The ‘New L’ Class 0-6-2 tanks were the last locomotives to be built by the North Staffordshire Railway at its Stoke Works one hundred years ago in 1923 and it is therefore fitting that NSR No.2, now resident at the Foxfield Railway, is the last surviving NSR steam locomotive.
The North Staffordshire Railway, centred on Stoke-on-Trent, opened in stages between 1848 and 1852. Engineered by Robert Stephenson and his intimate friend, George Parker Bidder, it was a compact system described as a ‘small octopus’ but with running rights as far as Derby, Manchester, Nottingham and Llandudno. The bulk of its traffic was minerals and third class passengers and this was reflected in its motive power: a series of increasingly large tank engines with a smattering of tender engines for longer runs, such as that to Llandudno. Of these tank engines, the ‘New L’ Class was by far the most numerous and most successful of NSR designs
John Henry Adams
John Henry Adams (1860-1917) was the NSR Locomotive Superintendent from 1902 to his untimely death in 1916. He was born in London in 1860, the son of William Adams (1823-1904) who was variously Locomotive Superintendent of the North London Railway (1858-1873), Great Eastern Railway (1873-1878) and the London & South Western Railway from 1879 until his retirement in 1895. He is credited with the invention and adoption of the Adams bogie and is credited with some of the most elegant nineteenth century locomotive designs. Given his background, it is not surprising therefore that a young John was apprenticed, in 1877, at the Stratford Works of the Great Eastern Railway. However, when in 1879 his father moved to join the LSWR, so too did John who completed his apprenticeship at Nine Elms. Upon the completion of his training, he served as a fireman for nine months and afterwards was an engine driver of goods and passenger trains for fifteen months on the London and South Western Railway.
His first position was working
