| W.G. Bagnall ltd | |
| Type: | Ltd |
| Fate: | Taken over |
| Successor: | English Electric |
| Foundation: | 1875 |
| Defunct: | 1962 |
| Location: | Stafford, United Kingdom |
| Industry: | Engineering |
| Products: | Locomotive manufacture Engine manufacture Rails Sleepers Spare parts Boilers |
| Key People: | William Gordon Bagnall Ernest E. Baguley |
W. G. Bagnall was a locomotive manufacturer from Stafford, England which was founded in 1875 and operateduntil it was taken over in 1962 by English Electric.
The company was founded in 1875 by William Gordon Bagnall.[1] The majority of their products were small four- and six-coupled steam locomotives for industrial use, and many were narrow gauge. They were noted for building steam and Diesel locomotives in standard and narrow gauges. Some of Kerr Stuart's designs were brought to Bagnalls when they employed Kerr Stuart's chief Draughtsman. Examples of such locomotives can be seen on the Sittingbourne & Kemsley Light Railway.
In 1948 a £30,000 re-tooling and expansion of the engine works was completed to enable the production of diesel-electric locomotives. Provision was made for erecting two locomotives at a time with the 2 year target of building one diesel-electric locomotive per week in addition to steam locomotive production.[2]
In 1951, the company was sold to Brush Electrical Engineering, becoming Brush-Bagnall Traction, Ltd. In 1959, Bagnall's merged with local engine manufacturer Dorman Diesels;[3] however in 1962 both were taken over by English Electric Co Ltd. English Electric then formed English Electric Traction, which amalgamated the two companies with Robert Stephenson and Hawthorns and Vulcan Foundry (acquired in 1955 by English Electric) to bring all their railway activities under one set of management.
The company was located at the Castle Engine Works, in Castletown, Stafford. The factory has been demolished. Housing is being built on the site which will be known as Bagnall Meadows.[4]
Bagnalls introduced two types of locomotive valve gear the Baguley and the Bagnall-Price.[5] They also used marine (circular) fireboxes on narrow gauge engines, a design that was cheap but needed a different firing technique.
Bagnall developed the inverted saddle tank. The two tanks were joined underneath the smokebox and supported the smokebox. Bagnall also commonly used the saddle tank which carries the water on top of the boiler.
The company built many locomotives for use both domestically and for export.[6] [7] [8]
Bagnalls also created locomotives for the Great Western Railway and the London, Midland and Scottish Railway in the form of the GWR 5700 Class, the GWR 9400 Class and the LMS Fowler Class 3F.
During World War II, Bagnall was subcontracted work for the Hunslet Austerity 0-6-0ST which resulted in 52 being manufactured from 1943 to 1947.
The Great Western Railway Bagnall GWR 9400 Class was numbered 8400–8449 and numbers 8400 to 8406 were employed on the former L.M.S. system at Bromsgrove giving banking assistance on the Lickey Incline.
Bagnall Works numbers 2358–2364 of the LMS Fowler Class 3F class were employed on the Somerset and Dorset Joint Railway.
LMS Fowler Class 3F No. 16539 (In the LMS 1934 renumbering scheme it became No.7456) was built by Bagnall in 1926 was one of two locomotives regauged by the London, Midland and Scottish Railway for the Northern Counties Committee, the other locomotive was built by Hunslet Engine Company of Leeds which lasted until 1963, the Bagnall lasted until 1956 when a suspect crank pin led to her early withdrawal.
The Victor/Vulcan 2994-6 locomotives were ordered by the Steel Company of Wales (SCOW) for their Abbey, Margam and Port Talbot works in 1950. They had a whole range of advanced features, such as 18" X 26" cylinders, together with piston valves, roller-type big-end and side-rod bearings, manganese steel axle-box and horn plate liners, hopper ashpans, self-cleaning smokeboxes, rocking grates and Lambets wet sanding. Steel fireboxes were used as well as "Owens" patent poppet valve and balanced regulator valves though surprisingly the locomotives weren't fitted with superheating. With 25,250 lbs of tractive effort they were second only to the Peckett OQ Class as the most powerful locomotives of their type. In later life 2994 and 2996 were sold to the Austin Motor Company and were named 'Victor' and 'Vulcan'. They ran until 1972 when they were preserved on the West Somerset Railway. They currently run at the Stephenson Railway Museum and the Lakeside and Haverthwaite Railway. 2995 was sold to NCB at the same time for use at a colliery and was scrapped in 1967.
Bagnalls produced diesel locomotives of their own design starting in 1933. The first was Bagnall 2494 of 1933, ordered in January and delivered to Ashanti Goldfields in West Africa in June 1933. It was gauge and had two 4-wheel articulated bogies, allowing it to negotiate 60-foot radius curves and draw 200 tons. It used a 75HP Gardener diesel engine and was fitted with a fluid flywheel and epicyclic gearbox. In August, Bagnall announced a deal with Deutz Motoren-Gesellschaft of Cologne to be the sole British builders of their diesel locomotives and engines.[9]
The next articulated diesel (2498 of 1934) was a smaller version of the Ashanti locomotive and used a Deutz engine. It was built for Halkyn District United Mines Ltd., Bryn Owel, Flintshire where it was used underground on the 2-mile 'main-line'. 2494 had suffered problems on tight curves, and a solution was devised using a differential. Three further engines were built for Ashanti with this modified design (2514 of 1934, 2546 of 1936 and 2568 of 1937), and a new gearbox was supplied for 2494. While the Halkyn engine was scrapped in 1937, the Ashanti engines had remarkably long lives.
Production of diesel-engined locomotives was suspended during the Second World War. After the war, Bagnall resumed building diesels, extending and re-tooling the works in 1948 to handle the production of diesel-electric locomotives, with the first locomotive supplied 1950 for the Steel Co of Wales, Port Talbot.[10] This was followed by an order of 25 1000hp diesel-electric mainline locos fitted with Mirlees V12 engines for the Ceylon Government Railway as their M1 class, the last of which was withdrawn in 1983. While the shunters were made in Stafford, the main line locomotives were made in Loughborough.[11]
Other examples include the New Zealand TR class locomotive of which W.G Bagnall built seven in 1956–57.
Bagnall also manufactured electric locomotives. Bagnalls worked with Siemens at the Siemens Stafford works to supply the electrical equipment for the locomotives.
Two Bagnall steam locomotives were converted to overhead electric for the Greaves Llechwyd Slate Mine. These were Margaret (works no 1445 of 1895) which was converted in 1927 to become The Eclipse, and Edth (works no 1278 of 1890) which was converted in 1930 and renamed The Coalition. Both locomotives survive and are at the Statfold Barn Railway.
Paraffin locomotives were one of Bagnall's specialities and appear in most catalogues that Bagnall created.
There are few W.G. Bagnall RTR (ready to run) locomotives and kit locomotives. Here are a few examples.
Bachmann Branchline currently produce the OO gauge version of the LMS Fowler Class 3F which Bagnall built and Bachmann are currently manufacturing the Somerset and Dorset Joint Railway liveried Fowler 3F which has been correctly numbered to number 23 which is a number of one of the Bagnall 3Fs, it also features printed Bagnall name plates.
Mercian Models produce possibly Bagnall's most advanced locomotive to date in 7mm scale (O gauge) The Victor/Vulcan locomotives are in two forms; the complete kit which features the body kit, frames, detailing, motor, gearbox and wheels, and the kit only option which features everything except the motor, gearbox and wheels.
A Bagnall inspired design is popular in the world of live steam locomotives, known as the Sweet Pea. It was designed by Jack Buckler, with the first drawings published in the magazine Engineering in Miniature in 1981. The Sweet Pea is a 5" gauge design, and a later 7.25"/7.5" gauge variant known as a Sweet William was created. The Jack Buckler design was published as a book, Build Your Own Steam Locomotive, by TEE Publishing (ISBN 1857611020, 1998).
There are a few custom kits as well. If you look at the gallery there is an O16.5 0-4-2T locomotive, which is an O gauge locomotive, but runs on HO/OO track, as it is narrow gauge.
In 2014, Hornby introduced a representation of a preserved four-wheeled Diesel shunter into their budget Railroad range utilising the body from "Dart" from the Thomas The Tank Engine range.[12]
| Location | Name | Works Number | Built | Arrangement | Gauge | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Groudle Glen Railway | Sea Lion | 1486 | 1896 | 2-4-0T | Originally built for the Groudle Glen Railway and operated in the glen until the Second World War. She was then left to rust outside the engine shed, and used for spare parts for Polar Bear until after the railway ceased operating in 1963. The rusted locomotive was rescued from the glen, and following a number of years as a static exhibit she was rebuilt as an Apprentice training project by British Nuclear Fuels at Sellafield in 1987 and returned to service on the Groudle Glen Railway in 1987, which in the meantime had been restored by a group of volunteers. | |
| Amerton Railway | Isabel | 1491 | 1897 | 0-4-0ST | a typical Bagnall narrow gauge loco — this locomotive was for many years on public display opposite Stafford Railway Station before it was restored to use. | |
| Bala Lake Railway | Dorothy | 1568 | 1899 | 0-4-0ST | One of three Bagnall locos built for the Llechwedd Slate Mine, the other two were converted to electric, this was dismantled and left, being rescued by John Selway it has yet to be restored. | |
| Usina São João in Santa Rita, PB | USJ #3 "João Felipe" | 1737 | 1903 | 0-4-0ST+T | Unmounted. | |
| Amberley Museum Railway | Polar Bear | 1781 | 1905 | 2-4-0T | Originally built for the Groudle Glen Railway on the Isle of Man, Polar Bear was acquired by the Brockham Museum Trust soon after the GGR closed. Her sister engine, Sea Lion, still works on the GGR. Polar Bear came to Amberley Museum and Heritage Centre when the Brockham collection was transferred there in 1982. Currently in service. | |
| Usina Santa Tereza in Goiana, PE | "Santa Tereza" (ex "Catu"; unnumbered) | 1981 | 1913 | 0-4-2T | Operated before at Usina Nossa Senhora das Maravilhas, also in the state of Pernambuco, where her name used to be "Catu". | |
| Rambagh Palace Hotel, Jaipur, India | 4 | 2009 | 1914 | 0-6-4T | Originally Burdwan–Katwa Railway No. 4 S. C. Ghose (Part of the McLeods Light Railways group) | |
| Privately owned — Peter Rampton | 2029 | 1916 | 2-6-2T | |||
| Amberley Museum Railway | Peter | 2067 | 1917 | 0-4-0ST | Peter was built as a 3 ft gauge engine for the Canadian Forestry Commission. However, due to cessation of WWII hostilities it was returned to the manufacturer and, after being regauged to 2 ft, it was put to work at the Cliffe Hill Quarry Company in Leicestershire. It worked here until 1949 when it was stored out of service. Peter was then acquired by the Narrow Gauge Railway Society and eventually came to Amberley with the Brockham Collection along with Polar Bear. Currently in service. | |
| Bredgar & Wormshill Light Railway | Armistice | 2088 | 1919 | 0-4-0ST | Birmingham, Tame & Rea District Drainage Board Railway, Minworth, England | |
| Bursledon Brickworks | Wendy | 2091 | 1919 | 0-4-0ST | Wendy is a 2 ft gauge Quarry Bagnall formerly used at the Dorothea Quarry in North Wales. She is currently based at the Hampshire Narrow Gauge Railway Trust's Bursledon Brickworks base. | |
| Vale of Rheidol Railway | Conqueror | 2192 | 1922 | 0-6-2T | ex Bowaters Paper Railway and Great Whipsnade Railway | |
| Foxfield Light Railway | Lewisham | 2221 | 1927 | 0-6-0ST | built for the Shropshire Beet Sugar Company at Alscott, near Wellington | |
| Hong Kong Railway Museum | 17BG | 2227 | 1928 | 0-4-4T | ex Sha Tau Kok Railway | |
| Vale of Rheidol Railway | 18BG | 2228 | 1928 | 0-4-4T | ex Sha Tau Kok Railway | |
| Welsh Highland Railway | Sinembe | 2287 | 1927 | 4-4-0T | built for the Tongaat Sugar Estates, Natal. | |
| Muzium Negara | FMSR No. 13 → MR 321.01 | 2323 | 1928 | 0-6-2T | One of five lightweight shunters used on the wharves in Port Swettenham and Singapore. Originally owned by the Federated Malay States Railways and Malayan Railways. Sold to Pan-Malayan Cement in 1965 and painted green, but returned to MR and cosmetically restored with black MR livery in 1972. Placed on display beside Muzium Negara in 1973. | |
| Vale of Rheidol Railway | 2457 | 1932 | 4-6-2 | |||
| Vale of Rheidol Railway | 2460 | 1932 | 4-6-2 | |||
| Bradford, West Yorkshire[13] | Huntley & Palmers No.1 | 2473 | 1932 | 0-4-0F | ||
| East Anglian Railway Museum | Jubilee | 2542 | 1936 | 0-4-0 | Built for Bowaters Paper Railway. Returned to traffic in 2016, painted in lined light green. | |
| Privately owned — Peter Rampton | 2545 | 1936 | 0-4-4-0T | ex Renishaw Sugar Mill, South Africa | ||
| Bodmin and Wenford Railway | Judy | 2572 | 1937 | 0-4-0ST | ||
| Mangapps Railway Museum | Brookfield | 2613 | 1940 | 0-6-0PT | No 2613 was originally designed as a narrow gauge locomotive to go to work in the coal fields in Turkey. But just as construction was starting it was commandeered as part of the war effort and built as standard gauge. It is currently being overhauled at Mangapps Railway Museum in Essex | |
| Foxfield Light Railway | Hawarden | 2623 | 1940 | 0-4-0ST | built for Butterley Company's steelworks, Ripley, Derbyshire | |
| Chasewater Railway | Dunlop No. 6 | 2648 | 1940 | 0-4-0ST | the first of a batch of 9 supplied to the Ministry of Supply for use at Royal Ordnance Factories | |
| Rushden, Higham & Wellingborough Railway | Cherwell | 2654 | 1942 | 0-6-0ST | built for the Byfield Ironstone Co's quarry | |
| Plym Valley Railway | Byfield | 2655 | 1942 | 0-6-0ST | Built to work at Byfield Ironstone Quarry in Northamptonshire. Overhaul is expected to start very soon | |
| Rutland Railway Museum | "Cranford" No 2. | 2668 | 1942 | 0-6-0ST | Awaiting overhaul, boiler ticket expired in 2006. | |
| East Anglian Railway Museum | Lamport No.3 | 2670 | 1942 | 0-6-0ST | One of a batch of 6 similar locomotives supplied to the Staveley Coal and Iron Company. Overhaul in progress, repairs to bunker and cab completed. Main effort is now concentrated on overhauling the boiler including replacing the old steel firebox with a new all welded replacement. | |
| Bodmin and Wenford Railway | 2766 | 1944 | 0-6-0ST | J94 class | ||
| Cripple Creek and Victor Narrow Gauge Railroad | No. 4 | 2831 | 1947 | 0-4-4-0T | Located in Cripple Creek, Colorado, United States, and used as season tourist train in one of Colorado's old mining districts | |
| Chasewater Railway | No. 2 | 2842 | 1946 | 0-4-0ST | built for the Kent Electric Power Company at Littlebrook Power Station, near Dartford | |
| Phyllis Rampton Trust | 2895 | 1948 | 0-4-2ST | |||
| Bodmin and Wenford Railway | No. 19 | 2962 | 1950 | 0-4-0ST | ||
| Stephenson Railway Museum | Vulcan | 2994 | 1950 | 0-6-0 | Originally named "Vulcan" and numbered 401 it was part of a batch of three built for the Steel Company of Wales, they were used at their Abbey, Margam and Port Talbot Steelworks. Replaced by diesels in 1957, 2994 and 2996 were sold in September to the Austin Motor Company of Longbridge plant, Birmingham. No.402 went to the N.C.B. in South Wales, and was scrapped in 1967. Sold to the West Somerset Railway, 401 and 403 become the core of the WSR's early motive power. Replaced by authentic GWR locomotives, 401 was sold to the Stephenson Railway Museum, where it was renamed "Thomas Burt MP" and worked until 2009. Re-entered service in April 2019 after a lengthy overhaul, renamed back to "Vulcan". 403 was sold to the Lakeside and Haverthwaite Railway.[14] | |
| Lakeside and Haverthwaite Railway | No 403 Victor | 2996 | 1950 | 0-6-0 | Under restoration at the Lakeside and Haverthwaite Railway | |
| Statfold Barn Railway | Isaac | 3023 | 1953 | 0-4-2T | built for the Rustenburg Platinum Mines in South Africa.[15] | |
| Welshpool and Llanfair Light Railway | Monarch | 3024 | 1953 | 0-4-4-0T | built for the Bowaters Paper Railway in Kent. This was last narrow gauge steam locomotive built for industrial service in the UK.[16] | |
| Welsh Highland Railway | Gelert | 3050 | 1953 | 0-4-2T | built for the Rustenburg Platinum Mines in South Africa. | |
| Bodmin and Wenford Railway | Alfred | 3058 | 1953 | 0-4-0ST | ||
| Foxfield Light Railway | Florence No. 2 | 3059 | 1954 | 0-6-0ST | built for the NCB North Staffordshire Area | |
| Bodmin and Wenford Railway | 3121 | 1957 | 0-4-0F | Rare fireless locomotive | ||
| Foxfield Light Railway | Leys | 3027 | 1961 | 0-4-0DH | the last-but-one locomotive built by W G Bagnall | |