Furness Railway No. 3 Explained

Furness Railway No.3 "Old Coppernob"
Powertype:Steam
Builder:Edward Bury
Builddate:1846
Whytetype:0-4-0
Uicclass:B
Driverdiameter:4feet
Locotenderweight: (175600abbr=onNaNabbr=on)
Cylindercount:Two, inside
Cylindersize:14x
Boilerpressure:1102NaN2
Tractiveeffort:77181NaN1
Locale:Great Britain
Firstrundate:February 1846
Withdrawndate:1900
Disposition:Housed as a static exhibit at Barrow 1900-1940s, now preserved.[1]

The Furness Railway No.3, nicknamed "Old Coppernob", is a preserved English steam locomotive. It acquired its nickname because of the copper cladding to its dome-shaped "haystack" firebox.[2] [3] [4]

History

It was built in 1846 by Bury, Curtis, and Kennedy of Liverpool,[5] a company with which the Furness Railway's first locomotive superintendent, James Ramsden, had been an apprentice. It is a four-coupled version of Edward Bury's popular bar-frame design of the period, with iron bar frames and inside cylinders, and is historically significant as the only survivor in the United Kingdom of this type. It is also one of the few items of rolling stock surviving from the Furness Railway whose Indian red livery it carries.

Withdrawal

It shared with three other similar engines all traffic on the Furness Railway for around six years. Latterly it was used for shunting around the docks at Barrow-in-Furness and on local duties, being withdrawn in 1900, completing nearly 55 years of service.[6] [7]

Preservation

It is now housed in the National Railway Museum, York. It has shrapnel wounds from German bombs, acquired during World War II when it was displayed in a glass pavilion at Barrow-in-Furness station.

In February 2007, No. 3 had one of its shedplates stolen at York. In 2014, it was placed on loan to the Dresden Transport Museum in Germany to take part in an exhibition celebrating the 175th anniversary of the Leipzig–Dresden railway due to its similarities to early locomotives built for the line.[8]

See also

Further reading

Notes and References

  1. Book: Casserley, H.C. . Historic locomotive pocket book . London . Batsford . 1960 . 10–11.
  2. Web site: Cumberland and Westmorland Archives – Furness Railway . Cumberland and Westmorland Archives.
  3. Web site: Furness Railway 'Coppernob' 0-4-0 steam locomotive, No 3, 1846 . National Railway Museum.
  4. Web site: Furness Railway No. 3 Locomotive Old Coppernob . Lindal & Marton Community Website.
  5. Book: Lowe, James W. . British Steam Locomotive Builders . Goose and Son. Cambridge . 1975 . 0-900404-21-3.
  6. Book: Rush, R. W. . The Furness Railway, 1843–1923 . Oakwood Press . 1973 . 0-85361-117-3.
  7. Fancey . W. F. . An old locomotive . Railway Magazine . 4 . 217–218 . 1899.
  8. Verkehrsmuseum Dresden gGmH (Editor): Deutschland wird mobil. 175 Jahre Leipzig-Dresdner Eisenbahn. Dresden 2014., page 14-15.