R and W Hawthorn

Locomotive building

There followed a number of orders for the Stockton and Darlington Railway. They were great innovators - not always successfully - and their locos had many original features.

In 1838 two were built for the broad gauge Great Western Railway to the patent of T. E. Harrison, who later became the chief engineer for the North Eastern Railway. These could be viewed as the forerunners of the Garratt locomotive, with the boiler carried on a separate carriage to the cylinders and valvegear. This allowed the boiler to be large and low down, being carried on smaller wheels, while the driving wheels could be up to 10 ft in diameter. With little weight on the drivers, adhesion was poor, but they ran very smoothly up to 60 mph. However, the flexible steam coupling gave a great deal of trouble and they were withdrawn.

They continued to build more conventional engines, possibly under sub-contract, among them, three for the Birmingham and Derby Junction Railway. In 1850 the company built their first tank locomotive which was supplied to the York, Newcastle and Berwick Railway In the 1850s, they also built six 4-4-0ST, Crampton locomotives of the Sondes class for the East Kent Railway. Also, in the quest for a low centre of gravity, four 0-4-0s with the drivers spaced at 12 ft apart connected to the cylinders by a dummy crankshaft. These were soon withdrawn, and the Cramptons rebuilt into traditional 2-4-0 tanks.

In 1860, eight tender locomotives with an 0-4-2 wheel arrangement, the first tender locomotives to work in South Africa, were built for the Cape Town Railway and Dock Company.

In 1870, they built St. Peter's Works adjoining that of Robert Stephenson and Company and in 1880 amalgamated with the shipbuilder A. Leslie and Company, to become Hawthorn Leslie and Company.

Hawthorns and Company, Leith

In 1846, they bought the Leith Engine Works, in Leith, Scotland, for the assembly of locomotives prepared in Newcastle. These works were sold to another company also called Hawthorns and Company, which produced some four hundred locomotives on its own account until 1872.

In 1859, Hawthorns, Leith, built an 0-4-0T locomotive for Messrs E. & J. Pickering, contractors for the construction of the Cape Town-Wellington Railway in the Cape Colony. This locomotive was the first steam locomotive to run in South Africa. In 1861 the Cape Town-Wellington Railway Company took over all construction, and the locomotive, from Pickerings and the locomotive became the Cape Town-Wellington Railway's no 9, later to become known as "Blackie". It was subsequently rebuilt to a 0-4-2 configuration. In 1936 it was proclaimed a national monument and has since been plinthed in the concourse at Cape Town station.

In 1861, Hawthorns supplied an 0-4-0WT locomotive, works number 244, to the Howe Bridge Colliery in Lancashire. Named Ellesmere, it continued in use at the colliery until 1957, when it was the oldest working steam engine in Britain. It is now preserved in the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh.

References

1. Lowe, James, L.:''British Steam Locomotive Builders'', Goose & Son, Cambridge, 1975 p313
2. This is also the basis of the Graces Guide entry retrieved 14 April 2014 from http://www.gracesguide.co.uk/R._and_W._Hawthorn.
3. The Railway from Vienna to Gloggnitz or Die Eisenbahn von Wien nach Gloggnitz accessed from [http://anno.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/anno-plus?aid=abz&datum=1842&page=247&size=45 Austrian National Library/ Österreichische Nationalbibliothek ] on 15 April 2014.
4. Pearce T.R. ''The Locomotives of the Stockton & Darlington Railway'', Historical Model Railway Society, 1996 p60
5. ''Robert Stephenson & Hawthorns Ltd. Products'', an extensive printed catalogue issued in the late 1930s, undated. From Foreword "The Brothers Hawthorn entered the locomotive business in 1931 when they delivered their first engine "The Coronation" to the Stockton & Darlington Railway". An example of the catalogue is in [[North of England Institute of Mining and Mechanical Engineers]] and was consulted to make this statement.
6. J. F. Clarke (1979), ''Power on Land and Sea: 160 Years of Industrial Enterprise on Tyneside: A History of R. & W. Hawthorn Leslie & Co., Ltd., Engineers and Shipbuilders'', by J. F. Clarke, Hawthorn Leslie & Co, Newcastle page 6.
7. (18 March 1850). "Mechanical notices".
8. Bradley (1979), pp. 19-20.
9. {{Holland-Vol 1
10. Espitalier, T.J.; Day, W.A.J. (1943). ''The Locomotive in South Africa - A Brief History of Railway Development. Chapter I - The Period of the 4 ft. 8½ in. Gauge''. South African Railways and Harbours Magazine, June 1943. pp. 437-440.
11. "National Museum of Scotland Souvenir Guide". NMS Enterprises.