Oxford, Worcester & Wolverhampton 2-4-0 Locomotives in Great_Britain

Class /182-187 (Locobase 16048)

Data from "Passenger Engines, Oxford, Worcester and Wolverhampton Railway", The Locomotive (15 December 1910), p. 271. Works numbers were 330-335 in 1853.

These were purchased from EB Wilson by order of David Joy, who was the superintendent of the OW&W at the time. When the Great Western took over the railway in 1862, it gave this class the road numbers shown in the specs. Wolverhampton shops rebuilt the class twice; the second update fitted flush fireboxes and boilers with 176 2" tubes.

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Class 1 (Locobase 5596)

Described in David Joy's diary ([] -- 23 June 2003), this was the first engine he had built after he became locomotive superintendent of the O W & W. Boiler pressure is estimated (based on other Joy engines of the time) and grate area is calculated.

The firebox had a "midfeather" -- a partition that divided the firebox into two sections -- that stood 2 ft 7 in high. It also was the first engine in his acquaintance to have a weather board.

Joy comments on the differences in service of engines of like design. After praising 21 (5597), he says of # 1 and her sisters: "The others ...were as dead as a hammer, and averaged at least 1 lb [[more]] of coke per mile, and this was a good deal on our hard-fought coke list." (Locobase wonders if the "midfeather" was just high enough to interfere with combustion ...)

Vexations didn't stop with coal consumption, Joy adds. "...[T]hey broke a good many coupling rods, and once this occurred on the Kidderminster viaduct, 135 ft high -- a wooden structure -- the safety was that the two loose ends kept swinging round, but they punched holes clean through the 3-in planks of the bridge ...."

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Class 21 (Locobase 5597)

Described in David Joy's diary ([] -- 23 June 2003), tthese were one of two passenger classes he had built after he became locomotive superintendent of the O W & W. Boiler pressure is estimated (based on other Joy engines of the time) and grate area is calculated.

The firebox had a midfeather -- a partition that divided the firebox into two sections -- 2 ft 3 in high. It also was the first engine in his acquaintance to have a weather board that protected the driver and fireman.

Joy was pleased with the 21 class. The engines "...would always answer to any little nursing, and would go."

See "West Midland (GWR) Passenger Engine," The Locomotive Magazine, Vol. IX (26 September 1903), p. 185 for locomotives of similar vintage produced by Hawthorn. Locobase isn't sure that they were the same engines - there's no mention either of David Joy or of the midfeather firebox.