Steam Locomotives of a more Leisurely Era
0-4-2STs of the Cannock Chase & Wolverhampton Railway
Five engines built by Beyer Peacock between 1856 and 1872 for shunting at the Cannock Chase Collieries, Staffordshire. They had remarkably long lives during which they remained practically unchanged.
A view of three of the engines – McClean in the foreground, with Chawner and Anglesey in the background. Whether the hot water being drawn off McClean is for washing purposes or for brewing tea cannot now be stated with any certainty!
The first engine, McClean, was the 28th locomotive built by the newly formed firm of Beyer Peacock & Co., who have since constructed several thousand engines for use in this country and all parts of the world. Alfred Paget followed in 1861, Chawner in 1864, Brown in 1867 and Anglesey in 1872. Finally, after a lapse of no less than 74 years, when another locomotive was required, the ninety-year-old design was considered so satisfactory that a completely new engine almost identical with the originals was constructed in the Company’s own workshops at Chasetown in 1946, some parts being supplied by Beyer Peacock & Co.
McClean
Brown was scrapped in 1926, but the others lasted until 1947 and the early 1950s, and the original McClean, which it had been hoped would be preserved, was not actually cut up until 1956, just a hundred years after having first seen the light of day. It did not actually attain its centenary as a working locomotive, as it had been out of use for a few years previously, but it was the engine in this country which, up to then, most nearly achieved this distinction.
Self-built Foggo
The 1946 locomotive, which received the name Foggo was still at work in the area until 1959.
Driving Wheels – 4’ 0”, Cylinders – 14” x 20”
A once-common wooden coal wagon from Cannock Chase.
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