Kerr Stuart 0-4-0 saddle tank built
1926, number 4388
A locomotive with strong local associations, it has had a varied career but never strayed far from North Staffordshire. The design is an unusual one, with outside valve gear and no front footplate, plus a very small saddletank, which makes it more like Kerr Stuart's narrow gauge designs. Delivered new in 1926 to shunt the sidings of the British Gas Light Company's gas works at Etruria in Stoke-on-Trent, number 4388 was the first locomotive employed there. It shunted coal wagons from the NSR mainline at Etruria yard, this work having previously been carried out by horses.
In
1949 and 1950 two new small Fowler diesel mechanical locomotives arrived
and the Kerr Stuart locomotive was sold on to the Brookfield Foundry &
Engineering Company Ltd. This foundry was appropriately located in the
former Kerr Stuart works where number 4388 had been
built 24 years earlier, Kerr Stuarts having gone bankrupt in 1930. The
foundry gradually became inactive and rail traffic ceased in about 1962.
Number 4388 was stored in the company of a Bagnall pannier tank in the
former Kerr Stuart erecting shop, and eventually when the foundry went
into liquidation in late 1982 and an auction was organised at the site.
Enthusiasts had kept a watchful eye on the dormant locomotives for twenty
years and there was intense interest in what might happen to them
When
the two locomotives at the Foundry were auctioned, number 4388 was bought
privately and came to Foxfield, arriving straightaway on 13 February 1983.
While restoration was underway it moved to the Crewe Heritage Centre in
July 1989, but returned in working order for visits to Foxfield in 1993,
1994 and 1995. It carries an attractive green livery but has certain modern
fittings such as Oleo buffers, and carries lettering proclaiming its first
owners at the Stoke-on-Trent Gas Works. It has since become a resident
again but is currently out of traffic awaiting another overhaul.
Above:
Kerr Stuart 0-4-0ST 4388 at Etruria Gasworks [late HB Holland collection]
The
other locomotive that survived for so long at the Brookfield Foundry, Bagnall
0-6-0PT number 2613, was restored to working order and named "Brookfield".
It carries a distinctive blue livery and after use at various steam railways
around the UK can now be found at the Mangapps
Railway Museum in Essex.
The comparison with Kerr Stuart's
narrow gauge designs can be seen by comparing with 2'3" gauge inside framed
"Tattoo" class 0-6-2ST running on the Talyllyn Railway "Edward
Thomas" or the 1'11.5" gauge outside framed version preserved
at the West Lancashire Railway "Stanhope"
.