Photo
F CrammondLEONARD
AND HIS SIBLINGS.
Photo
F Crammond
Leonard
in the original Birmingham Museum of Science and Industry, Newhall Street,
Birmingham.
“Leonard”
is a 0-4-0 saddle tank locomotive, 2ft. gauge, built by W.G.Bagnall Ltd.,
Stafford as works number 2087 in 1918. It was originally ordered by the Ministry
of Munitions but was delivered new to the Birmingham Tame & Rea Drainage
Board at Water Orton for use at their Minworth sewage works. Bagnall’s records
show it as having the name “Victory” but there is no record of it ever
having carried that name. It worked at Minworth until sometime in the 1950’s
and was moved to the Birmingham Museum of Science and Industry in Newhall
Street, Birmingham on 13th. March 1961 where it was on static display with three
other locomotives. When this museum closed a couple of years ago it was decided
that it was not needed in the exciting new lottery funded replacement museum
(“Think Tank”) and lack of storage space resulted in it being offered to
another suitable home. It arrived at the Abbey Pumping Station, Leicester on
Thursday March 6th 2003 on long term loan. It is hoped to have restoration to
steam completed before the end of 2004. At the time of writing the boiler is
away for retubing and minor repairs whilst the chassis and motion receive
attention.
The
name “Leonard” seems to have been fitted at about the time that it went to
the Birmingham Museum but at the moment we have no knowledge of why it was given
this name. The nameplates are very small compared to those usually fitted to
this type of locomotive. We will keep the name Leonard (it has been in the
public eye with it for over 40 years) but would love to know how and why it
gained it.
Compared
with many other preserved steam locomotives, Leonard has perhaps not had a very
exciting life so far, but now that it has had a long rest, we hope that things
will be a bit livelier for it in the future.
The
workshops of Bagnalls at Stafford produced over 3,000 steam locomotives over
about a period of 100 years. For most of this time, one of their products was
the small saddle tank design typified by “Leonard”, although there were
detail improvements and design changes over the years. Many of these locomotives
were exported and some of them are known to still exist.
There
are a small number that have survived into preservation in the UK.
Number
2088 led a similar life to “Leonard” at Minworth. It was sold to a private
buyer in 1961 and carried the name “Lady Luxborough” for a few years but it
now carries it’s original allocated name of Armistice on the Bredgar and
Wormshill Light Railway in Kent.
There
is a strong Leicestershire connection with this type of locomotive. The Cliffe
Hill quarry had five of them, together with four larger Bagnalls. 1491 and 2067
have been fortunate to survive. Also, 2090, which worked in quarries in Rutland
and Northamptonshire, was bought by Teddy Boston in 1962, and still runs around
the rectory garden.
The
existing locomotives of this design in the UK that we have traced are: -
1491,
“Isabel” (1897) at the Amerton Railway, Staffordshire.
1760,
“Sybil” (1906) at Launceston Steam Railway, Cornwall.
2043,
“Kidbrooke” (1917) present location uncertain.
2067,
“Peter” (1918) at Amberley Museum, West Sussex.
2087,
“Leonard” (1918) at Abbey Pumping Station Museum, Leicester.
2088,
“Armistice” (1918) at Bredgar & Wormshill Railway, Kent.
2090,
“Pixie” (1918) at Cadeby Light Railway, Leicestershire.
2091,
“Wendy” (1918) at Kew Bridge Steam Museum, London.
2133,
“Woto” (1924) with Alan Keef Ltd., Herefordshire.
2135,
“Sir Tom” (1925) at Threlkeld Quarry & Mining Museum, Cumbria.
These
were all built to two foot gauge or thereabouts except for Woto and Sir Tom
which were both originally three foot six gauge but have been reconstructed in
preservation for the two foot
gauge.
Rob Dickinson has some shots of a similar Bagnall still at work at Tipong Colliery in India on http://dialspace.dial.pipex.com/steam/trains/india034.htm
Bagnalls
were always just a builder of small batches of locomotives or single units and
they would not have been able to cope with the large numbers needed for the
railways used during the First World War. They therefore mainly concentrated on
munitions work during this period. Towards the end of the war however some
government departments had requirements for small batches of Bagnall’s little
saddle tank locomotive, ordering a total of 35 of these. Many had only short
working lives and some have disappeared without trace, but as can be see from
the above list, six have survived.
Surprisingly
the batch in which “Leonard” was ordered was a batch of only six
locomotives. One was never manufactured and the order was reduced to just five.
These were numbered 2087 to 2091 and of these, four have survived. The missing
locomotive, 2089 appears to have been cut up for scrap when only ten years old.
Photo
FCRAMMOND
Pixie
on the Cadeby Light Railway
LEONARD in the former Birmingham Museum of Science and Industry September 1965 Photo F Crammond