Lion's Tale. Part 1

Lion at Steam Port museum, 1980.

 The following is the outline chronology for the locomotive Lion aka the Titfield Thunderbolt constructed from minutes of the Liverpool & Manchester Railway; minutes of the LNWR; records of the LMS; records of the Mersey Docks &  Harbour Board.

2 October 1837 Lion was one of ten locomotives ordered by the Board of the Liverpool & Manchester Railway on 2 October 1837, of which six were ordered from the enigmatic firm of Todd, Kitson & Laird of Leeds. Todd, Kitson & Laird had been in existence only a month when they were won a contract for six locomotives for upwards of £10,000. Interestingly, Henry Booth the General Superintendent of the Liverpool & Manchester Railway had in August reported to the Board of Directors he would speak to various locomotive manufacturers and one can’t help but feel his hand in the formation of TKL. Especially as that partnership was dissolved soon after the last of the six engines for the Liverpool & Manchester were delivered.

She was built to two patents: those of Robert Stephenson (1834) for a six-wheeled locomotive and John Melling (1837).

August 1838. Lion was completed several months late, during the last week of July/first week of August 1838 (Leeds Times 4 August 1838 etc).

She was built incorporating three ‘Patent Improvements’ of John Melling, the Liverpool & Manchester Railway locomotive foreman (L&M Minutes October 1837 - March 1838) -

1. A copper firebox with hollow water-filled firebars and with a water tank beneath the firebars the top of which acted as an ash-pan. The falling ashes heated the water in the tank as a sort of pre-heater. A special valve from the safety valve directed waste steam into the same tank, which was connected to the tender tank allowing the water to circulate.

2. A radial valve gear which dispensed with the need for eccentrics.

3. Coupling wheels rather than coupling rods (although it is not clear whether this innovation which could convert a 2-2-0 into an 0-4-0 was adopted to couple Lion’s four driving wheels).

The boiler was of the ‘long plate’ construction and was thus slightly oval, as record by Francis Whishaw in November 1839.

Lion and her sister Tiger were ordered as ‘Luggage Engines’ with 11 x 20 inches cylinders and were at first used as Bank Engines on the Whiston and Sutton inclines respectively. Lion was shedded at Ordsall lane and worked the Whiston Incline and Tiger in Liverpool and worked the Sutton. This was until two banking engines ordered from Todd, Kitson & Laird were delivered in March 1839.

November 1838: Lion is recorded at work as a banking engine in the first week of November 1838.(Manchester newspapers)

12 November 1838 Lion was involved in the fatal explosion of Patentee on the Whiston Incline.

April 1839 Lion and Tiger are recorded was working luggage (i.e. goods) trains. In Summer 1839 Lion is record as being in steam over 16 hours per day. Tiger was the more economical engine, burning less coke and pulling greater loads than Lion.

December 1840 – Lion is reported by the press as breaking a wheel or crank axle ‘which did much damage to the machinery’. The locomotive to this day has mismatched driving wheels, the leading pair having a different pattern and number of spokes to the driven pair. (Manchester newspapers)

1841-1844 Rebuilt by Edward Woods at Edgehill in order to remove the Melling ‘Patent Improvements’ and to fit standard cylinders, valve chests and valve gear (Buddicom valve gear) and new inside framing. The new cylinders measured 13 x 20 inches. Edward Woods reported to the Gauge Commissioners in 1845 he had 18 ‘luggage engines’ with cylinders that size. Re-boilered during the same period.

1846-1859 New cylinders fitted measuring 14 x 18 inches (Woods lists no cylinders of this size to the Gauge commissioners in 1845).

1850-1859 Leading driving wheels fitted with new tyres marked ‘Crewe’.(see |Trans. Newcomen Soc.)

1857 Down-graded to ballast duties.

1859 Sold to the Mersey Docks & Harbour Board for use as a stationary pump.

1865 Re-boilered by the Harbour Board, perhaps using some parts from the earlier boiler or the earlier as a pattern.

Lion as recovered from the pump house on Graving Dock, 1928.

  

January 1923 The Locomotive Magazine reports the existance of Lion working as a pump.

1927 Old Locomotive Committee established to purchase and restore Lion.

1929-1930 Restoration at Crewe Works:-

1. Replacement and splicing of new material at each end of the outside sandwich frames.

2. New firebox casing (£15) and boiler cladding.

3. New spring gear (£20)

4. Four new buffers (£10)

Other work included:-

New outside cranks, coupling rods etc.
New chimney incorporating as much of the original as possible, modelled on the Ostrich
New smokebox doors.

New footplate and new cab railings modelled on the Ostrich locomotive.
New splashers

‘Wakefield’ mechanical lubricator.

New boiler fittings.

Re-making rear horn guides for carrying wheels.

New draw-gear. 

Cylinders rebored by 1/8th inch.

A new tender, re-made from an earlier Furness Railway tender dating from 1865. (£60)

Part II will look at subsequent work from 1979-1988 when Lion was restored to steam for Rocket 150 and toured several heritage railways in the early 1980s before being finally withdrawn in 1988.