Brassey & Ballard Construction 0-6-0 Locomotives in Great_Britain

Class Linden (Locobase 5979)

This was Hunslet engine #1, the first to roll out of their Jack Lane works. Brassey and Ballard were building the Midland's main line between Bedford and Aldenham and put this saddle tank to work. (The boiler pressure is an estimate, but is in line with other locomotives of the period.)

As noted by Geoff Horsman, who wrote about the Linden for [] (seen 4 April 2004), this locomotive had several distinctive features. In addition to the bulky saddle tank over the boiler, the rounded brass steam dome crowded between the tank and the be-spectacled windscreen, and small coal bunker, the Linden had all three axles equalized with the arrangement of lever and springs visible between the first two axles.

Horsman notes that the "compensated spring gear", for so this arrangement is called in the UK, was removed in 1878-1879, probably because the arrrangement "...whilst distributing the shocks produced by the uneven track between the axles and not directly to the frames, had the disadvantage of allowing the locomotive, especially a saddle tank type, to roll badly when traveling at anything above very low speeds over indifferent track."

Horsman is able to reconstruct the Linden's career to some extent: Two new boilers, new smokebox door and 14 1/2" cylinders fitted in 1888 for new owner TA Walker (which called her Patricroft). In 1902, #1 was known to its then-owners Sir John Jackson Ltd as Nottingham.