Coffee Pot – still steaming at 150 years old…
2021 marks the 150th birthday of one of Beamish Museum’s Victorian industrial steam locomotives – ‘Coffee Pot’ No.1 – now one of the oldest working railway locomotives in the world, writes Paul Jarman, Beamish’s assistant director (Design, Transport & Industry).
2021 marks the 150th birthday of one of Beamish Museum’s Victorian industrial steam locomotives – Head Wrightson ‘Coffee Pot’ No.1. All the more pleasing is that for this anniversary, the locomotive is fully operational and, in being so, this makes it one of the oldest working railway locomotives in the world, writes Paul Jarman, Beamish’s assistant director (design, transport & industry).
In 1871, T H Head (Engineer), London, supplied the Dorking Greystone Lime Company with an 0-4-0 vertical-boiler locomotive for use at its Betchworth Quarry in Surrey. The company asked for a number of ‘extras’ – including a large water tank and sprung buffers. The purchase cost was £462-9-6 plus £9-98 carriage. Allowing for inflation, this would be somewhere in the region of £55,000 today – probably a fifth of what it would cost to build a new ‘Coffee Pot’ from scratch!
During the summer of 1873, a replacement boiler was fitted. Built by Davey Paxman Ltd of Colchester, it was believed that it would be less prone to leakage than the Head Wrightson boiler. It has also been stated that due to the severe gradients at Betchworth, the original and shorter boiler struggled to maintain either a satisfactory water level over the firebox crown, or sufficient steam pressure for operation.
Experience of operating ‘Coffee Pot’ since 2010 suggests there are no such problems to overcome, the boiler being very forgiving of varying water levels. However, working in a lime quarry would tend to indicate that the water supply was anything but pure, so scaling – and subsequent leaking – would be a very real risk and challenge to manage.
Boilers
‘Coffee Pot’ No. 1’s luck with boiler longevity was lacking and it has, to date, carried five boilers during its operational life. The taller replacement boilers fitted may have caused operational difficulties too, for a cab was in place by 1929 that incorporated a substantial structure within it to brace the boiler and limit any tendency to move. These were removed during the 1960 restoration by Head Wrightson, but replicas were reinstated during the 1984 overhaul. These items are now in store at Beamish.
Photographs reveal that initially six-spoke wheels were fitted to ‘Coffee Pot’. In a 1929 photograph, however, a five-spoke pattern is apparent – but by 1948 six spokes are apparent again! Is it possible that the original wheels cracked or wore (particularly f langes) so an alternative set were obtained to enable direct replacement in order to keep the locomotive in operation? When these became worn, maybe the originals were retyred and replaced, so retaining the 1871 bosses upon withdrawal?
It is believed that the ‘Coffee Pot’ last worked at Betchworth in 1949, though some sources indicate an overhaul in 1952. The latter seems unlikely as photographic evidence suggests it was derelict shortly after this date. It was, however, examined in steam on May 2, 1950, so this may well have been its last year of operation – if this was a boiler inspection, it may have run into 1951.
September 1960 saw the ‘Coffee Pot’ return to Teesside, having been sold to Head Wrightson, which wanted to display the locomotive at its Thornaby works as an example of its corporate history – it was one of three locomotives which the company purchased and placed on display.
In August 1962, John Wrightson offered Frank Atkinson one of the three ‘Coffee Pot’ locomotives for the proposed North East folk museum, mentioning the 1871 built locomotive specifically. On August 13 that
year, this offer was accepted, though it wasn’t formally completed until the summer of 1969 when Head Wrightson had finally to insist that the locomotive be collected. It was moved to Consett Ironworks for initial storage in July 1970. It relocated to Marley Hill engine shed (now home of the Tanfield Railway) in September 1971, before finally moving to Beamish in March 1975.
In 1971 ‘Coffee Pot’ moved to Seaham Harbour, where it took part in filming work for a television documentary called The Ascent of Man. Here it was coupled to a chaldron waggon, which carried a compressor in order to enable the locomotive to make limited movements running on air. Former museum employee Alan Grimes recalled that the air supply was insufficient for operation, but did enable the whistle to be blown, while most propulsion was actually supplied by one of the Dock Company diesel shunters!
It is this visit that makes the answer to the not uncommon question ‘Is this the one that worked at Seaham?’ hard to answer without a longer than usual explanation!
Restoration
Once at Beamish, steps were taken to return the ‘Coffee Pot’ to steaming condition, and a number of appearances were made in action from around 1978 – the locomotive wearing a new livery of black boiler and green frames.
In the period 1983 to 1984, the locomotive was comprehensively overhauled by apprentices on a Manpower Training Scheme at ICI Wilton, appropriately on Teesside where the ‘Coffee Pot’ was originally built. The work included remaking the cab structure and returning the ‘Coffee Pot’ to the 1920s/30s appearance. Resplendent in a new livery of maroon – as there was no indication of what the Betchworth livery was, other than white lime dust – the rebuilt locomotive was launched at Beamish on May 31, 1984.
After many years out of use, ‘Coffee Pot’ found a brief role as a testbed for the use of blind bushes for boiler attachments, this work being carried out in 1996. This would solve the problems of steam leakage on the studs holding the cylinder and crankshaft brackets to the boiler in ‘Coffee Pot’s’ case, though was never tried under steam following their installation. This work was approved by the insurance company and was later used as a benchmark for the museum’s Steam Elephant boiler design, ‘Coffee Pot’s’ new 2009 boiler
as well as Samson’s new boiler in 2013, where blind bushes were incorporated into all three vessels. The blind bush is essentially a socket with an internal thread, welded into the shell and enabling bolts to be inserted, without the difficulty of having to caulk them to create a steam-tight joint.
In late 2006, work on the most recent restoration of ‘Coffee Pot’ commenced. With the support of a number of grants, including a Heritage Lottery Fund ‘Your Heritage’ award of just under £50,000, as well as assistance from the Beamish Development Trust and Friends of Beamish Museum, the locomotive was dismantled and inspected ahead of the mechanical overhaul commencing. At the same time, design work was started on a new boiler, to be based on the original Head Wrightson 1871 design, part of the project’s ambition to restore the original Teesside-built appearance to the locomotive and to ensure it would be safe, reliable and durable for many years to come. By this time, the fourth boiler was considered to be life-expired and suitable for static display only.
Operation
In March 2010, the completed restoration was unveiled and ‘Coffee Pot’ began its new period of working life at Beamish. It has been regularly used at events and has visited a number of other railways since 2010. It is considered to be something of a handful, and with many original components – not least the rather precious wrought iron valve gear
– it is used sparingly and carefully. However, it is fully operational and following a recent retube of the boiler, it is intended to keep the locomotive in this state for several years to come.
➜ The full story of ‘Coffee Pot’ is chronicled in a threepart article on www.beamishtransportonline.co.uk and the locomotive will be steamed on a number of occasions in 2021 as part of its birthday celebrations – see the transport blog for details.