HUNSLET ‘50500’ 0‑6‑0ST No. 1873/1937 JESSIE
There’s some serious history lurking under Jessie’s bright blue paint and boxy side tanks.
It was Hunslet Engine Company Chairman Edgar Alcock that persuaded the
Ministry of Supply that his company’s 18in 0‑6‑0ST would make a far better military shunting locomotive than the LMS ‘Jinty’. Thus, the famous Hunslet ‘Austerity’ 0-6-0ST was born.
But Hunslet didn’t come up with this design overnight.
It’s slightly ironic that the design was originally inspired by the ‘Jinty’.
It’s debatable how effective the ‘Austerity’ was as a shunter on liberated lines in Europe, as only 90 were sent to Europe. Their North American cousins, the USATC ‘S100s’, were shipped in far greater numbers.
But the qualities that Alcock espoused for wartime work made the design eminently suitable for industrial use. Hunslet, Andrew Barclay, Hudswell Clarke, Bagnall and Vulcan Foundry built 377 between 1943 and 1947 and the end of hostilities didn’t dent demand for these rugged machines, for a further 106 were built. The Army clearly liked the design as it ordered a further 14. Hunslet turned out the last two ‘Austerities’ in 1964, four years after BR had built its last steam locomotive and 19 years after the end of the war. They served the National Coal Board into the 1980s, the Army into the 1990s and many a preserved railway, even today.
But how does that tie in with Thomas?
South Wales steelmaker Guest, Keen & Baldwins wanted a more powerful version of Hunslet’s 16in 0‑6‑0ST of 1923. Hunslet took the design, fitted a new 170lb/sq in boiler and 18in cylinders.
This became the ‘48150’ class and nine were built from 1937. Hunslet updated this design in the early 1940s for Stewarts & Lloyds. The traditional Hunslet exposed smokebox was gone and the saddle tank now covered the smokebox. This was the ‘50550’ class.
Noted Hunslet historian Don Townsley describes the ‘Austerity’ as blending the frame of the 0-6-0T built by Hunslet for the Pontop & Jarrow Railway (which took its inspiration from the 90 ‘Jinties’ that Hunslet built for the LMS), the boiler and cylinders from the ‘48150’ and the saddle tank from the ‘50550’. The resulting ‘Austerity’ was built with, well, austerity techniques, such as cast iron and fabricated steel.
Some 76 ‘Austerities’ survive but only three ‘50500s’. And the ‘48150’ is even rarer.
Jessie is the sole surviving ‘48150’ 0‑6‑0ST. It spent its entire working life at East Moors steelworks in Cardiff and, upon retirement in 1965, went on display in a city centre park. It was saved in 1979 and eventually was restored to steam at the Llangollen Railway.