North Midland Railway Locomotives

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Little information remains about the North Midland Railway locomotives. Unlike other companies they did not give them names.

Among the first were two tender engines ordered in 1838 from Miller and Barnes of Ratcliffe which would seem to have been delivered in 1840.

The next were in 1839 from Mather, Dixon and Company, three 2-2-2 of the "Bury" type.

The bulk of the purchases were in 1840 as follows:

Benjamin Hick and Sons three 0-4-2 numbers 62, 65, 66.
Similar to two supplied in 1839 to the Liverpool and Manchester Railway .

Fenton, Murray and Jackson six 2-2-2 Stephenson design.

Thompson & Cole three 0-4-2

In 1841 another engine was ordered from R.B.Longridge and Company. Little is known of this, but, in 1846, the Midland Railway ordered twenty long-boilered 2-4-0s, for which it might have been a prototype. It is known that in 1842, the railway had complained about overheating of chimneys and smokeboxes, and Robert Stephenson had carried out studies with the assistance of the NMR and its Derby works which culminated in his long boiler patent. It may also be that this was 'No.54 Stephenson,' which took part in the 1845 gauge trials, along with Stephenson's 'Engine A'.

[edit] Reference

• Lowe, J.W., (1989) British Steam Locomotive Builders, Guild Publishing