Owners and operators of railway locomotives have long indulged in cannibalisation, often in pursuit of a deliberate policy, often out of sheer necessity. In the first instance, take for example the famous British Stanier Class 5 4-6-0, of which over 800 were constructed. A member of this class might go into Works for a major repair, receive a new set of main frames (spares were always on hand at Crewe), reconditioned boiler from stock, and modifications involving the fitting of new parts. From the paint shop would emerge a locomotive bearing the number of that which a month or so previously had arrived in the reception sidings, externally little if at all different, but was it in reality the same one? How much of the admired Gresley Pacific Flying Scotsman is original? Today, are we in truth looking at the locomotive which emerged from Doncaster erecting shop early in 1923, numbered 1472? The answer must be no, we are not. In general, in steam days, it was considered that after about three decades, little of the original would remain, though of course there would be exceptions. In that connection one thinks of the centenarians pottering around Spain well into the 1960s, locomotives which likely had never been worked anywhere near their limits. They might very well still have carried about them some parts of the original. Cannibalisation out of sheer necessity, on the other hand, would be the result of lack of money and resources, sometimes involving major companies, but more frequently limited operations, local railways or those in the service of industry. To the lover of the odd and unusual, these are a joy, though the pleasure derived by us today should be tempered by the knowledge that the work would have been done as a kind of scrap-heap challenge. Use would be made of whatever was at hand and which could be put together to make a serviceable machine that would allow operations to continue. The conditions under which such work was undertaken often were truly difficult, even dangerous, the facilities available inadequate. There follow six examples - there is no particular theme - though an effort has been made to give something of a global spread. The author recognises distinct gaps in his knowledge, for which reason updated information, corrections and additions would be very much welcomed.
1 Australia
Manning Wardle & Company of Leeds, throughout the years in which it assembled locomotives, 1859 to 1926, maintained a reputation for fine workmanship. This in large part was because all its locomotives were hand built, individually by craftsmen. One of the most successful of the company's designs was the six-coupled inside cylinder saddle tank, always of elegant proportions, yet virtually indestructible. The type was easily identifiable through its straight sided saddle tank and distinctive high-crown round top firebox. Its rugged construction was ideally suited to a tough colonial existence, nowhere more so than in Australia. Though the fact is not immediately evident, one of the earliest was the example shown here, works number 163 of 1864, imported by Tooth & Mort for the Waratah Coal Company of Newcastle, New South Wales. The cylinders were 12in by 19in, but unusually the wheel diameter was not recorded. Six-coupled saddle tanks of the time generally belonged to the Old I or K classes, with wheel diameters of 3ft 1 in or fractionally more, but 163 is not classified in the works list. Like (Yamba is located at the mouth of the Clarence River between Sydney and Brisbane). By 1901 had become and in the employment of the NSW Government Public Works Department at Port Kembla (Illawarra district, south of Sydney), after 1916 numbered 26. Within three years, however, it had returned north, via the dealer Rogers of Newcastle, to the local Ashtonfields Colliery, Thornton, but was lying derelict there by 1922. Thereafter there is a gap in its history, but sometime around 1935 it received extensive surgery at the engineering works of A. Goninan & Co Ltd, Broadmeadow (Newcastle), in the course of which it was given a replacement boiler, in this instance from a Baldwin 0-4-0ST. This had belonged to the city's street tramway fleet, the last example of which had been withdrawn in 1930 (the Newcastle system operated from 1887 to 1950, largely electrified by 1926. That left only the Speers Point route steam operated until replaced by buses in 1930, although a small number of excursions were run over it during the next twelve months). Following this work, the locomotive, now unrecognisable as Manning Wardle 163, moved to the Glenrock Colliery, just south of Newcastle. How long it remained active is not known, but around 1945 it was sold as scrap. Latterly it was cut down in height to suit a reduced loading gauge, possibly done at Goninan's as a part of the rebuild. Despite this, presumably at Glenrock, the cab roof either fouled an overhead obstruction or had something very heavy dropped on it. A photograph of it at work there shows a massive dent in the left-hand side of the roof, but in his painting the author has indulged in some panei-beating and straightened it.
