North Staffordshire 0-6-0 Locomotives in Great_Britain

Class 15 (Locobase 16099)

Data from []. Works numbers were 279-288 in 1845.

Class 159/2F (Locobase 10218)

Data from "Express Locomotive, NSR", Locomotive Magazine, Vol VI (September 1901), p. 154. Works numbers were 589-593 in December 1900.

One of the last designs of Locomotive Superintendent Luke Longbottom, this sturdy goods locomotive had steam sanding gear and combination injectors on the back of the firebox. It fell in the lower half of engines in size.

Class 47 (Locobase 10426)

Data from "Six-Coupled Saddle Tank Locomotive, North Staffordshire Railway", The Locomotive Magazine, Vol IX (26 December 1903), p. 369. Works numbers were 1414-1415 in 1862 (67-68) and 2251-2254 in 1875 (47-50).

LM's report is maddeningly vague, especially when it tells us that these locomotives were built "some years ago". Wikipedia blew away the fog with its roster showing

Class 74/1F (Locobase 20685)

Data from "North Staffordshire Railway Tank Locomotives & Stock", Locomotive Magazine, Volume XVII [27] (15 February 1921) , p. 27. JA Hookham was the designer. Works numbers were 4079-4080 in 1919.

Taken into the LMS in 1923, the pair survived as small shunters until October 1932 (1602) and April 1933 (1603).

Class D (Locobase 2362)

See Ahrons (1927) for data. Also see "New Four-Cylinder Tank Engine, North Staffordshire Railway", Journal of the Institution of Locomotive Engineers (1 December 1922) , p. 733; and "Four-Cylinder Tank Locomotive, North Staffordshire Ry", Locomotive Magazine, Volume XXIX [29], No 365 (15 January 1923), pp. 1-3.. JA Hookham and Holcroft were the designers.

The ILE report noted the disposition of the cranks, all of which drove on the same axle: "the outside pair and those of the crank axle inside the frames are 90 degrees apart respectively, but each outside crank is set at 135 degrees relatively to the corresponding inside crank on the same side of the engine." The result was eight exhaust beats per wheel revolution, which must have sounded like a low purr. Four sets of gear actuated piston valves on each cylinder.

Certainly, the "eight-impulse effect" described by Holcroft in a paper cited by The Locomotive offered other advantages. One was the "easy starting and regular running with an early cut-off, resulting in an economical consumption." Another is avoiding work-arounds such as slotting the valve to allow steam to leak into the cylinder. Still another benefit of eight impulse beats per rev is the benefit to combustion efficiency "by reducing any tendency to spark throwing and by improving the fuel consumption, more especially at low speeds."

(See Locobase 2513 for Maunsell's much better known class of 4-6-0 Lord Nelson express engines with a similar crank layout.)

As with many NSR designs, the firebox and grate were quite large in relation to the boiler, while the boiler was quite small in relation to the cylinder volume. Perhaps the high ratio was the reason that after six years, the engine was rebuilt by the LMS as an 0-6-0 tender locomotive in 1928, but scrapped in the same year.

Class H (Locobase 15889)

Data from "Goods Locomotive, North Staffordshire Railway", Locomotive Magazine, Vol XVI (15 February 1910), p. 24.

Designed by Locomotive Superintendent John H Adams to handle the traffic demands of goods and coal trains serving Liverpool, Manchester, Nottingham, and Rugby.