Birmingham & Gloucester 4-2-0 Locomotives in Great_Britain

Class A (Locobase 4534)

See 4533 for a full description of these Norris-built locomotives supplied to the B&G for climbing the notorious Lickey Incline. The information supplied by Roger Hennessey doesn't say which of the three batches came first. I suspect it's this trio, as the later ones would be the A-extras and Bs. Additional data from Loco Profile 11 (Brian Reed, 1971).

Class A-extra (Locobase 4533)

Information from Roger Hennessey through private communication in February 2001 and from Loco Profile 11 (Brian Reed, 1971). This quintet was one of three different types of Norris locomotives imported from the US and used on the Lickey Incline a nearly 3% grade that had been thought to be beyond any traction locomotive. (One has to be impressed with how soon after steam locomotives were invented a US locomotive could compete for and win orders from British railways and prove themselves worthy.)

They were of a standard Norris pattern with inclined outside cylinders and the haystack boiler. This set of five is noticeably bigger in all dimensions than the other two batches.

Hennessey comments about their reputation:

"Opinions differ about these locos. Generally they were well-regarded, but the B&GR was a trifle ramshackle at first & maintained them poorly. Things improved after the loco superintendent was killed aboard one of them (i) its badly-repaired boiler blew at a seam; (ii) he was 'in liquor' at the time, according to a contemporary report. At least one of them was rebuilt as an 0-6-0 for banking work on the Lickey incline."

OS Nock, in Railways Then & Now (1972) notes that "although the wheel arrangement ... gave good tracking, the single pair of driving wheels and the limited adhesion weight that could be placed on them restricted the tractive power."

White (1968) is the source for the boiler pressure.

About their names, Hennessey says: " [They] were suitably Anglo-American; some were purely UK: Victoria; England; Eckington, Pershore; Droitwich (the last 3 are villages/towns hereabouts); one was neutral, Atlantic (excellent name, full of portent); others were American: Washington, Philadelphia; Niagara, Boston, Baltimore, Columbia & New York."

Class B (Locobase 4535)

See 4533 for a full description of these Norris-built locomotives supplied to the B&G for climbing the notorious Lickey Incline -- information supplied by Roger Hennessey and from Loco Profile 11 (Brian Reed, 1971). (G. Drysdale Dempsey A Rudimentary Treatise on the Locomotive Engine (1857; reprint 1970) is the source for the number and diameter of tubes.)

This group was the most numerous of the three types and the least powerful. Dempsey says they could pull a 53-ton load up the Lickey at 8 1/2 mph; a 33-ton load sailed up the incline at 12-15 mph. Fuel consumption on flatter runs between Birmingham and Liverpool average 50 lb of coke per mile and 4.27 lb of water evaporated per pound of coke.