A Chapman Locomotive in Whitehaven

Local rumour around Whitehaven in Cumbria suggets that around 1812 Taylor Swainson 'invented' a locomotive engine called the 'Iron Horse' but that it broke the rails and  was laid aside. 

The Whitehaven News in 1929 published extracts from the diary/memoire of Mr Noble Steel, a Whitehaven printer, written in the 1890s:

"When I was quite a child, about the year 1812 a locomotive engine was running at Whitehaven, it was called the "Iron Horse" and was used for drawing waggons from the pits toward the harbour, and was invented and built by Mr. Taylor Swainson, engineer to the Earl of Lonsdale ... Mr Swainson took a holiday. Mr John Peile, the Earl of Lonsdale's colliery agent, being anxious to see the "Iron Horse" at work, sent to Newcastle and succeeded in engaging one of the first engineers ... to endeavour to set the wonderful machine in motion. This great man came and after a vast amount of study and labour he was obliged to admit that it was beyond his power; and there the ingenious contrivance stood still ... At lenght the inventor was himself again and the "Iron Horse" was in less than a week set in motion to the wonder and admiration of congregating thousands."

Folk-memory, perhaps but there is a grain of truth. John Peile was indeed the Agent to the Earl of Lonsdale and was certainly interested in locomotives. In March 1815 he wrote from Whitehaven to John Buddle at Wallsend (near Newcastle) enquiring as to the "results of your experiments in perfecting your Union Moving Steam Wagon" and requested to spend a week with him in spring to see the engine in action. In November 1815 he wrote again asking about any progress which had been made wtih the engine. 

It is possible Peile had seen the Chapman locomotive on a visit to the Lambton Railway, or perhaps one of the few other locomotives at work in the North East. On the back of this, on 20 November 1816 Peile ordered, via Phineas Crowther of the Ouseburn Foundry, Newcastle, a locomtoive from John Buddle, which used Chapman's patent bogeys in order to spread the weight of the engine over eight wheels rather than four.

A drawing of a locomotive built to Chapman's patent exists in Cumbria Records Office, dated 16 November 1814. It shows an eight-wheeled gear-driven locomtoive. It is signed P.C., presumably Phineas Crowther.

It is likely that the locomotive was either made in Newcastle, dismantled and re-erected in Whitehaven or was made in Whitehaven under the supervision of the Colliery Enginewright, Taylor Swainson. This would, of course, give rise to the local tradition that Swainson had 'invented' the engine. It should also be noted that Swainson was a friend of John Buddle, and that Buddle often visited Whitehaven in his capacity as Consulting Viewer.

The locomotive was first tried on the Croft wagonway in 1817, but despite being on eight wheels broke up the lightly laid rails. Despite this failure, the locomotive was not scrapped and was rebuilt as a stationary engine. It was taken to Distington Quarry, mounted on two stone pillars and used to work a winding drum which could be engaged or disengaged via a clutch so it could 'pump water, and draw out the stone inclinded planewise.' A drawing of the engine thus converted dated August 1818 shows the locomtoive to have had a single large flue through the boiler and two vertical cylinders set on the centre line, and partially sunk into the boiler, and mounted close together over the two crank shafts. The chimney has a large drum near its base, reminiscent of that of the 'Steam Elephant' by Chapman & Buddle.

The locomtoive was supposedly still in existance as late as 1877.

Hick's Patent Locomotive

C. F. Dendy Marshall in 1953 "A history of Locomotives down to the year 1831" includes on pp. 214-216  sketchy details of a locomotive built in Bolton by Messrs Rothwell & Hick of that town. He inclues a sketch by  Theodore West of a four-wheeled locomotive with a vertical boiler and horizontal cylinders driving the trailing wheels via a bell-crank.  Unusually the sketch shows the leading wheels to be smaller than the trailing, i.e. driving wheels, which Dendy Marshall suggets is in error. More of the wheels anon. 

 

Theodore West's sketch of Hick's Locmotive dated October 1833.

Rothwell & Hick was a partnership formed by Benjamin Hick (1790-1842) - the father of the Bolton engineer John Hick (1815-1894) - and Peter Rothwell. Hick was born in Yorkshire and was an alumnus of the 'Round Foundry' in Leeds of Fenton, Murray & Wood, the firm which had built the first commercially sucesful steam locomotives in 1812.

The earliest mention of the locomotive is in December 1830 in the Bolton Chronicle, whilst the Manchester Courier and other papers in the North West  carried a second article published a week later, verbatim from the Manchester paper (e.g. Liverpool Courier).  The Mechanics' Magazine (11 December 1830) cited the Bolton paper.

The Bolton Chronicle (4 December 1830) recounts:

"On Thursday last, we accompanied the new locomotive-engine, The Union, just completed by Messrs. Rothwell, Hick & Co of this town whilst making her first experiment upon the Bolton & Leigh Railway, and when running without any load other than her tender, she went at a rate varying from 20 to 30 miles per hours; and with a heavy train of loaded coal-waggons ... at the rate of 12 miles an hour. We ought to observe, that there was an inclination of 12 feet in a mile to overcome, as well as a very severe curve ... We were much pleased with the compact and neat appearance of this engine... the boiler being placed in an upright position, into which, we understand, Mr Hick has introduced a spiral flue, in order to expose as much surface of water as possible to the action of the heat..."

The Manchester Courier adds on Tuesday 7 December 1830 that the  trial took place on 'Wednesday evening' (and here is possibly in error) and that:

"The boiler is on a new principle, being placed upright... cylinders are horiztonal, and by a curious contrivance, a great saving of steam will be effected."

Other than the dates, the accounts describe a locomotive wtih a vertical boiler and horiztonal cylinders, the former having an unusual 'spiral flue.'

Francis Whishaw visited the Bolton & Leigh Railway in 1839 and notes that there was a locomotive called the Union, built by Hick in December 1830. It was a 2-2-0 with cylinders 9 x 18 inches. The leading wheels are described as being two feet smaller than the drivers.

But wait ... there's more. It transpires that Benjamin Hick took out a patent for a vertical boilered locomotive on 8 October 1834. It was a four-wheeled machine, with large driving wheels and smaller leading wheels (the design of wheel also being patented) -  the Tomlinson sketch of the Union also has unequal wheel sizes. The vertical boiler was certainly unusual with a 'water chamber of annular form' which had multiple verticle tubes passing through it to carry the combustion products and heat the water. In the centre was the domed 'water chamber', which was heated underneath, and by the tubes passing through it, and by the hot gases which circulated around it before exiting via the chimney.

Benjamin Hick's patent locomotive of October 1834.

The cylinders were vertical (unlike those of The Union) but remember the cryptic comment regarding the 'curious contrivance' which would effect a great saving of steam?

"There are three steam cylinders, all in a row... each of the cylinders is provided with suitable valves, and working gear, to admit the steam on the top only of each of the pistons, at the time of the descent of each, and to allow of its escape on their ascent. The bottom of the cylinders being open."

In the opinion of Hick, this improved the stability and adhesion of the locomotive,  and with horizontal cylinders prevented lateral oscillation, and would also create a saving in steam. Exhaust steam was directed into the chimney to help the fire draw. It is therefore possible that the Union had similar single-acting cylinders, mounted horizontally.

The final drive is reminiscent of a mill engine. There was a three-throw crank shaft, each throw set equidistant from each other to get a smooth transfer of power. Final drive was via a pinion gear on driven from the crank shaft working on a large toothed wheel mounted on the driving axle.


One question remains, are we dealing with or two locomotives? The Union was certainly built and taken into stock on the Bolton & Leigh and ran for at least nine years. It had an unusual vertical boiler. Theodore West's sketch is dated October 2nd 1833 (Dendy Marshall's fig. 92), twelve months before Hick was granted letters Patent. Dendy Marshall admits that he does not know the significance of the date. It is possible that the engine described in December 1830, sketched with a date of October 1833 and patented by Hick in 1834 are one and the same. Both had smaller leading wheels, unusual vertical boilers and cylinders. Whilst Hick's patent specification states vertical cylinders, Wests' sketch shows horizontal, which is confirmed by Press reporting. It is entirely probably that the date of October 1833 refers to a second experiment with a rebuilt form of  Union, a year before he took out letters Patent on a verical boilered, vertical cylinder locomotive, which used lessons learned from the Union.