SLGR/WLLR No. 14 - Prototype Questions

Hello all,

I've got a couple of questions regarding the Sierra Leone Government Railway and WLLR No. 14.

Firstly, was her love blue lined livery a SLGR livery, or another? If so, would there have been a matching SLGR coach livery and what was it?

Secondly, could she possibly ever have been re-gauged or manufactured in 2ft, rather then 2ft 6in?

Many thanks

Chris

 

The blue paint was some left over from, I believe, "Blanche" on the F.R. "85" is one of those happy machines which looks splendid in any livery and she has had a few whilst in Mid-Wales!

The firebox is very short but extends the full width of the frames. So "Russell", which shares a lot of components with the S.L.R. type, has different frames and a longer but narrower firebox. Presumably deliberately the grate area and firebox heating surface is the same in both designs which has led some to assume (incorrectly) that the boilers are the same. The design of the leading and trailing trucks is also different.

It will be interesting to see if the "Russell" pattern boiler is as free steaming when worked hard as the S.L.R. one. If you have witnessed, as I did, "85" blowing off against both injectors after a mile of 1 in 29 the you will realise the benchmark is a high one.

P.H.

 

Hello Chris, latterly the SLGR Hunslets were black, as 85 carries now, as does her sister, 81 in Freetown and colour photos from the 60s and 70s show.

We believe that she may have been green when new (as when overhauled initially at the W&L in the 70s). The independence coaches were green as they are now at Welshpool. Should you be on Facebook, the museum in Freetown is on: https://www.facebook.com/#!/sierraleonerailwaymuseum and we will add more photos in time.

As for regauging, I suppose it's possible, but SLGR was 2' 6" from day one.

Cheers
Anthony

 

It was actually Linda, not Blanche that had the PQR livery of dark blue, but it was the same batch of paint I believe.

The boiler was, I believe the same design between Leeds No1, Russell and the later SLGR engines. However, the smokebox and fireboxes were different, as stated above. All three grate areas are tabled as a 6.25 sq ft, but again as above the fireboxes on 2' gauge engines were waisted in to fit into the frames, (just as the Hunslet Ladies were as well) and so on the narrower gauge the firebox was longer. It took me some time to work all that out !

Regards

Peter

 

Hi Peter,

Out of academic interest the main reason why SLR85 went into midnight blue for a few years was that the FR offered their spare stocks of paint to the W&L when "Linda" was repainted. There was also a third locomotive painted using the stocks of Midnight Blue originally ordered for "Linda" - Railfreight Distribution's 47145 "Meddin Emrys" was repainted into a quasi RFD livery with midnight blue substituting the dark grey by some FR members who worked at Tinsley Depot.

I was not aware that Russell and Leeds No.1 had a boiler barrell diameter of 3ft 2 3/8inches as per SLR37 onwards, so that's interesting.

The SLR 2-6-2Ts were delivered in several batches. The 1898-1920 build were designated class 21, and the final two batches (1947 and 1954) class 81. Here are some notes based upon DH Townley in the Railway Magazine in April 1960.

Class 21/1s
SLR 21 (673/1898)
SLR 22 (674/1898)
SLR 23 (675/1898)
SLR 24 (709/1900)
SLR 25 (710/1900)
SLR 26 (744/1901)
SLR 27 (745/1901)

These seven locos had smaller boilers than later builds with an outside diameter of 2ft 5in with a raised round top firebox. The dome was in the center of the boiler and they had Ramsbottom safety valves mounted inside the cab (similar fashion to Linda/Blanche). Side tank capacity 350 gals, 10 x 15" cylinders, boiler feed pumps, and compensated spring gear. Hand and steam brakes only. Details and drawings published in "The Engineer" 12 January 1900.

Class 21/2
SLR 28 (800/1903)
SLR 29 (801/1903)
SLR 30 (802/1903)
SLR 31 (825/1903)
SLR 32 (826/1903)
SLR 33 (834/1903)
SLR 34 (835/1903)
SLR 35 (836/1904)
SLR 36 (837/1904)

These were equipped with a new boiler design with a diameter 3ft 2 3/8inches with the dome forward of the centre of the barrel and a flush round top firebox. The safety valves were mounted outside of the cab but were still Ramsbottom. Water capacity increased to 440 gals. Again hand and steam brakes only.

Class 21/3
SLR 37 (1011/1909)
SLR 38 (1012/1909)
SLR 39 (1013/1909)
SLR 40 (1014/1909)
SLR 41 (1081/1911)

As the 21/2 but they were fitted with vacuum brakes and the boiler feed pumps were replaced by backhead injectors.

Class 21/4
SLR 42 (1145/1913)
SLR 43 (1202/1919)
SLR 44 (1203/1919)
SLR 45 (1204/1920)
SLR 46 (1409/1920)
SLR 47 (1470/1920)

As 21/3s but with fixed spring gear (earlier locomotives retrofitted to removed the compensated spring gear)

Class 81/1
SLR 81 (3398/1947)
SLR 82 (3399/1947)
SLR 83 (3400/1947)
Water capacity increased to 470 gallons, ross pop safety valves, Eureka Type C hydrostatic lubricators. The cabs had a hinged roof hatch (Sunroof) rather than the colonial style cab of the earlier locomotives (6 inch gap between cab sides and the roof). Square sliding rear windows rather than rear spectacle plates, stone turbogenerators and electric lighting (earlier locos had oil lamps).

Class 81/2
SLR 84 (3814/1954)
SLR 85 (3815/1954)
Roller bearings on pony trucks, cowcatches from flat bar rather than angle iron with no intermediate horizontal bars. Coal boxes on the tank tops (most locos had these retrofitted in Sierra Leone - 84 & 85 were the only locos to be supplied with them by Hunslet).

A few comments.

I understand some of Russell's wheel centres have SLR or SLGR cast into them.

W&LLR member Roger Darsley visited the SLR in 1974, he reported that the last two 2-6-2Ts were SLR 85 at Fisher Lane and SLR 81 at Bauya Junction. The late Pascoe Rowe who together with the late Ralph Russell (and Roger Darsley?) inspected the surviving SLR stock for the W&LLR in 1975 told me that upon inspection he found that SLR 81 (now preserved at Cline Town) was an amalgamation of SLR 46 and SLR 81. He believed SLR 81 was damaged in an accident and was rebuilt with components recovered from 46 (not uncommon on African Railways).

SLR 85 today has one roller bearing truck and one plain bearing truck. The surving loco records (not very much), state that in Feb 1960 after an overhaul she was hauled (136 miles?) to Bo to take over duties there. The Assistant loco supervisor reports that 85 had been found at Bo to be missing driver's side leading and intermediate crank pin nuts and the drivers side Timken roller bearing on the rear pony truck had siezed. The truck was sent back to Cline Town and 85 remained at Bo as a 2-6-0 with SLR 46 undertakin her duties. It is thought that this is when the plain bearing truck was substituted. The W&L switched the rear and leading trucks around in 1992 and today the roller bearing truck is under the rear end. 85 appears to have had a rough life.

Entered traffic 30/10/54
Withdrawn 9/6/58 for "heavy repairs to cab etc" after collision.
Re-entered traffic 13/6/59
Withdrawn 16/10/59 for General Overhaul / First Class Repair (42,531 shopped mileage)
Steam tested 27/1/60
Re-entered service 1/2/60
Hauled to Bo 27/2/60 (see damage report above)
4/6/60 derailed all wheels by Driver O.B. Atkins
1/7/60 accident at Bo - collided with and destroyed buffer stop and damaged loco by Driver Z.S. Dean who was reprimanded for exceeding speed limit.
File not kept upto date after 1960.
There were several notes on different spring settings. Funny enough this is a problem that has remained with 85 on the W&L. Whenever the springs are re-set the locomotive then re-adjusts itself in service!

Common Components between Russell and the SLR 2-6-2Ts:
-Coupled wheels
-Springs
-Axleboxes
-Screw reversing gear
-Coupling rods
-Connecting rods
-pistons
-Crossheads
-Slidebars
- Boiler barrel (not incl. Smokebox & Firebox per Baldpeter post).


Common components between Russell and "Leeds No.1" (865/1905) Leeds Corporation Waterworks
-Boiler and firebox

Unknown or Original Design Unique to Russell and not featured on "Leeds No,1" or SLR 2-6-2Ts
-Cylinders
-Smokebox
-Cab
-Tanks
-Brake gear
-Pony trucks
-Chimney
-Frames

The pony trucks are very much different between Russell and the SLR locos. The SLR engines had plateframe pony trucks with outside axleboxes, helical springs either side of the axleboxes and main frame cutaways to permit a 120 ft radius curve. Russell's pony trucks are a 'cannon box' axlebox arrangement that embraces the axle between the wheels within a hollow casting containing the axle bearings (i.e. inside bearings). There are no frame cutaways as Russell was intended to operate of 198ft radius curves.

Walschaerts valve gear was a novelty for Hunslet Standard designs at the time.
Taking the SLR and other export locos out of the equation Russell was the third UK Hunslet loco to be fitted with Walschaerts valve gear (or Hausingen Valve Gear - Germans still don't recognise Walschaert's patent).
1st "Jack" 684/1898 - for John Knowles, Woodville, Derbyshire (now preserved in Leeds)
2nd "Leeds No.1" 865/1905 - Leeds Corportation Waterworks
3rd "Russell" 901/1906 - Portmadoc, Beddgelert & South Snowdon Railway

Kind regards,
Gareth

 

Thanks for correcting me about which loco the paint was for. Query; weren't the Penrhyn locos painted in L.N.W.R. style black?

There are more differences between the boilers on Leeds No. 1, "Russell" and the S.L.R. large boilered type than you quote. I cannot be specific about internal arrangements but the dome was in a different position for the 2ft. gauge pair than on the 2ft. 6 ins. gauge series.

As an aside, the original small boilered S.L.R. type looks as if someone at Hunslets glanced "over the garden wall" at the Lynton & Barnstaple machines as the left Mannings next door. Both types had raised firebox boilers but Hunslets surely improved the design by substituting drive to the third as opposed to the second coupled axle and by using Walschaerts valve gear. Still a bit of an ugly duckling which became a swan when the bigger boiler was fitted.

Paul H.

 

Really interesting stuff. Thanks all. We'll upload some pics from our recent trip to Freetown in November. 81 has been given an all-over coat of gloss black because that's simply the best match the guys had in the immediate aftermath of the civil war.

Here's the works shot of 85. And by way of comparison, the works shot of something a little larger from Hunslet - number 102.

 

I am not sure if I am going around in circles here...

I posed the question regarding differences between the three engines on here some time ago. I forgot about the dome location, it certainly moved. My problem was I had a number of different drawings of the three engines, and the boiler length and diameters were the same and different! I think the drawings were wrong in the end. I went up to Shildon to check out No 85, that solved the firebox conundrum.

The best drawing I found was in The Narrow Gauge No 189, redrawn from Hunslet design dwg No 9000 by Mr PS Halton in 1992. Nearly all the others I have are wrong somewhere. I have yet to measure Russell in some detail, I hope to this summer.

The answer from Gareth was sent by him in answer to my questions some time ago, thanks again.

Perhaps there are drawings at Statfold that might confirm more of this, I am sure the Hunslet drawing office would re-use many tried and tested designs over again.

Regards

Peter

 

In theory the larger type (note inside frames) would offer advantages from more adhesive weight. However I vaguely recall hearing from some "likely" source (?R.T. Russell) that the 2-8-2T's were apt to derail which is why there were no repeat orders. Certainly this is a classic case of "what looks right is right" for the 2-8-2T looks as ill- proportioned as the 2-6-2T looks spot on.

Paul H.

 

Well done Timmydunn! That is a good picture of one of the SLR 2-8-2Ts - the elusive class 101s.

Paul is correct, they were not very successful.

If I recall correctly, according to the unpublished SLR history book of their former Chief Mechanical Engineer J. Ralph Best (who ordered SLR85), the SLR later cut back the side tanks and reducing the cylinder diameter, I reasoned at the time of reading Mr Best's manuscript that they either achieved this by either by fitting liners or transplanting the cylinders off withdrawn class 21 2-6-2Ts that appear to have the same cylinder dimensions as the 101s in the later years.

Kind regards,
Gareth

 

There's quite a lot going on at the moment in the background of the Sierra Leone National Railway Museum - but I'm sure we'll get a chance to dig a bit further in some of the archives we've got here in the UK.

 

This is probably a good time to remind you all that we have Twitter and Facebook pages for the Sierra Leone National Railway Museum. You don't need to be a member of either site to view them, but we'd very much welcome your support as "fans" or "followers" . (I've spotted a few familiar names on there!) There's a lot planned to happen...

https://twitter.com/SLRailwayMuseum
https://www.facebook.com/sierraleonerailwaymuseum

 

OK, everyone's getting rather confused here...

'Linda' and 'Blanche' arrived on the FR in PQR livery - being from the PQR that makes sense...

Both went into FR Green livery at first repaint...

'Blanche' has never carried a different livery since then...

'Linda' was repainted in Midnight Blue with white lining during her 1990/91 overhaul...

'Linda' was then repainted into PQR livery - Black, lined blue and red - during her 1994/95 overhaul...

...then, in 2011, reverted to FR Green livery to match 'Blanche' !

 

Quotes from J. Ralph Best in "A History of the Sierra Leone Railway 1899-1949" (unpublished) relevent to the 2-8-2Ts.

"The statement of rolling stock for December 31st 1908, showed a total of 28 tank engines, 7 were 0-6-0 type, 4 of which had been originally on construction, 11 were 2-6-2 and 5 were 2-8-2. There were 59 coaching vehicles and 204 goods vehicles. The total engine mileage for the year was 278,925 3/4."

"A serious collision occured on the mainline at mile 66 on January 29th 1914, between two special goods trains, owing to the non observance of regulations. There was no loss of life but considerable damage was done to both locomotives and to six wagons. One engine, locomotive No.104 was damaged beyond repair and had to be scrapped."

"The 2-8-2 type tank engines - the 101 class - had given considerable trouble for some years. They were bad steamers, bad riders and expensive to operate, generally considered to be an unsatisfactory type, they had performed comparatively little useful service but had been the subject of repeated experiments. A new type of pony truck placed under one engine in 1912., and tried out for 12 months, caused the engine to run more steadily but difficulties with bearings, resulting in frequent hot box failures, were such that further conversions were not considered worthwhile. In May 1915 the cylinders of another engine of this class were reduced from 12"x16" to 10 3/4" x 16". At the same time the two side tanks were reduced at the front by 4ft per tank which reduced the water capacity from 700 gallons to 450 gallons, and in consequence, relieved the weight on the front end of the engine. The experiment was an undoubtled success, increased efficiency and steadier running was obtained and it was decided to convert the remaining engines of the class. Two were completed in 1916 and the last in 1917."

The SLR workshops were rather ambitious in their conversions:

Best later descusses how the SLR workshops lead by 'the CME' (W. Venner?) converted a 2-6-2+2-6-2 Beyer Garratt No.56 to a 2-8-0+0-8-2 in 1943 and increasing the boiler pressure from 175 lbs to 200 lbs, thus building the first eight coupled 2ft 6in gauge garratt with an increased TE from 17000 to 19400 and adhesion from 3.9 to 4.6. The locomotive had only been taken out of service for a defective cylinder... The performance was considerably improved and the trailing loads rose from 185 tons to 250-290tons. They later converted other locos (52, 53, 54, 55 in 1945) but found the age and condition of the boilers unsuitable for raising the boiler pressure so worked at 175lbs. The adhesion improvements did however mean that these locos could haul 220tons.

In 1944 they converted 4-8-0 tender loco 156 to an 0-10-0 to increase the adhesion. At the same time the boiler pressure was increase and they removed the cylinder liners to increase the tractive effort. The resultant loco was re-rated from 120tons to 150 tons and used on Songo trains to release a Garratt for the mainline.

Cline Town works even secretly built an armoured car with a revolving turret for the Police Department during WW2.

Kind regards,
Gareth

 

Have you a copy of Best Gareth? I had a small green copy of a history of the SLGR from c.1947, not half as big as Best, but it was destroyed in a fire this winter. Desperate to find another copy for the SL NRM if you know of anyone who has one they might allow to be copied.

 

Hi Anthony,

I think I can help.
I have sent you a PM (or conversation as it is called on here)

Kind regards,
Gareth

 

We ask schoolchildren who visit to suggest their own colours for railway engines - and we've a stock of Loco 81 outline drawings plus a lot of old crayons and pencils generously donated by the UK NRM.

I'm quite keen on some of the multi-coloured liveries they come up with - which reflect the way they have traditionally repainted cars, trucks and so on in Sierra Leone - but I think yellow (gold) overall as suggested by one young lad called Santigie could be the way forward. Anyone at the W&LLR fancy doing 85 out in overall gold for the next resteaming?

 

When painted into maroon (2nd row from bottom, far left) you can see the similarities with Russell.

This has been a thoroughly interesting thread and I'm glad it's evolved into a very technical piece.

Getting back to No. 85/14, the livery of Midnight Blue was just a massive coincidence and isn't prototypical in anyway?

 

Midnight Blue was purely a preservation era livery. She carried workshop grey for the photos, then green, later black, for SLGR. We think that the coaches were always green. Note that the Independence Coaches (like that at W&LLR) replaced earlier wooden-bodied stock in Sierra Leone. We'll have to do a bit of digging on the liveries of those coaches, but it's likely that they were green too.

 

Going slightly off-topic, but can anyone shed light on why this livery was chosen for Linda at that time? It always seemed an odd choice to me, given that it had never previously been used on either the PQR or the FfR!