Just £10k will see world’s first passenger steam locomotive replica in operation
A £10,000 APPEAL to return the replica of the world’s first steam locomotive to haul passenger trains has been launched to coincide with the 250th anniversary of the birth of its designer.
In the summer of 1808, Cornish mining engineer and inventor Richard Trevithick demonstrated his Catch-Me-Who-Can on a circular track in London, and charged a shilling for a ride. It had been built for Trevithick by John Rastrick at Hazledine’s foundry in Bridgnorth.
In 2006, Dave Reynolds, a staff member at the Severn Valley Railway’s Bridgnorth Works, proposed building a working replica of the locomotive in the town to mark the bicentenary of that event, and the Trevithick 200 charity was established in January 2007.
A £10,000 grant from the National Lottery Awards For All fund and £2300 from Bridgnorth District Council allowed work to start, and a Friends of Trevithick 200 scheme raised local donations.
Israel Newton & Sons delivered the boiler in January 2008. The axles were contracted out, as were the wheels, which were not cast but bought as blanks, flame cut from 6in thick steel plate.
The patterns for the cylinder top casting and other parts were borrowed from the Trevithick Society’s Puffing Devil replica. The boiler feed pump castings were made using Beamish Museum’s Puffing Billy patterns. Virtually everything else was made in Bridgnorth Works.
Construction
The boiler was wheeled and undergoing steam tests by the end of June 2008, just in time to be unveiled (without any of the motion) at the Trevithick 200 bicentennial rally in Bridgnorth in July 2008 – which also featured the replica of Trevithick’s 1802 Coalbrookdale engine from the Ironbridge Gorge Museums, Puffing Devil and Tom Brogden’s replicas of Trevithick’s 1902 London Steam Carriage, and Hancock’s Steam Omnibus Enterprise.
By October 2008, the crosshead, the connecting rods and valve gear had been added, and from then on it was possible to demonstrate the engine running with the driving wheels jacked just clear of the rails. By this stage, funding for contracted work had been used up, and subsequent progress has been achieved on a voluntary basis.
By early 2010, the riveted well tank, boiler feed pump, and its linkage were in use. The wooden boiler lagging was finished by the middle of 2012, the temporary chimney had been replaced with a riveted one by the same time, and a drag box fitted.
Over the following winter, the oak frame for the footplate was made and fitted in spring 2013, and a start made on the railings. Since then, work has concentrated on the brakes.
Although unfinished, the 21stcentury version is well travelled, having visited Barrow Hill in September 2008, the Bridgnorth bicentenary follow-up Rally in the Valley events several times, and the Black Country Museum in Dudley in July 2012. It spent summer 2014 at the Dutch national railway museum in Utrecht, as part of their celebration of 175 years of Dutch railways.
Money needed to complete the engine will fund: numerous parts made for the handbrake arrangement; items for the air brakes; a pressure vessel for the exhaust steam feed water heater; an injector and associated valves and pipework; a cylinder lubricator and a whistle; a surge vessel for the pump; a large dished sheet metal cover for the boiler front (a job for a panelbeater); a ‘tool box’ to disguise the brakes; lamp irons; and a front drawbar.
Once completed, the engine will need to be taken into Bridgnorth Works for a complete strip down, thorough boiler insurance examination, a minor overhaul, reassembly, and a repaint.
In the meantime, the Trevithick 200 group will complete the approval processes necessary for running a locomotive that is new in both design and construction.
Group spokesman Charles Lamont said: “As far as we know, a single cylinder locomotive with direct drive has not been built since the 1808 original, so it is something of an unknown quantity.
“Funds raised will support the final push to get the engine completed much sooner than the group can achieve with limited volunteer time.”
Commemoration
Meanwhile, the Trevithick 250 anniversary (see special feature, issue 278) will be celebrated at the Ironbridge Gorge Museum Trust’s Blists Hill Victorian Town when it reopens following lockdown with a steam-themed weekend on April 1718. The 1802 Coalbrookdale engine replica will be in action, along with the town’s Wallis & Steevens steam roller Billy and five visiting full-size portable road locomotives, including a steam car.
➜ To contribute to the appeal via Paypal, visit the ‘Support us’ page at www.catchmewhocan.org.uk and click the donate button. Alternatively, post cheques to: Trevithick 200, 70 Well Meadow, Bridgnorth, WV15 6DE.