipment used and steam-heated vans ripening the fruit during the trip from the docks to Nine Elms goods yard, for sale at Covent Garden fruit and vegetable market. D Webster/Norman Preedy Collection/ Kidderminster Railway Museum

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The Middleton Railway: History makers

Historian for the Middleton Railway Trust, Sheila Bye gives an overview of the colliery railway across Hunslet moor, concluding with the bi-centenary of Britain’s very first railway Act of Parliament. t its fullest extent the Middleton Railway had three levels linked by inclines – the upper level (the Middleton ‘plateau’ at the southern end), the middle level (the site of Broom pit and the present Park Halt of the preserved railway), and the lower level (from Hunslet Carr to Leeds) – and it had one purpose – the cheap and efficient movement of coal from a group of pits in and around Middleton woods to the town of Leeds, about three miles distant. By 1758 our railway stimulated the growth of Leeds and its industries, providing a supply of cheap coal for both the expanding use of stationary steam engines in mills and other factories, and also for industries whose processes used its heat directly – brewing, iron and brass founding, and glass, pottery and brick making, and it also benefitted Leeds families, providing warmth in winter and heat for cooking and baking.

The railway’s pioneering use of steam locomotives from 1812 proved to the world that they were commercially viable, and it led to the development of the extensive Leeds locomotive building industry. Incrdedibly the Middleton Railway survived the decline and demise of the heavy industries it served for more than two centuries, and in 1960 it became the first preserved standard gauge railway to run entirely volunteer-operated passenger services, an event celebrated in 2020.

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Middleton pits and waggonways pre-1808 It is uncertain exactly when coal working began in the Middleton area but certainly by 1632, and some small-scale mining was surely OCTOBER 2020

En route to Middleton’s Broom pit with a rake of empty coal wagons from the former Midland Railway main line at Stourton via the Balm Road branch, Blenkinsop Nineteen Fifty Three nears its destination as it climbs south and passes beneath a former Great Northern Railway overbridge at Parkside. The locomotive is locally-built Hudswell, Clarke & Co Ltd No 1871, which was brand new in 1954 to the National Coal Board for the long-standing colliery operation at Middleton that was in its hands post-1947. The train is using what had become the colliery main line in 1875, replacing what thereafter became known as the ‘Old Run’. Trans-shipment between the Midland Railway and the colliery line dated back to 1846, initially at Hunslet, near Kidacre Street, but the two railways were of different gauges until 1881, and links thereafter were made, not least the more convenient Balm Road branch by 1895. Use of this route to Broom pit would continue until August 1959, which was when the NCB opted to take out its coal via the former GNR/LNER route, the new link to the higher level line going in immediately to the right of the overbridge in view. The ex-GNR route was part of the Hunslet Railway Co scheme of 1894, which opened between Beeston and Hunslet (more precisely Knowsthorpe) on July 3, 1899 and was generally for freight traffic. Middleton Railway Trust Collection

underway long before that. Unfortunately, Middleton was not well-placed for the sale of its coal elsewhere, the few local roads were dirt lanes, making it difficult to transport heavy goods from its isolated hillside, either to Leeds or to boats on the river Aire downstream of Leeds.

In 1697, Ralph Brandling, member of a coal-owning family of Gosforth, Northumberland, inherited the Middleton estate in 1706 but appears to have taken charge of the mining interests there circa 1701. In 1717 he was the owner of “a wrought colliery or coal mine with a water engine and smithy” at Middleton. Brandling brought mining innovations of his native Tyneside and expanded the business, and by 1728 he had two coal-loading staiths on the banks of the river Aire at Thwaite Gate, about 2½ miles downstream from Leeds, these handling around 650 boat loads a year.

Ralph Brandling died in June 1749, and about two years later it was his grandson Charles in charge at the age of 18 – he would be head of the Brandling family for the next 51 years. Richard Humble, also a Tynesider, was his Middleton agent by 1754.

By the 18th century coal was increasingly being used instead of domestic firewood, and as industrial fuel, Leeds having three main sources – Brandling’s Middleton pits, Joshua Wilkes’ Beeston pits, nearer to Leeds, and the Fenton family’s Rothwell pits, the latter close to the Aire & Calder Navigation, which was used for transporting coal to Leeds and www.steamdaysmag.co.uk

elsewhere. Ralph Brandling had waggonways built for at least two of his Tyneside collieries in the late 1690s, and this was an obvious means of cutting Middleton’s transport costs.

The distance from Middleton to Leeds was greater than to Thwaite Gate, and also a route to Leeds would require wayleave agreements for the use of other people’s land, so it was logical that the first waggonway should go to the well-established Thwaite Gate river staiths, especially as Brandling owned most of the route already, but an intervening portion of Fenton estate could only be avoided by laying rails along a 320 yard section of public highway, from Gamstock Close upon and along Woodhouse Hill Lane. Objections were raised, but Brandling was allowed to make a waggonway “with timber wood and other materials” providing that the highway was made good and kept in repair. From the end of Woodhouse Hill Lane, the track most likely ran north alongside Pepper Road, Hunslet, turned east to cross Low Road, and ended at the riverbank, near to Thwaite Lane.

The waggonway greatly improved the colliery’s trade, and 15 new pits were sunk between 1753 and 1757, mainly along the lower part of the Middleton woods escarpment and the level area just north of there (close to today’s Park Halt). Goods sent out from the river staiths incurred river and wharfage tolls but the alternative land route to Leeds was little more than a bridle path and its upkeep with a cause for concern under 11

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growing volumes of traffic, with tolls being imposed to fund repairs. Clearly, a waggonway to Leeds was needed to keep Brandling’s coal competitively priced, and this additional line was part of his scheme for “reducing the price of coals”, which was widely welcomed in December 1757, being described as “laudable” in the Leeds Intelligencer on January 10, 1758, that from this day attendance at the ThreeLeggs by the agents of Mr Brandling to serve “coals of the best quality from Middleton Colliery, at six-pence per corf, at their respective dwelling-houses, and the corf to contain 7,680 cubical inches”, which was noted as 16 stone and upwards.

Some Leeds citizens were so eager for the scheme to go ahead that they started a subscription towards its costs, but Brandling’s rivals were alarmed and attempted to match or better the terms, which led to Brandling advertising a 60 year contract term – and coal sold at his yard in Leeds being sold at “four pence three farthings” a corf. Agreements were soon in hand for the new waggonway route, with Hans Busk, a Leeds merchant, “farm letting land in Hunslet, near to the township’s boundaries with Holbeck and Leeds, for 60 years at a yearly rent of £52 to bind Charles Brandling to the said proposal to furnish the inhabitants of the Town of Leeds … during the Term of 60 years to commence from Ladyday next at four pence three farthings per Corf”.

The new waggonway was noted as “a Newcastle or Coal Waggon Road” running from Hunslet Moor, so branching north mid-way along the route to Thwaite staiths, and it was vital to ensure that lease and wayleave agreements made for its route would be legally binding for the next 60 years, regardless of how many times the land changed ownership. There was legal debate regarding the weight and measure of a corf – the resulting Act of Parliament set the weight at about 210lb (15 stone). The Parliamentary committee learned that in the past five years coal had sold for circa 7½d a corf, and the annual consumption of coal in Leeds was circa 30,000 dozen corves, brought from different local collieries.

The committee was satisfied that agreements had been made with all the landowners affected, as well as with Mr Joseph Bilton and Mr Cooper, for traversing “a Common called Hunslett Moor”.

They and Charles Brandling were currently joint Lords of the Manor of Hunslet, and the Lordship was usually assumed to include control of the manor’s ‘waste’ or common land. At the time the moor stretched west to east from Balm Road to Hunslet Hall, and north to south from Jack Lane to our modern depot, and avoiding the moor would add considerably to the waggonway’s construction and operation costs. The death of Joseph Bilton in late March saw a new agreement made with his heir, who capitalized on the urgency of the situation, and after three readings and various amendments the Act became law and was designated 31 Geo. 2, c.xxii, 9th June 1758.

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The waggonway was to be built and operated at Brandling’s expense and the document is historic as the first Act of Parliament dealing almost entirely with the building of a waggonway or railway, and any necessary branches from it. At its heart was the necessity for the stipulated amount of coal to be delivered to Leeds each year for 60 years, or as long as Brandling continued to deliver to

“Casson Close near the Great Bridge of Leeds”, not less than 240,000 corves (22,500 tons) of coal a year at 4¾d per corf.

The Act mentions “iron rails”, but also says “a waggon-way (such as is used for and about the Coal-works and Coal-mines in the Counties of Durham and Northumberland)”.

These usually had oak rails, topped with a renewable strip of beech, and were cross-

The evolution of the waggonways and railways of Middleton is encapsulated in this map of circa 1971, just prior to the M1 (now M621) motorway being built and passing over the main 1875 colliery route between the Moor Road station of the preserved Middleton Railway and its early base on the Dartmouth branch, the new road unseen but crossing the line in a south-southeast direction from Leeds. A representative selection of collieries are shown, as is the first long distance waggonway to Thwaite Gate staiths on the river Aire, centre right, the need to directly serve Leeds subsequently leading to the first Act of Parliament and ultimately a myriad of other routes, under various owners and as motive power evolved, the era of use for each section of line indicated by year. Courtesy Railway World

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sleepered at about every 3ft, the wooden sleepers being covered with gravel or cinders to protect them from the horses’ hooves.

Wheels were usually of beech, small in diameter and thick, with a larger circular metal plate nailed to the rim of the inner face, as a ‘flange’.

Though they were jointly Lords of the Manor, there were also numerous ‘commoners

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who usually had rights to the use of wastelands, but eventually all agreements registered at Wakefield’s Public Record Office, including Jeremiah Dixon leasing five acres of land and a stable at Rushy Pasture, Hunslet – perhaps was for use as a staging post for changing and resting horses, since Brandling promised to attend carefully to the disposal of all waste hay, straw and horse dung from the

Although other waggon-ways pre-dated that at Middleton they tended to be on the property of the colliery owner, but with that option unavailable for a Middleton to Leeds route an Act of Parliament was necessary, which was dated June 9, 1758. The very first Act to build a railway in Britain, the leading text reads ‘An ACT for Establishing Agreements made between Charles Brandling, Esquire, and other Persons, Proprietors of Lands, for laying down a Waggon-Way, in order for the better supplying the Town and Neighbourhood of Leeds, in the County of York, with Coals.’ Middleton Railway Trust Collection

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premises. Haulage on the river staiths waggonway had been sub-contracted out, but the Leeds waggonway was to be worked directly, and involved a substantial number of horses. The waggonway opened on September 20, 1758. The massive price-cut of about 37% gave Brandling an immediate advantage over his competitors, and the colliery output doubled within a decade.

As his coal trade expanded, Brandling began to enlarge his Middleton estate by purchasing adjacent plots of land as they came on to the market, and eventually he installed his eldest son, Charles John, in a fine modern house, Middleton Lodge. He also bought the ‘living’ of the local parish, Rothwell, and in about 1796 his son, Ralph Henry, became vicar there. In contrast, around 1761/62, a hamlet of miners’ cottages was established north of Middleton woods, close to our modern Park Halt. However, the provision of housing did not entirely satisfy all the miners, Charles Brandling’s income had been much improved by their dangerous work, and by 1769 the miners obviously considered that they also deserved greater financial reward – the miners’ strike is one of the first in Britain.

The growth of Brandling’s operation and use and dangers of the waggonways are a fascinating subject, the Industrial Revolution seeing people migrating from the countryside looking for better paid work, and as a result, the demand for coal also increased. The annual allocation was totally inadequate, and once the fixed-price quota was finished, coal could be sold at any price it would fetch. Did Brandling foresee this?

On June 30 Brandling advertised that the last of the current year’s fixed-price allocation would be delivered at the staith by September 1, “after which time no more coals will be delivered at the said staith till the commencement of the next year”, unless an agreement brought about an end to the current Act. This was to provide a larger quantity of coal than previously stipulated, but at a new advanced price. Charles Brandling had the inhabitants almost completely at his mercy, and a second Act became law early in 1779. Without getting into the machinations, and there were some stipulations put on Brandling, such as no sale of inferior coal from Beeston or Hunslet, this and the next two Acts, in 1793 and 1803, really upped the price of coal or all in Leeds would suffer.

The network expanded – by 1787 short branches or sidings served Leeds Pottery (154 yards), the foundry at Hunslet Carr (35 yards), Armitage staith (35 yards), Workhouse staith (52 yards). New pits were needed to meet the doubled coal quota allowed by the second Act, and in 1779 several were opened in the Middleton Park area, a little further uphill from the earlier pits, and a 72in steam pumping engine was designed and supplied for one of these. By 1786 Richard Humble was writing to Messrs Boulton & Watt regarding the possible purchase of a steam engine to draw coal from pits between 60 and 80 fathoms deep. In 1793 the Smeaton engine 13

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The Leeds Intelligencer of Tuesday, September 26, 1758 report on the first “Waggon Load of Coals” to arrive in Leeds by the new waggon-way. Fundamentally linked to cheaper coal prices for all, the horse-drawn arrival seems to have been quite an event, “the Bells were set a ringing, the Cannons of our FORT fired, and a general Joy appear’d in every Face”. Middleton Railway Trust Collection

was moved to a different pit, its original place being taken by a 60in Boulton & Watt engine.

Of course, the extraction of coal still relied heavily on the work of the miners and by 1793 the numbers had risen to 150 underground and 80 surface workers (there were about 50 underground, and 27 surface workers in 1773) and by 1820 there were 300 underground workers, but still only 80 surface workers.

In the 1780s more pits were opened in areas previously worked, and operations extended further south also, to the Town Street area on the upper level. Most pits had only a short lifetime, though some were closed and later re-opened as trade demanded, and a large network of ‘bye-ways’ and branch lines extending for more than a mile from the southern end of the main waggonway, to pits on the hillside and around the upper level. The rails usually were wooden, easily laid down and easily moved to another site when the pit they served was closed.

Around 1790, movement of coal underground was greatly improved by John Curr’s improvements with drawing and ‘hurrying’ – L-shaped iron tram-plates made the underground tubs on rails far easier to move, which resulted in young boys replacing horses. ‘Hurrying’ was the transporting of coal from the face to the shaft bottom. Curr’s system also involved the use of vertical rails within the shaft, to prevent damage to the corves, by guiding them as they were ‘drawn’ up.

A Hunslet Moor staith existed before mid-October 1798, and by 1802, there was also a branch into Fullage Close, and “building lots” were advertised for sale “to communicate with Meadow or Jack Lane, and the coal rail road from Mr Brandling’s pits at Middleton to Leeds”.

During the next few years, more pits were sunk, but the 1803 Act’s price and quota increases did not prevent C J Brandling’s colliery business was in recession by 1800 when, despite sales of 73,773 tons, the colliery lost £1,883.

The Thwaite Gate river staith had usually handled about one third of the total amount of coal dispatched from the colliery but from 1799 this proportion fell drastically and in 1807 its use appears to have ceased. The estate was still in financial trouble, with the Leeds Mercury of August 22, 1807 noting for sale by 14

auction the Lordship of the Manor of Middleton, “Two desirable residences”, farms and “the inexhaustible coal works”, together with “two powerful steam engines, and five smaller raising engines, with complete machinery: a water corn-mill, a brewery, malting, and numerous warehouses, stabling, tenements, and other suitable buildings”.

Meanwhile, Tyneside mining experts Thomas Fenwick and John Watson made a detailed survey and valuation of Middleton colliery.

Sent to Brandling on January 28, 1808, it valued the colliery at £24,951, with an annual profit of £3,500 and coal reserves estimated to last a further 66 years. Since 1801 there had been an average annual ‘winning’ of 78,750 tons (35,000 waggons), of which an average of 8,464 tons had been for the workmen and engines. Two pumping engines and “5 gins and 6 machines for drawing coals” were mentioned, but no steam winding engines.

There were 4½ miles of waggonways, including main-way and bye-way, one half being of iron. Two machines on the inclined

plane were valued at £120, having cost £145 when new. This was the incline from Belle Isle down to Hunslet, known as Todd’s Run, Andrew and Sarah Todd having been former owners of most of its route. The top of the run was at the high point of a ridge, and south of the ridge was a short upwards slope known as the ‘Little Run’, which probably accounts for there being two machines present. Over the years, Todd’s Run became Todd Run, the Odd Run, and later the Old Run: its last site is now Old Run Road. Most of the circa 60 pits sunk during the last 50 years had only a short productive life.

The sale notices ceased, with Brandling reluctant to sell his former home estate but prepared to mortgage it. The 1803 Act bound C J Brandling to a fixed charge for his coal, but costly new sinkings were regularly needed, and clearly some new means of reducing expenditure was urgently required. A new and dedicated steward arrived in the form of John Blenkinsop (agent Joseph Humble died on September 11, 1808, aged only 42) at the end of September.

The village of Waterloo – shown on the map on page 12 as ‘Belle Isle hamlet’ – immediately southwest of the Middleton colliery railway, the 1758 course of which can be seen at a higher level on the right. This undated view is taken looking north, the site of these houses being close to the modern Park Halt of the preserved railway. The first houses here were for colliery workers, were called ‘Belle Isle’ and were built circa 1761/62 – the British fleet had scored a great victory over the French in 1761 off the coast of Brittany, near the island fortress of Belle Ile, and the name of the village commemorated that. The houses were added to, rebuilt, etc, at various times, and after 1815 they became known as ‘Waterloo’. The Middleton Railway was on the hillside immediately behind the houses, and there is a story that naughty children used to jump onto their roofs from the railway, and place stones on the chimney tops to make the smoke flood back into the cottages. Eddie Docherty/Middleton Railway Trust Collection

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Born in 1733, Charles J Brandling inherited the family’s Middleton estate operation at the age of 18, and in the course of about seven years he had brought coal prices tumbling in Leeds.

However, quite the businessman, within 20 years he was benefitting from the ever-growing hunger for coal that was keeping Leeds thriving and was hard-nosed in relation to how much coal could be bought cheaply, forcing a series of price rises by Acts of Parliament. This painting resides in the Minneapolis Museum of Art. It is oil on canvas work painted in 1760 by Joshua Reynolds, so Brandling was about 27 years old at the time. Middleton Railway Trust Collection

The Blenkinsop era – 1808 to 1831 Blenkinsop was apprenticed to John Straker, the ‘viewer’ in charge of the Brandlings’ Felling colliery, and he began work at Middleton on October 1, 1808, aged only 25.

C J Brandling obviously had great confidence in him, paying an agency fee of £400 a year, when the most skilled of the colliery surface workers earned about £80. Embarking on his own survey of the working methods and potential of each pit, Blenkinsop concluded that many improvements could be made, especially in the method of bringing coal to the surface. Regarding transport, he favoured a new route that avoiding the rope-hauled Old Run incline nearly 70 years before the railway was actually re-routed, the perceptive Blenkinsop realised the advantages of avoiding the incline.

With flagging coal sales, moves were made to regain the colliery’s former river trade and the use of public wharves in Leeds, attempting to exploit a grey area in the 1803 Act, but the plan to extend the waggonway from Casson Close to the river bank near Leeds Bridge, crossing Meadow Lane and Water Lane, were dashed by the mayor of Leeds. Brandling was defiant, though unsuccessful, and it seems that Blenkinsop may not have fully supported his employer’s plan, begging the question, did he already have his own plans for improving Middleton’s transport system?

From 1803 to 1815, Britain was almost continually at war with Napoleonic France and its allies. In 1805 the Battle of Trafalgar established Britain’s sea supremacy over France and Spain, ending the risk of invasion by the French, and the British army then took the war to Europe – a great many heavy horses were needed – ‘chargers’ for the cavalry, and work horses for dragging cannons and baggage waggons etc from battle to battle – and their ‘export’ caused huge shortages and sharp rises in price. A viable alternative was becoming necessary in the industries of Britain.

In 1804, when Blenkinsop was in the Tyneside area, a Richard Trevithick locomotive was built and demonstrated at Gateshead. However, demonstration is not the same as long-term commercial use, and the only rails then available were made of cast iron, which breaks easily under impact. The problem was that any locomotive heavy OCTOBER 2020

enough to pull a commercially viable load quickly broke the rails on which it ran! In 1808, when Catch Me Who Can ran in London, it seemed that steam locomotive development had come as far as was currently possible. There is some evidence that early experiments were made at Middleton with a single-cylinder condensing engine around this time – reference Rees’s 1819 ‘Cyclopædia‘ – but clearly it was not a success. However, documentation dated July 1811 may relate to an upgrade to a section of the then disused Thwaite Gate waggonway ready for experimental runs by a single-cylinder locomotive, especially as by spring 1811 Blenkinsop had devised and patented a very effective way of dealing with the vulnerability of cast iron rails.

On April 10, 1811, Blenkinsop’s invention was secured for a period of 14 years by Patent No 3431, which covered the use of rack rails and a rack wheel. The patent was to apply within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and also “in all his Majesty’s Colonies and Plantations abroad”. The specification stated that a steam engine was to be greatly preferred www.steamdaysmag.co.uk

as the “first mover”. The rack rail could have “teeth or protruberances” standing either upwards or downwards or sideways in any required position. These would act upon the “teeth” on a wheel and would “drive the carriage along by the application of any such well known power or first mover . . . and I do declare that a steam engine is greatly to be preferred”.

Basically, John Blenkinsop had invented a ‘rack and pinion’ means of propulsion, by which a lightweight locomotive with a large cogged wheel attached at one side (or two toothed wheels acting upon correspondent racks on each side was possible only on absolutely straight track) could haul along both itself and its train by means of the cogs on the wheel engaging with cogs cast into the side of the rails. A locomotive using the system no longer needed to be heavy enough to gain a grip on its track; it did that via the rack system. The device obviously needed a great deal of development to bring it into use, especially the designing of a suitable locomotive, on which the success of the invention depended.

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