Readers’ Platform
American locos
THE Railway Correspondence & Travel Society is rather wide of the mark in its assertion on page 49 (February issue) regarding the Class 59s’ arrival in 1986, “…for the first time, American-built locomotives started operating in this country” (by which it presumably means England, Wales and Scotland).
There have been American-built locomotives in Great Britain since 1839, when the Birmingham & Gloucester Railway (later part of the Midland) acquired 17 engines of the 4-2-0 type from Norris of Philadelphia. These were followed in 1899-1900 by 80 2-6-0s supplied by Schenectady (later part of Alco) and Baldwin to the Midland (40), Great Northern (20) and Great Central (20).
Around the same time, the Barry Railway purchased five 0-6-2Ts, and the Port Talbot Railway two 0-8-2Ts, all from Cooke (also later part of Alco). At that time the British locomotive industry was overwhelmed with orders, and the American builders could offer much earlier delivery dates.
Intriguingly, a Shay geared locomotive constructed by Lima in 1900 also ran here in industrial service at a Staffordshire steel works for a time.
Nor were the ‘59s’ the first American-built diesels here. Foster Yeoman acquired an off-the-shelf General Motors SW1000 Bo-Bo switcher for use at its Merehead terminal in 1980 – it was the success of this latter machine that prompted them to turn to GM for the ‘59s’.
John Bruford Hutton, Brentwood
Biking & performance
MAY I please make an alternative submission for the monthly Practice & Performance article?
