Liverpool & Manchester 2-2-0 Locomotives in Great_Britain

Class Ajax (Locobase 13524)

Data from Comte F M G Pambour, A Practical Treatise on Locomotive Engines on Railways (London: John Weale, 1840), p 37.

These small engines echoed the Planet (Locobase 651), but had somewhat smaller boilers. (It's all relative - all of these locomotives were tiny by standards assessed just a few years hence.) had slightly different grate areas. Vulcan (19) sported the largest at 6.5 sq ft, Fury's (21) measuring smaller at 6.12 and Leeds (30) 6.19 sq ft as shown. However, Leeds' firebox area was a hair larger than Vulcan's, which totalled 34.45 sq ft; Fury's came in at 32.87 sq ft.

Vulcan was credited in 1835 with having run 47,000 miles before "...it required to be taken into the shed for repairs."

Class Arrow (Locobase 6449)

Two locomotives were built by Stephenson after the Rainhill trials, according to Daniel Kinnear Clark, C. E. , in his Historical Progress of the Locomotive (an 1855 work hosted on [] (viewed 26 Dec 2004)). The Phoenix is outlined in Locobase 6445.

The Arrow was joined by the Comet and the Dart, but the general tenor of design was trending toward even more, and smaller tubes. See Locobase 650 for the Northumbrian.

Class Atlas (Locobase 13521)

Data from DK Minor, "Pambour on Locomotion", American Railroad Journal, and Advocate of Internal Improvements, Volume V, No 20 (21 May 1936), p. 309.

Class FireFly (Locobase 8438)

Data from Comte F M G Pambour, A Practical Treatise on Locomotive Engines on Railways (London: John Weale, 1840), p 37.

This was positively a whippet among the early L & M locomotives, being credited with 20 mph (32 kph) in regular service. Moreover, the engine amassed 50,000 service miles before being shedded for the first time.

Class Liver (Locobase 13523)

Data from DK Minor, "Pambour on Locomotion", American Railroad Journal, and Advocate of Internal Improvements, Volume V, No 20 (21 May 1936), p. 309. See also O S Nock, The Dawn of World Railways 1800-1850-Volume 1, Railways of the World in Colour (London: Blandford Press, 1972), pl 68, text p. 129.

Clearly, the Liver was not a superheated engine, but it did have two diameters of tubes. According to Wikipedia, the Liver represented a hallmark in design in many ways. Its wrought-iron bar frame was a novelty in the age of wooden frames that held the wheels inside (i.e., outside frames). Its domed firebox and nearly horizontal cylinders combined with the multi-tubular boiler to create a profile that would become increasingly common.

OS Nock claimed that Edmund Bury, the "technical driving force" Bury, Curtis & Kennedy strove from the outset "with might and main to undercut [Robert] Stephenson's prices."Adopting a bar frame rather than plate frame made it look "for all the world as if it is no more than a boiler on wheels!'. Yet Nock concedes that all Bury engines were "soundly constructed and many of them had extraordinarily long lives."

A pleasing eccentricity substituted wrought-iron Liver birds.for the usual cap adornment on the top of the stack

Class Northumbrian (Locobase 650)

Later versions of the Rocket, several were built for the L & M in 1830. Names included Meteor, Comet, Dart, Arrow, Phoenix, North Star, and Majestic--most were eventually modified to Northumbrian standard. These engines had the integrated firebox and boiler, the latter fitted with 88 fire tubes and a smokebox ahead of the boiler. The cylinders were angled and mounted at the rear. The multi-tubular boiler idea was used in almost all steam locomotives.

(Data taken from See also Gustav Reder (Michael Reynolds, trans), The world of steam locomotives (New York: Putnam, 1974); Hollingsworth, Steam Passenger Locomotives, has different data. He has driving wheel diameter as 52 inches, which yields 1,580 lb in TE. Grate area is said to be 8 sq feet, BDF 199, GDF 10,270, CHS/GA 51.5. He also gives an adhesive weight of 6,600 lb (3 metric tons).)

Class Phoenix (Locobase 6448)

Data from Daniel Kinnear Clark, C. E. , in his Historical Progress of the Locomotive (an 1855 work hosted on [] (viewed 26 Dec 2004))

Clark notes that after the Rocket had seen off its two rivals in the Rainhill trials, Stephenson went to work copying many of their ideas. The most important was the adoption of many, smaller tubes in a locomotive that was slightly larger. Apparently, the slightly different Arrow, another experimental locomotive was more satisfactory as it led to 3 more. See Locobase 6446.

Class Planet (Locobase 651)

Some data from G. Drysdale Dempsey A Rudimentary Treatise on the Locomotive Engine (1857; reprint 1970). Further information from the American Railroad & Engineering Journal of January 1895.

The perfection of the basic Stephenson engine, which lay at the heart of almost all steam locomotives: two horizontal cylinders, located at the front and driving directly to the wheels, a horizontal, multi-tube boiler with firebox and smokebox, blast pipe in stack. The Planets introduced the inside cylinder, a location that became characteristic of British locomotives in the 19th century.

Planets were widely distributed throughout Europe, including many British railroads and the Austrian Nordbahn (engines "Austria" and "Moravia"). In addition, the export of the Delaware to the New Castle & Frenchtown, assembled by Matthias Baldwin, directly influenced the Philadelphian as he built Old Ironside (Locobase 3221), the first of more that 75,000 locomotives completed by that firm.

The 1895 AERJ refers to Clement Stretton's book and extracts from that account that by the end of 1830, Planet had run the distance between Liverpool and Manchester in an hour and pulled a 76-ton train between the same two cities in 2 hours 54 minutes including stops. Top speed was 15 1/2 mph on the flat and 16 1/2 mph down the Sutton decline.

Class Star (Locobase 13525)

Data from Comte F M G Pambour, A Practical Treatise on Locomotive Engines on Railways (London: John Weale, 1840), p 37.

These small engines echoed the Planet (Locobase 651), but had somewhat smaller boilers. (It's all relative - all of these locomotives were tiny by standards assessed just a few years hence.) had slightly different grate areas. Vulcan (19) sported the largest at 6.5 sq ft, Fury's (21) measuring smaller at 6.12 and Leeds (30) 6.19 sq ft as shown. However, Leeds' firebox area was a hair larger than Vulcan's, which totalled 34.45 sq ft; Fury's came in at 32.87 sq ft.

Vulcan was credited in 1835 with having run 47,000 miles before "...it required to be taken into the shed for repairs."

Class Vauxhall (Locobase 652)

Data from Gustav Reder (1974).

Known as "Boxers," these engines eliminated the crank axle by bolting the cylinders horizontally and farther forward on an external frame and providing additional support by adding a "dummy" frame outside of the cylinders only. What they gained in axle strength, the wide spacing of the cylinders over the front axle combined with a lack of counterbalancing on the drivers took back in swaying at higher speeds. Early engines conveyed the piston's drive through a parallelogram linkage; later engines reverted to a more conventional crosshead.

Other engines were built for the London and Greenwich and the Irish Dublin and Kingston (Locobase 2538).

Class Vesta (Locobase 13522)

Data from DK Minor, "Pambour on Locomotion", American Railroad Journal, and Advocate of Internal Improvements, Volume V, No 20 (21 May 1936), p. 309.

Class Victory (Locobase 8436)

Data from Comte F M G Pambour, A Practical Treatise on Locomotive Engines on Railways (London: John Weale, 1840), p 37.

One driver for this variant of the Fury was Martin Weatherburn, whose somewhat reckless style contributed to the invention of the steam whistle, according to the Leicester Chronicler website -- [], accessed 27 May 2007. Weatherburn featured in two accidents, one of which came when he drove the Victory into the Comet because he was following too closely behind. (Another came when he plowed the Samson - Locobase 636 - into a dairy cart.)

Class Vulcan (Locobase 8435)

Data from Comte F M G Pambour, A Practical Treatise on Locomotive Engines on Railways (London: John Weale, 1840), p 37.

These small engines echoed the Planet (Locobase 651), but had somewhat smaller boilers. (It's all relative - all of these locomotives were tiny by standards assessed just a few years hence.) had slightly different grate areas. Vulcan (19) sported the largest at 6.5 sq ft, Fury's (21) measuring smaller at 6.12 and Leeds (30) 6.19 sq ft as shown. However, Leeds' firebox area was a hair larger than Vulcan's, which totalled 34.45 sq ft; Fury's came in at 32.87 sq ft.

Vulcan was credited in 1835 with having run 47,000 miles before "...it required to be taken into the shed for repairs."