Unspecified Articulated Locomotives in Great_Britain

Class Bagnall Articulated 1 (Locobase 6267)

Data from Allan C Baker's article on the Bagnall Articulateds originally published in The Industrial Railway Record (No 16 - December 1967) and archived online at [] 22 July 2004).

See Locobase 6265 for a fuller discussion of the Bagnall Articulated design. This one was the first to begin construction and was the smallest. When completed as works #2544, it was delivered to the Illovo Sugar Estates in Illovo, Natal, South Africa.

Class Bagnall Articulated 2 (Locobase 6265)

Data from Allan C Baker's article on the Bagnall Articulateds originally published in The Industrial Railway Record (No 16 - December 1967) and archived online at [] 22 July 2004).

This seems to have been the relatively rare example of a simply bad design that didn't improve with use.

The design, Baker notes, has been described every way possible, but he argues that it was a design of its own with some touches of Garratt. Unlike the Garratt, however, the bogies were tucked under the boiler and firebox, which necessitate the use of a maritime-design boiler called the Bull Head.

The first one (works number 2545) was delivered in 1936 to the Renishaw Sugar Estate in Natal, South Africa. The next two, produced 10 years later (works 2830-2831) also went to Natal, going into service for Darnal and Felixton sugar estates as TUGELA and NONTI. Hullett, the Darnal & Felixton parent, ordered two more, MBOZOMA (3014) and SINKWAZI (3015) in 1953.

In service the locomotives leaked and broke down frequently. One was said to require 16 hours to raise steam! Tubes leaked, the tube plate leaked, the steam joints from boiler to bogies leaked, the cylinders were prone to priming -- what's more they lacked power.

Still, Baker notes, Hullett did order a second pair seven years after the first and Renishaw pronounced itself relatively satisfied with its Bagnall articulated.

Class Progress (Locobase 9122)

Data from T. W. Armstrong, Facts and Opinions: Regarding the Economical Construction and Working of the Fairlie Locomotive (London, 1870), pp. 8-11.

Fairlie's claims for his double-bogie tank locomotive design were scrutinized in a series of tests, accounts of which were later published in the Times of London. A committee of observers gathered to watch the first standard-gauge examplar of this type on 14-15 February 1870.

The account of the trials suggests the advantages, but more notably the disadvantages of Fairlie's locomotive:

"On the 14th February "The Progress" left the Three Cocks Junction of the Mid Wales Railway with 39 loaded wagons and 3 brake-vans and about 50 passengers and workmen

making a total weight exclusive of Engine 472 tons 6 cwt. 2 qrs [Locobase: a commendable haul]. It measured 710 feet in length without the Engine.

It started from the " Three Cocks" at 3'6 PM. with 130 Ibs.of steam as indicated by a Bourdon's gauge. She proceeded freely from a gradient of 1 in 2215. She passed two rising

gradients of 1 in 75 the latter 29 chains long and with the above pressure, but she slipped twice on a third gradient of 1 in 75, 34 chains long and on reverse curves.

After passing that gradient without difficulty and a gradient 1 in 162, she came to a stand within 50 yards of the summit of a gradient of 1 in 90, 21 chains long. The steam pressure was then 120 Ibs. to the square inch. The water having fallen too near the bottom of the gauge-glass, Mr. Fairlie who was driving the Engine and was unacquainted with the gradients, applied both injectors about 30 chains from the point where the Engine

pulled up at 3:35 P. M. The total distance run was 6 1/2 miles in 29 minutes. [13 mph]

There was a strong wind blowing across the train with hoar frost and the rails were in excellent condition. The axle boxes of the wagons had been greased in the ordinary way.

The Engine was unable to start the train after it stopped, though the pressure had been increased to 150 Ibs. "

That the Progress's stall was due at least as much to Fairlie's inexperience as to any defect could be supported by a commented from the next day's report: "She passed the point at which she had stooped on the previous day at 8 miles in hour and with a pressure of 140 Ibs. to the inch. The Engine on this day was driven by Edward Williams under the supervision of Mr.Greenhow the Locomotive Superintendent of the Mid Wales-

Railway." Obviously, driver Williams knew how to get results.

Still, the Fairlie's success, such as it was, came mostly on narrow-gauge roads.