Westleigh Tramway / Wotton Tramway 0-4-0 Locomotives in Great_Britain

Class 112 (Locobase 10113)

Data from "Locomotives of the Bristol & Exeter Railway," The Locomotive & Railway Carriage & Wagon Review, Vol IV (March 1899), p. 35. Works numbers 2530-2539. Boiler pressure is an estimate.

Conveying stone from the Westleigh's quarries to the B & E main line at Burlescombe required tiny locomotives and this pair filled the fill for more than 20 years. The tramway closed in October 1898, at which point these locomotives were sent to the GWR's Swindon Works.

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Class unknown (Locobase 21039)

Data from "Tank Locomotive for the Wotton Tramway", Engineering, Volume 27, No 1 (3 January 1879), pp. 17-18. Works number was 210 in December 1877.

Tramway locomotives often required a different arrangement of moving parts from most of the usual versions. This quite small wood-burner proves a case in point. To balance the axle loadings, Bagnall placed the cylinders and valves on a tray inside the frames under the boiler and just ahead of the rear axle. The connecting rods turned cranks on the front axle and the eccentrics were located on the front axle as well.

Also, the tanks formed the wings of a saddle under the boiler, leading to the layout's description as an "inverted saddle tank". Enginering reported the boiler as "of ample size, and ...found to give a good steam supply." Apparently because it ran on a short tramway, the footplate crew ran it completely unprotected from the elements.