North Stafforshire Railway

A Dutch friend of mine is (Co-) re-issuing the definitive volume of steam locomotives that ran on the Dutch railways. Quite a few of these were supplied by the UK of course, hence a question. I quote from a letter he composed:


We were faced with great difficulty with the description of one locomotive which originated with the North Staffordshire Railway. This engine initially belonged to a series of six locomotives built by Robert Stephenson (works numbers. 678-683, numbered as NSR 58-63). The first four were delivered in 1849, the other two in 1850. According to the catalogue of David Baxter (Moorland Publishing Company 1984), the first five engines (58-62) were sold to the Midland Railway, after little if any use by the NSR.


The Baxter registers state that NSR 63 (R. Stephenson works number 683) was sold to Thomas Brassey for use in the construction of new lines for the Netherlands Rhenish Railway (NRS). After completion of these railway lines Brassey resold the engine in about 1857 to that railway, and it became Rhenish Railway 49 (finally withdrawn in 1895 by the HSM as their number 300).

Accordingly to the official documents of the former Rhenish Railways, which are kept in the government-owned Dutch National Archives, the engine would have been R. Stephenson 681 (NSR 61, and not 63). The only reason for this difference is the fact that during those years the then usual way to register a locomotive in the Netherlands was by its boiler number instead of the frame number. During the construction of the frame-numbered 681 the boiler mounted might have been swapped by boiler 683 after which the frame-numbered 683 received the boiler originally destined for No. 68. The reasons for this possible swap were possibly either that during the construction of 681 the boiler did not fit well, or that the boiler was not yet ready.

Is there anyone who is well versed in the history of the NSR that you could advise, that could engage with him about the fate of the locomotive in question, and whether it was NSR 61 or NSR 63 that was sold to Thomas Brassey?

 

https://www.nsrsg.org.uk/

Knotty Study Group your best bet

 

This paragraph from 'The North Staffordshire Railway' by "Manifold" describes Builders No. 678-682 listed on the previous page and mentions 683 at the end. Not very conclusive. Christianson & Miller, the other main text for the NSR, mentions that "Five were sold at cost price to the Midland Railway in 1851 and given the numbers 205-9. The sixth was sold to the contractor of the Dutch Rhenish Railway."

If there is any more info out there, it's not in published books, and as @lil Bear says, the Knotty study group will be your best port of call.

 

Sounds like a plan. I'll pass this on, and thank you for these quick and helpful replies