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Novelty (locomotive)
Encyclopedia
Novelty was an early steam locomotive
built by John Ericsson
and John Braithwaite to take part in the Rainhill Trials
in 1829.
It was an 0-2-2
WT locomotive and is now regarded as the very first tank engine
. It had a unique design of boiler and a number of other novel design features (perhaps explaining the choice of name). Unfortunately, several of the major components had significant design weaknesses which ultimately resulted in its failure at the Trials.
with steam pumps. These used a boiler
designed by Ericsson and were built in the London
works of John Braithwaite.
These fire engines were known for their ability to raise steam quickly and looked very similar to Novelty.
Charles Vignoles has also been associated with Novelty, but his practical involvement is not known. He may have aligned himself with the engine because of a continuing feud with George Stephenson
.
Novelty was constructed in the London
Workshop belonging to Braithwaite and transported to Liverpool by boat. There was no time to test Novelty in London before transportation, and following test runs at Rainhill
before the trials, modifications were carried out with the help of Timothy Hackworth
.
The boiler used on Novelty was designed by John Ericsson. The design was very scientific for the era but proved to be very hard to build and maintain compared with the boiler design adopted for Rocket
and most steam locomotives since.
The most prominent feature for the boiler is the vertical copper firebox (the large vessel to the right in the illustration here). Within the vertical vessel was the inner firebox and the space between the two was filled with water (to a level just about the same as the driver’s ankle). (Coke
) fuel was added from the top, where a tube passed down through the top of the firebox. This firebox construction was not dissimilar to some types of vertical boiler, but this was only part of Ericsson’s design.
Like George Stephenson
, Ericsson understood that a large area was needed to extract heat from the hot gases. This he did in a long horizontal tube filled with water which ran under the full length of the engine. It can be seen of the illustration here, sticking out to the right, with the vertical chimney attached to it. Within the horizontal section was a tube carrying the hot gases, this formed an ‘S’ shape so the gases made three passes through the water. This ‘S’ shaped tube was also tapered causing the gases to speed up as they cooled down. In practice this tube is almost impossible to clean.
The resulting boiler was the shape of a hammer
and was required to be fitted to the frame
before the footplate
, cylinders or blower could be added.
The boiler used a ‘Forced Draught’ provided by a mechanical blower (the triangular structure on the right in the illustration). This forced air along a pipe and into the sealed ashpan (below the fire). Very few steam locomotives have ever used a forced draught like this, the main reason is that in order to add fuel either the draft must be stopped or some form of airlock
fitted. Novelty used an airlock to feed the fuel in, but there was still a chance of flame and hot gases being blown into the face of the fireman.
The blower was driven from the rods linking the cylinders to the wheels, thus the draught was proportional to the speed of the engine, not to how hard it is working as with a blastpipe
. It is assumed that either the blower was worked by hand when the engine was standing or the drive wheels were lifted off the rails. Details of the blower design are not known for certain.
Water was forced into the boiler using a pump
driven off one of the cylinders (this was normal practice at the time).
) caused problems with poor riding and did not work well with the springs.
On Novelty, the cylinders were mounted vertically towards the rear of the engine (to the right of the men in the illustration). Directly below were bell crank
s which changed the drive to horizontal. Connecting rods linked the bell cranks to the crank axle
(the axle on the left in the illustration).
The valve gear
took a similar route to the drive. One effect of this was it had many pins and links, resulting in lost motion.
The wheels themselves were of the suspension type (similar to a bicycle wheel
).
It is easy to think that Novelty is an 0-4-0
locomotive as it had equal sized wheels, however is actually an 0-2-2
WT. Only the wheels under the firebox (those to the left on the illustration here) were driven, the other wheels were not connected to the drive in any way.
as the fuel was carried in baskets on the footplate and water was in a well tank between the wheels.
As one of the rules for the Rainhill Trials related to the weight of the engine without a tender, a special allowance had to be made for Novelty.
In the preparations for the trials, Novelty was shown to be very lightweight and very quick to raise steam.
Novelty was the first locomotive to be tested. Starting on the second day of the trials, it began the planned series of runs but very quickly the blower failed and repairs had to be made. The repairs took up all of the next day. However, when Novelty next ran the water feed pipe burst and more repairs had to be made, which seem to have included a seal on the boiler. At the time, the boilers were sealed with a cement
-like substance which required days - if not weeks - to set properly. Time would not allow this and the seal quickly failed once the trial runs were restarted.
The recurring boiler problems prompted Ericsson and Braithwaite to withdraw from the Trials.
Before it failed, the Stephensons were said to be seriously worried by Novelty, as it was well-suited to meet the conditions of the trial. For one thing the Stephensons considered the weight to be pulled to be too light for a practical railway.
Once all the repairs were completed, Novelty made a number of successful demonstration runs but it was too late to have any effect on the competition. It is sometimes claimed that one of these demonstration runs included the locomotive reaching a speed of 60 miles per hour (96.6 km/h), but there is little to back this up and it may be a misinterpretation of a newspaper report trying to give an impression of the great speeds that the Rainhill engines were achieving.
Two further engines were built by Ericsson and Braithwaite named William IV and Queen Adelaide. These were generally larger and more robust than Novelty and differed in a number of details (for example, it is thought that a different design of blower was used which was an ‘Induced Draught’ type, sucking the gases from the fire). The pair ran trials on the Liverpool and Manchester Railway
but the railway declined to purchase the new designs.
Novelty was transferred to the St Helens and Runcorn Gap Railway
and worked there for a few years. During its time there (around 1833) it received new cylinders and a new boiler.
Somehow, all the wheels and both cylinders (assumed to be the original one not those from the 1833 rebuild) survived.
During 1929 the original wheels and one cylinder were incorporated into a full scale, non-working model that is now on display in the Manchester Museum of Science and Industry. This early replica was rebuilt in 1988 and currently includes batteries and an electric motor to allow it to move (all wheels are driven making the engine a 4wBE), although the steam components are non-functional. The other cylinder is on display at Rainhill
Public Library.
No other British locomotives are known to have been built in this style. Comparisons are made with 20th century vertical boilered engines such as those by Sentinel
of Shrewsbury
, but in fact the principles were very different.
. It was a fully working replica that was built to look correct when display at the planned event; however many changes were made to reduce the construction costs and meet modern standards. It has been suggested that the replica was built to last no longer than the 3 days of the Rocket 150 event.
Some of the differences between the original and replica are:
For a reason that is not fully understood, the wheels of the replica were built with very narrow treads. It is possible that wheels were scaled off a model in the London Science Museum
. As a result it was unable to travel over modern pointwork
.
During the Rocket 150 event, Novelty was carried on a Well wagon, supported in such a way as to allow the engine to be run and its wheels to rotate freely.
Following the Rocket 150 event, Novelty was steamed on a small number of occasions in Manchester
. Around 1982, it was sold to the Swedish Railway Museum
, Gävle
, and left the UK
.
During July 2002, Novelty was collected from its then home in the Angelholm
, for use in a TV programme. It was returned to Sweden
during the spring of 2003, but made a short visit to the Museum of Science and Industry in Manchester
during the autumn of 2005.
TV programme "Timewatch
– Rocket and its Rivals" the replica of Novelty was transported to the National Railway Museum
in York
. Here it was completely dismantled to allow examination of the boiler and working parts. Several items needed to be attended to before the locomotive could be run:
Of this work, the major item was the modification of the wheels. The solution adopted by the National Railway Museum Workshop was to employ a metal fabricator to cut four rings from 40-mm-thick steel plate. These were cut with enough precision not to need any further machining. The rings were then bolted to the existing wheels and were a complete success.
Following re-assembly, the locomotive was steam tested at York before transport to Carrog station
on the Llangollen Railway
. Early tests showed up two major problems: firstly the linkage to the blower was not strong enough, and secondly operating the water feed pump caused very serious priming
of the boiler. It was later shown that the feed pump was five times the size of that required for the engine. This caused air to be fed into the horizontal boiler tube probably caused the priming.
To fully recreate the Rainhill Trials, 20 return runs along a section of the Llangollen Railway were required (between Carrog and Glyndyfrdwy stations
). Novelty was only able to complete 10 runs before the fire became completely filled with clinker
. The inability to clear clinker from the fire in this type of boiler was a major problem, the only way being to drop the fire completely and start again.
During the runs for the restaging of the trials Novelty was run with an electric fan (powered by a petrol generator) in place of the blower. Even allowing for this in the final calculation Novelty was much more efficient than Sans Pareil
For the Restaging, the replica of Novelty was too slow to meet the requirements of the original trials and did not complete the course. The maximum speed attained at any point was 17 miles per hour (27.4 km/h), possibly because the main steam pipe from the boiler was restricting the flow to the cylinders. The valve gear was also set incorrectly (indicated by the odd noise of the exhaust beats).
With all the obvious differences between the original and the replica, added to the fact that the locomotive crew used had only four days experience of operating the locomotive, it cannot be said that in this restaging of the trial the replica of Novelty gave the performance that the original could have achieved if more time had been made available in 1829.
Steam locomotive
A steam locomotive is a railway locomotive that produces its power through a steam engine. These locomotives are fueled by burning some combustible material, usually coal, wood or oil, to produce steam in a boiler, which drives the steam engine...
built by John Ericsson
John Ericsson
John Ericsson was a Swedish-American inventor and mechanical engineer, as was his brother Nils Ericson. He was born at Långbanshyttan in Värmland, Sweden, but primarily came to be active in England and the United States...
and John Braithwaite to take part in the Rainhill Trials
Rainhill Trials
The Rainhill Trials were an important competition in the early days of steam locomotive railways, run in October 1829 in Rainhill, Lancashire for the nearly completed Liverpool and Manchester Railway....
in 1829.
It was an 0-2-2
0-2-2
An 0-2-2, in the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives by wheel arrangement, is one that has two coupled driving wheels followed by two trailing wheels, with no leading wheels...
WT locomotive and is now regarded as the very first tank engine
Tank locomotive
A tank locomotive or tank engine is a steam locomotive that carries its water in one or more on-board water tanks, instead of pulling it behind it in a tender. It will most likely also have some kind of bunker to hold the fuel. There are several different types of tank locomotive dependent upon...
. It had a unique design of boiler and a number of other novel design features (perhaps explaining the choice of name). Unfortunately, several of the major components had significant design weaknesses which ultimately resulted in its failure at the Trials.
Ericsson and Braithwaite Partnership
During the late 1820s Ericsson and Braithwaite were working together building horse drawn fire enginesFire apparatus
A fire apparatus, fire engine, fire truck, or fire appliance is a vehicle designed to assist in fighting fires by transporting firefighters to the scene and providing them with access to the fire, along with water or other equipment...
with steam pumps. These used a boiler
Boiler
A boiler is a closed vessel in which water or other fluid is heated. The heated or vaporized fluid exits the boiler for use in various processes or heating applications.-Materials:...
designed by Ericsson and were built in the London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
works of John Braithwaite.
These fire engines were known for their ability to raise steam quickly and looked very similar to Novelty.
Charles Vignoles has also been associated with Novelty, but his practical involvement is not known. He may have aligned himself with the engine because of a continuing feud with George Stephenson
George Stephenson
George Stephenson was an English civil engineer and mechanical engineer who built the first public railway line in the world to use steam locomotives...
.
Building the Engine
It is said that Ericsson and Braithwaite only found out about the Rainhill Trials seven weeks before the event was due to take place, when Ericsson received a letter from a friend referring to a "Steam Race". This incredibly short space of time has led people to suggest that Novelty is in fact a converted fire engine. It is more likely that it used many of the same parts as their fire engines and these parts may even have been built for an existing order and diverted to Novelty.Novelty was constructed in the London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
Workshop belonging to Braithwaite and transported to Liverpool by boat. There was no time to test Novelty in London before transportation, and following test runs at Rainhill
Rainhill
Rainhill is a large village and civil parish of the Metropolitan Borough of St Helens, in Merseyside, England.Historically a part of Lancashire, Rainhill was formerly a township within the ecclesiastical parish of Prescot, and hundred of West Derby...
before the trials, modifications were carried out with the help of Timothy Hackworth
Timothy Hackworth
Timothy Hackworth was a steam locomotive engineer who lived in Shildon, County Durham, England and was the first locomotive superintendent of the Stockton and Darlington Railway.- Youth and early work :...
.
The Boiler
Stephenson's Rocket
Stephenson's Rocket was an early steam locomotive of 0-2-2 wheel arrangement, built in Newcastle Upon Tyne at the Forth Street Works of Robert Stephenson and Company in 1829.- Design innovations :...
and most steam locomotives since.
The most prominent feature for the boiler is the vertical copper firebox (the large vessel to the right in the illustration here). Within the vertical vessel was the inner firebox and the space between the two was filled with water (to a level just about the same as the driver’s ankle). (Coke
Coke (fuel)
Coke is the solid carbonaceous material derived from destructive distillation of low-ash, low-sulfur bituminous coal. Cokes from coal are grey, hard, and porous. While coke can be formed naturally, the commonly used form is man-made.- History :...
) fuel was added from the top, where a tube passed down through the top of the firebox. This firebox construction was not dissimilar to some types of vertical boiler, but this was only part of Ericsson’s design.
Like George Stephenson
George Stephenson
George Stephenson was an English civil engineer and mechanical engineer who built the first public railway line in the world to use steam locomotives...
, Ericsson understood that a large area was needed to extract heat from the hot gases. This he did in a long horizontal tube filled with water which ran under the full length of the engine. It can be seen of the illustration here, sticking out to the right, with the vertical chimney attached to it. Within the horizontal section was a tube carrying the hot gases, this formed an ‘S’ shape so the gases made three passes through the water. This ‘S’ shaped tube was also tapered causing the gases to speed up as they cooled down. In practice this tube is almost impossible to clean.
The resulting boiler was the shape of a hammer
Ball-peen hammer
A ball-peen hammer, also known as a machinist's hammer, is a type of peening hammer used in metalworking. It is distinguished from a point-peen hammer or chisel-peen hammer by having a hemispherical head...
and was required to be fitted to the frame
Locomotive frame
A locomotive frame is the structure that forms the backbone of the railway locomotive, giving it strength and supporting the superstructure elements such as a cab, boiler or bodywork. The vast majority of locomotives have had a frame structure of some kind...
before the footplate
Footplate
The footplate of a steam locomotive is a large metal plate that rests on top of the frames and is normally covered with wooden floorboards. It is usually the full width of the locomotive and extends from the front of the cab to the rear of cab or coal bunker just above the buffer beam. The...
, cylinders or blower could be added.
The boiler used a ‘Forced Draught’ provided by a mechanical blower (the triangular structure on the right in the illustration). This forced air along a pipe and into the sealed ashpan (below the fire). Very few steam locomotives have ever used a forced draught like this, the main reason is that in order to add fuel either the draft must be stopped or some form of airlock
Airlock
An airlock is a device which permits the passage of people and objects between a pressure vessel and its surroundings while minimizing the change of pressure in the vessel and loss of air from it...
fitted. Novelty used an airlock to feed the fuel in, but there was still a chance of flame and hot gases being blown into the face of the fireman.
The blower was driven from the rods linking the cylinders to the wheels, thus the draught was proportional to the speed of the engine, not to how hard it is working as with a blastpipe
Blastpipe
The blastpipe is part of the exhaust system of a steam locomotive that discharges exhaust steam from the cylinders into the smokebox beneath the chimney in order to increase the draught through the fire.- History :...
. It is assumed that either the blower was worked by hand when the engine was standing or the drive wheels were lifted off the rails. Details of the blower design are not known for certain.
Water was forced into the boiler using a pump
Boiler feedwater pump
A boiler feedwater pump is a specific type of pump used to pump feedwater into a steam boiler. The water may be freshly supplied or returning condensate produced as a result of the condensation of the steam produced by the boiler...
driven off one of the cylinders (this was normal practice at the time).
Drive to the Wheels
At this time, engineers were worried about uneven wear on pistons and cylinders when they were mounted horizontally, so most were mounted vertically, but vertical cylinders driving directly on the wheels (as on Sans PareilSans Pareil
Sans Pareil is a steam locomotive built by Timothy Hackworth which took part in the 1829 Rainhill Trials on the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, held to select a builder of locomotives...
) caused problems with poor riding and did not work well with the springs.
Bell crank
A bell crank is a type of crank that changes motion through an angle. The angle can be any angle from 0 to 360 degrees, although 90 degrees and 180 degrees are common....
s which changed the drive to horizontal. Connecting rods linked the bell cranks to the crank axle
Crank (mechanism)
A crank is an arm attached at right angles to a rotating shaft by which reciprocating motion is imparted to or received from the shaft. It is used to change circular into reciprocating motion, or reciprocating into circular motion. The arm may be a bent portion of the shaft, or a separate arm...
(the axle on the left in the illustration).
The valve gear
Valve gear
The valve gear of a steam engine is the mechanism that operates the inlet and exhaust valves to admit steam into the cylinder and allow exhaust steam to escape, respectively, at the correct points in the cycle...
took a similar route to the drive. One effect of this was it had many pins and links, resulting in lost motion.
The wheels themselves were of the suspension type (similar to a bicycle wheel
Bicycle wheel
A bicycle wheel is a wheel, most commonly a wire wheel, designed for bicycle. A pair is often called a wheelset, especially in the context of ready built "off the shelf" performance-oriented wheels....
).
It is easy to think that Novelty is an 0-4-0
0-4-0
Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, 0-4-0 represents one of the simplest possible types, that with two axles and four coupled wheels, all of which are driven...
locomotive as it had equal sized wheels, however is actually an 0-2-2
0-2-2
An 0-2-2, in the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives by wheel arrangement, is one that has two coupled driving wheels followed by two trailing wheels, with no leading wheels...
WT. Only the wheels under the firebox (those to the left on the illustration here) were driven, the other wheels were not connected to the drive in any way.
The First Tank Engine
Novelty is regarded as the first tank engineTank locomotive
A tank locomotive or tank engine is a steam locomotive that carries its water in one or more on-board water tanks, instead of pulling it behind it in a tender. It will most likely also have some kind of bunker to hold the fuel. There are several different types of tank locomotive dependent upon...
as the fuel was carried in baskets on the footplate and water was in a well tank between the wheels.
As one of the rules for the Rainhill Trials related to the weight of the engine without a tender, a special allowance had to be made for Novelty.
Performance in the Trials
Novelty was the crowd’s favourite to win the Trials. This may be because it looked like a steam carriage (which people associated with speed and improvements in transport) or it may be because it did not look like a typical colliery engine of the time. In the demonstration runs that took place on the first day of the trials, Novelty did not disappoint, managing a speed of around 28 miles per hour (45.1 km/h)In the preparations for the trials, Novelty was shown to be very lightweight and very quick to raise steam.
Novelty was the first locomotive to be tested. Starting on the second day of the trials, it began the planned series of runs but very quickly the blower failed and repairs had to be made. The repairs took up all of the next day. However, when Novelty next ran the water feed pipe burst and more repairs had to be made, which seem to have included a seal on the boiler. At the time, the boilers were sealed with a cement
Cement
In the most general sense of the word, a cement is a binder, a substance that sets and hardens independently, and can bind other materials together. The word "cement" traces to the Romans, who used the term opus caementicium to describe masonry resembling modern concrete that was made from crushed...
-like substance which required days - if not weeks - to set properly. Time would not allow this and the seal quickly failed once the trial runs were restarted.
The recurring boiler problems prompted Ericsson and Braithwaite to withdraw from the Trials.
Before it failed, the Stephensons were said to be seriously worried by Novelty, as it was well-suited to meet the conditions of the trial. For one thing the Stephensons considered the weight to be pulled to be too light for a practical railway.
After the Rainhill Trials
Two further engines were built by Ericsson and Braithwaite named William IV and Queen Adelaide. These were generally larger and more robust than Novelty and differed in a number of details (for example, it is thought that a different design of blower was used which was an ‘Induced Draught’ type, sucking the gases from the fire). The pair ran trials on the Liverpool and Manchester Railway
Liverpool and Manchester Railway
The Liverpool and Manchester Railway was the world's first inter-city passenger railway in which all the trains were timetabled and were hauled for most of the distance solely by steam locomotives. The line opened on 15 September 1830 and ran between the cities of Liverpool and Manchester in North...
but the railway declined to purchase the new designs.
Novelty was transferred to the St Helens and Runcorn Gap Railway
St Helens and Runcorn Gap Railway
St Helens and Runcorn Gap Railway, later known as St Helens Railway, was an early railway company in Lancashire, England, which opened in 1833. It ran originally from the town of St Helens to the area which would later develop into the town of Widnes. Branches were opened to Garston, Warrington...
and worked there for a few years. During its time there (around 1833) it received new cylinders and a new boiler.
Somehow, all the wheels and both cylinders (assumed to be the original one not those from the 1833 rebuild) survived.
During 1929 the original wheels and one cylinder were incorporated into a full scale, non-working model that is now on display in the Manchester Museum of Science and Industry. This early replica was rebuilt in 1988 and currently includes batteries and an electric motor to allow it to move (all wheels are driven making the engine a 4wBE), although the steam components are non-functional. The other cylinder is on display at Rainhill
Rainhill
Rainhill is a large village and civil parish of the Metropolitan Borough of St Helens, in Merseyside, England.Historically a part of Lancashire, Rainhill was formerly a township within the ecclesiastical parish of Prescot, and hundred of West Derby...
Public Library.
No other British locomotives are known to have been built in this style. Comparisons are made with 20th century vertical boilered engines such as those by Sentinel
Sentinel Waggon Works
Sentinel Waggon Works Ltd was a British company based in Shrewsbury, Shropshire that made steam-powered lorries, railway locomotives, and later, diesel engined lorries and locomotives.-Alley & MacLellan, Sentinel Works, Jessie Street Glasgow:...
of Shrewsbury
Shrewsbury
Shrewsbury is the county town of Shropshire, in the West Midlands region of England. Lying on the River Severn, it is a civil parish home to some 70,000 inhabitants, and is the primary settlement and headquarters of Shropshire Council...
, but in fact the principles were very different.
The Replica
For the Rocket 150 event in 1980, a completely new replica of Novelty was constructed by Locomotion Enterprises in the Springwell Workshop of the Bowes RailwayBowes Railway
The Bowes Railway, built by George Stephenson in 1826, is the world's only preserved operational standard gauge cable railway system. It was built to transport coal from Durham pits to boats on the River Tyne. Only part of the system now remains.-Background:...
. It was a fully working replica that was built to look correct when display at the planned event; however many changes were made to reduce the construction costs and meet modern standards. It has been suggested that the replica was built to last no longer than the 3 days of the Rocket 150 event.
Some of the differences between the original and replica are:
- Carbon steel used instead of wrought ironWrought ironthumb|The [[Eiffel tower]] is constructed from [[puddle iron]], a form of wrought ironWrought iron is an iron alloy with a very low carbon...
- Wrought iron was no longer commercially produced, while carbon steel was understood by every commercial fabricator.
- Boiler built from welded steel instead of copperCopperCopper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu and atomic number 29. It is a ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. Pure copper is soft and malleable; an exposed surface has a reddish-orange tarnish...
- A copper boiler would have been very expensive in materials and would have needed specialist skills while welded steel had much in common with industrial pressure vessels.
- Blower built from plywoodPlywoodPlywood is a type of manufactured timber made from thin sheets of wood veneer. It is one of the most widely used wood products. It is flexible, inexpensive, workable, re-usable, and can usually be locally manufactured...
and painted copper colour
- The blower is likely to have been the subject of development work, plywood being much cheaper and easier to work with. Additionally few people would get close enough to tell the difference.
- Handbrake fitted to act on both wheels
- This may have been fitted after the ‘Rocket 150’ event.
- Boiler fitted with gauge glassSight glassA sight glass or water gauge is a transparent tube through which the operator of a tank or boiler can observe the level of liquid contained within.-Liquid in tanks:...
and Bourdon pressure gauge
- Requirements for any steam boiler, vital if the engine was to be operated safely.
- Safety valveSafety valveA safety valve is a valve mechanism for the automatic release of a substance from a boiler, pressure vessel, or other system when the pressure or temperature exceeds preset limits....
is "pop" type rather than "dead weight".
- Firstly the pop valves were a type used in industry; secondly the dead-weight type could be held down (so it would never work properly); and thirdly a dead-weight valve tends to bounce and thus waste steam.
- The boiler of the replica contains approximately twice the volume of water
- This is mainly as a result of the construction methods used (flanged joints on the barrels and standard steel pipe for the flue tube). It is also gave bigger water spaces between the inside and outside plates. In consequence, the fire grate must have considerably smaller than on the original.
For a reason that is not fully understood, the wheels of the replica were built with very narrow treads. It is possible that wheels were scaled off a model in the London Science Museum
Science Museum (London)
The Science Museum is one of the three major museums on Exhibition Road, South Kensington, London in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. It is part of the National Museum of Science and Industry. The museum is a major London tourist attraction....
. As a result it was unable to travel over modern pointwork
Railroad switch
A railroad switch, turnout or [set of] points is a mechanical installation enabling railway trains to be guided from one track to another at a railway junction....
.
During the Rocket 150 event, Novelty was carried on a Well wagon, supported in such a way as to allow the engine to be run and its wheels to rotate freely.
Following the Rocket 150 event, Novelty was steamed on a small number of occasions in Manchester
Manchester
Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...
. Around 1982, it was sold to the Swedish Railway Museum
Swedish Railway Museum
The Swedish Railway Museum, , in Gävle, Gästrikland, Sweden, national museum for Sweden's railway history.The Swedish Railway Museum is tasked with acquiring, preserving and supplying knowledge about Swedish railway history on the basis of the national collection...
, Gävle
Gävle
Gävle is a city in Sweden, the seat of Gävle Municipality and the capital of Gävleborg County. It had 71,033 inhabitants in 12/31 2010. It is the oldest city in the historical Norrland , having received its charter in 1446 from Christopher of Bavaria.-History:It is believed that the name Gävle...
, and left the UK
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
.
Ängelholm
Ängelholm is a locality and the seat of Ängelholm Municipality in Skåne County, Sweden with 22,532 inhabitants in 2005.It is known for its clay cuckoos — a special kind of ocarina. This is however a dying tradition as there is now only one producer of clay cuckoos, Sofia Nilsson.Tourism is an...
, for use in a TV programme. It was returned to Sweden
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
during the spring of 2003, but made a short visit to the Museum of Science and Industry in Manchester
Museum of Science and Industry in Manchester
The Museum of Science and Industry in Manchester, England, is a large museum devoted to the development of science, technology, and industry with emphasis on the city's achievements in these fields...
during the autumn of 2005.
2002 Restaging – The Television Programme
For the BBCBBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
TV programme "Timewatch
Timewatch
Timewatch is a long-running British television series showing documentaries on historical subjects, spanning all human history. It was first broadcast on 29th September 1982 and is produced by the BBC, the Timewatch brandname is used as a banner title in the UK, but many of the individual...
– Rocket and its Rivals" the replica of Novelty was transported to the National Railway Museum
National Railway Museum
The National Railway Museum is a museum in York forming part of the British National Museum of Science and Industry and telling the story of rail transport in Britain and its impact on society. It has won many awards, including the European Museum of the Year Award in 2001...
in York
York
York is a walled city, situated at the confluence of the Rivers Ouse and Foss in North Yorkshire, England. The city has a rich heritage and has provided the backdrop to major political events throughout much of its two millennia of existence...
. Here it was completely dismantled to allow examination of the boiler and working parts. Several items needed to be attended to before the locomotive could be run:
- Full boiler inspection for insuranceInsuranceIn law and economics, insurance is a form of risk management primarily used to hedge against the risk of a contingent, uncertain loss. Insurance is defined as the equitable transfer of the risk of a loss, from one entity to another, in exchange for payment. An insurer is a company selling the...
purposes - Minor boiler repairs
- Modifications to the wheels to allow safe operation on normal railways
- Cleaning and repainting of the water tank
- Releasing of several water valves that had seized
- Partial repaint
Of this work, the major item was the modification of the wheels. The solution adopted by the National Railway Museum Workshop was to employ a metal fabricator to cut four rings from 40-mm-thick steel plate. These were cut with enough precision not to need any further machining. The rings were then bolted to the existing wheels and were a complete success.
Following re-assembly, the locomotive was steam tested at York before transport to Carrog station
Carrog railway station
Carrog railway station in Denbighshire, Wales, was formerly a station on the Ruabon to Barmouth line. It was to have closed to passengers on Monday 18 January 1965 but closed prematurely on 14 December 1964 due to flood damage. It was reopened in 1996 as part of the preserved Llangollen Railway...
on the Llangollen Railway
Llangollen Railway
The Llangollen Railway is a volunteer-run preserved railway in Denbighshire, Wales, which operates between Llangollen and Carrog; at long, it is the longest preserved standard gauge line in Wales and operates daily in Summer as well as weekends throughout the Winter months using a wide variety of...
. Early tests showed up two major problems: firstly the linkage to the blower was not strong enough, and secondly operating the water feed pump caused very serious priming
Priming (steam engine)
Priming is a condition in the boiler of a steam engine in which water is carried over into the steam delivery. It may be caused by impurities in the water, which foams up as it boils, or simply too high a water level...
of the boiler. It was later shown that the feed pump was five times the size of that required for the engine. This caused air to be fed into the horizontal boiler tube probably caused the priming.
To fully recreate the Rainhill Trials, 20 return runs along a section of the Llangollen Railway were required (between Carrog and Glyndyfrdwy stations
Glyndyfrdwy railway station
Glyndyfrdwy railway station in Denbighshire, Wales, was formerly a station on the Ruabon to Barmouth line. It was to have closed to passengers on Monday 18 January 1965 but closed prematurely due to flood damage on 14 Dec 1964. It was reopened in 1993 by the preserved Llangollen Railway...
). Novelty was only able to complete 10 runs before the fire became completely filled with clinker
Clinker
Clinker may refer to:* Clinker , construction method for wooden boats* Clinker , waste from industrial processes* Clinker , a kilned then quenched cement product* Clinker brick, rough dark coloured bricks...
. The inability to clear clinker from the fire in this type of boiler was a major problem, the only way being to drop the fire completely and start again.
During the runs for the restaging of the trials Novelty was run with an electric fan (powered by a petrol generator) in place of the blower. Even allowing for this in the final calculation Novelty was much more efficient than Sans Pareil
For the Restaging, the replica of Novelty was too slow to meet the requirements of the original trials and did not complete the course. The maximum speed attained at any point was 17 miles per hour (27.4 km/h), possibly because the main steam pipe from the boiler was restricting the flow to the cylinders. The valve gear was also set incorrectly (indicated by the odd noise of the exhaust beats).
With all the obvious differences between the original and the replica, added to the fact that the locomotive crew used had only four days experience of operating the locomotive, it cannot be said that in this restaging of the trial the replica of Novelty gave the performance that the original could have achieved if more time had been made available in 1829.
Other Locomotives Named Novelty
Excluding the original and the replicas, the following locomotives have carried the name Novelty- LNWRLondon and North Western RailwayThe London and North Western Railway was a British railway company between 1846 and 1922. It was created by the merger of three companies – the Grand Junction Railway, the London and Birmingham Railway and the Manchester and Birmingham Railway...
no. 1682, built 1868, rebuilt 1892 - LMS Royal Scot ClassLMS Royal Scot ClassThe London, Midland and Scottish Railway Royal Scot Class is a class of 4-6-0 express passenger locomotive introduced in 1927. Originally having parallel boilers, all members were later rebuilt with tapered type 2A boilers, and were in effect two classes.-Background:Until the mid-1920s, the LMS...
no. 6127, built 1927 (later renamed) - LMS Jubilee ClassLMS Jubilee ClassThe London Midland and Scottish Railway Jubilee Class is a class of steam locomotive designed for mainline passenger work. 191 locomotives were built between 1934 and 1936...
no. 5733, built 1936 - British Rail Class 86British Rail Class 86The British Rail Class 86 was the standard electric locomotive built during the 1960s, developed as a result of testing with the earlier Classes 81, 82, 83, 84 and 85. One hundred of these locomotives were built from 1965-1966 by either English Electric at Vulcan Foundry, Newton-le-Willows, or...
, no. 86 235 (ex-E3194), built 1965 (later renamed)
Sources
- Bailey, M. – Various notes, Speeches and lectures (unpublished)
- Burton, A. – The Rainhill Story - 1980
- Hurrell, A & Lamb, R – Various Diaries, written accounts and lecture notes (unpublished)
- Pike, J. – Locomotive Names, An Illustrated Dictionary - 2000
- Official Handbook for ‘Rocket 150’ event - 1980
- Programme for ‘Riot of Steam’ Event - 2005