Steam Locos of a Leisurely Era 1873 – 2-4-0T – Isle of Man Railway

Steam Locos of a Leisurely Era

 1873 – 2-4-0T – Isle of Man Railway

No.1 Sutherland

Licensed under the GFDL by the author; Released under the GNU Free Documentation License.

The standard type of locomotive in use on the 3’ 0” gauge Isle of Man Railway since its opening in 1873.  Three engines were built in that year, Nos. 1 Sutherland, 2 Derby and 3 Pender, followed by Nos. 4 Loch and 5 Mona in 1874.  Others came at subsequent intervals and by 1910 there were thirteen of them.  All came from Beyer Peacock & Co.  Two engines from the absorbed Manx Northern Railway were taken into stock, No. 14 being similar to the Isle of Man engines, and No.15 an 0-6-0T type.  This was the only engine to be owned by the Company not of the 2-4-0T type.  Finally, in 1926, one further engine was obtained, again from Beyer Peacock.  The dimensions had been increased progressively in the later built engines, and No. 16 Mannin was again considerably larger than the others, although of the same general design.  Some of the earlier ones were subsequently rebuilt, the original lot had much smaller side tanks, which were later enlarged.  The distinctive brass bell-shaped domes carried by Nos. 1-9 have in most cases been replaced by plain ones and the engines fitted with Ross ‘pop’ safety valves.

IoM 2-4-0 T No.3 Pender at Douglas

2-4-0T No.3 Pender heads a line of tank engines at Douglas. Built 1873 by Beyer Peacock, one of the original three supplied for the opening of the Peel line in July 1873.  Involved in an accident at Douglas in 1925 when it ran into the station, having accidentally left the guard and brakeman behind at Union Mills. The fireman was killed and the driver badly bruised.

© Copyright Chris Coleman and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence.

Although all of the engines are still nominally on the Company’s books in 1959, owing to dwindling traffic a number of them have not worked for many years.  The livery was formerly bright green, but has latterly been changed to a pleasing shade of red.  A similar engine was built in 1880 for the Ballymena and Larne Railway in Northern Ireland, subsequently sold to the Castlederg and Victoria Bridge Tramway.

Locomotive No.13 – Kissack – at Colby Station

Another one-off order from 1910 (Beyer, Peacock works number 5382), and named after company director E. T. Kissack, unlucky 13 (latterly referred to as 12a by some of the railway’s staff) was one of the backbones of the railway’s fleet, having seldom been out of service until withdrawn with defective boiler at Christmas 1992.

© Copyright Richard Hoare and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence.

Dimensions:

Nos. 1-9 as originally built and No.14

Driving wheels – 3’ 9”,  Pony wheels – 2’ 0”,  Cylinders – 11”x 18”,  Pressure – 120 lb.,  Tractive effort – 4930 lb.,  Water capacity – 385 gall,  Weight – 18 tons 4 cwt.

Nos. 10-13

Driving wheels – 3’ 9”,  Pony wheels – 2’ 0”,  Cylinders – 11”x 18”,  Pressure – 160 lb.,  Tractive effort – 6580 lb.,  Water capacity – 480 gall,  Weight – 20 tons 10 cwt.

No.16

Driving wheels – 3’ 9”,  Pony wheels – 2’ 0”,  Cylinders – 12”x 18”,  Pressure – 180 lb.,  Tractive effort – 8810 lb.,  Water capacity – 520 gall,  Weight – 23 tons 6 cwt.

No.9 Douglas as running in 1933