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Robert
Heath 0-4-0 saddle tank built 1885, rebuilt 1934, "No 6"
Above:
A deliberately grimy Robert Heath "No6" runs light to collect wagons with
"Bellerophon"
One of the real unique gems
of the steam collection at Foxfield, this is a thoroughly local engine
and a very remarkable survival.
Robert
Heath & Sons were well known local ironmasters, at one time reputed
to be the largest producers of bar iron in the world. Furnaces, forges
and mills were operated at Black Bull, Biddulph and Ford Green, together
with collieries and a network of private railway lines. From the late 1880s
the company even had running rights over parts of the North Staffordshire
Railway to Congleton. To work these lines, Heaths not only bought locomotives,
they also made their own. The original source of the design of Heath's
four-wheeled locomotives appears to be one bought new from Falcon of Loughborough
in 1885, and numbered 8, though little is known about the loco fleet at
that time. Very quickly Heaths set to work to copy it, which was no mean
achievement even for an established engineering workshop. It seems that
every component, even the boiler, was constructed at Black Bull. The first
copy was number 6, although it is not known what the Falcon company thought
about its latest product being so blatantly copied by a customer within
a year of delivery! Heath's went on to build a further eleven four-wheeled
locomotives up to the First World War, and they were gradually modified
and rebuilt over the years. In addition two six-wheeled locomotives were
built in 1915 and 1924 based on a much rebuilt loco originally delivered
by Black Hawthorn in 1888.
Number
6 spent its working life at Black Bull and Norton collieries, as did most
of the other four-wheeled locos. After the First World War Heaths amalgamated
with the Low Moor Company, ironmakers of Bradford, and by the late 1920s
the iron side of the business was in financial trouble. The collieries
survived the depression, and many of the older Heath locos received major
repairs around this time. Number 6 was sent to the workshops of Cowlishaw
Walker at Black Bull in 1934 for a rebuild but this did not modernise its
antiquated appearance.
Above:
Robert Heath "No6" in 1951, very well kept at NCB Norton Colliery [late
HB Holland collection]
When
the National Coal Board was formed in 1947 number 6 remained at work at
Norton colliery, and the other Heath-built locomotives still in service
began to be laid aside. Remarkably a couple of the four-wheelers received
brand new boilers supplied by Bagnalls of Stafford, number 6 receiving
its during an overhaul in 1954. Even at this stage, the original design
of smokebox door hinged at the top was retained, and the loco put back
to work. It spent a few months on brief loan to Deep Pit, Hanley in 1961-2
but was found to be too small for duties there.
Above:
Robert Heath "No6" looking all of
its 83 years, seen at NCB Norton Colliery in 1968
About
1965 its sister number 10 was scrapped and it became apparent that number
6 was the last survivor of the Heaths locomotives; not only that, it was
the first Heaths had built.Although
in poor external condition, the Staffordshire County Council Museum became
interested in acquiring number 6 in 1967 as part of a collection of railway
relics for a proposed museum at Shugborough Hall. The NCB donated number
6 and it was moved there for preservation on 19 February 1969. While at
Shugborough it was in the company of "Moss Bay"
and the two surviving North Staffordshire Railway locomotives but the plans
to display them were never fully realised. In the early 1980s the static
exhibits were dispersed, and number 6 moved to the Chatterley Whitfield
Mining Museum on 16 November 1983.
It
was at this point number 6 was returned to life as a unique example of
a small North Staffs industrial locomotive in remarkably original condition.
It was rebuilt to working order by Dorothea Restoration Projects, then
loaned to the National Garden Festival site at Etruria, from May to October
1986. The livery carried was green with the initials of the Robert Heath
and Low Moor Company on the tank sides. It was then steamed on occasions
at the Mining Museum but when that sadly closed in 1993 its future was
uncertain. A group of active members at Foxfield Railway were determined
that number 6 should not leave the area in which it had been built, maintained
and worked all its life. At the auction at Chatterley Whitfield on 16 April
1994 it was purchased, and moved to Foxfield four days later.
Above:
Robert Heath "No6" stands with 16ton mineral wagon B29551 at Foxfield Colliery
on 29 July 2000
Since
then number 6 has led a very active retirement for a machine now 120 years
old. It has been further overhauled and performed almost every year, on
passenger trains, demonstration freights and photographic charters. The
current livery is gloss black with red lining. It has also recently appeared
in a deliberately matt and grimy black, reminiscent of its latter days
in NCB service. But appearances can be deceptive, and underneath number
6 is maintained in fine condition as a tribute to the ingenuity of North
Staffordshire engineering in the Victorian age.
Above:
Robert Heath "No6" in (clean!) lined black livery in Caverswall Road
shed in 2000
[photograph by John Sherratt]
Above: At Swanwick
Junction, Midland Railway Centre, Robert Heath "No6" heads a vintage
train
during its visit over May Day Bank Holiday 2005
Below:
Robert Heath "No6" worksplate
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