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Novelty (locomotive)

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Railway transport

   CAPTION: Novelty

   Novelty
   Contemporary drawing of Novelty
    Power type                 Steam
      Builder    John Ericsson and John Braithwaite
   Configuration 0-2-2
     Fuel type   coke
      Career     St Helens and Runcorn Gap Railway

   Novelty was an early steam locomotive built by John Ericsson and John
   Braithwaite to take part in the Rainhill Trials.

   It was an 0-2-2 locomotive and is now regarded as the very first tank
   engine. It had a unique design of boiler and a number of other novel
   design features (perhaps explaining the choice of name). Unfortunately,
   several of the major components had significant design weaknesses which
   ultimately resulted in its failure at the Trials.

Novelty in the Rainhill Trials

Ericsson and Braithwaite Partnership

   During the late 1820s Ericsson and Braithwaite were working together
   building horse drawn fire engines with steam pumps. These used a boiler
   designed by Ericsson and were built in the London works of John
   Braithwaite.

   These fire engines were known for their ability to raise steam quickly
   and looked very similar to Novelty.

   Charles Vignoles has also been associated with Novelty, but his
   practical involvement is know known. He may have aligned himself with
   the engine because of a continuing feud with George Stephenson.

Building the Engine

   Another contemporary drawing of Novelty.
   Enlarge
   Another contemporary drawing of Novelty.

   It is said that Ericsson and Braithwaite only found out about the
   Rainhill Trails seven weeks before the event was due to take place,
   when Ericsson received a letter from a friend referring to a ‘Steam
   Race’. This incredibly short space of time has led people to suggest
   that Novelty is in fact a converted fire engine. It is more likely that
   it used many of the same parts as their fire engines and these parts
   may even have been built for an existing order and diverted to Novelty.

   Novelty was constructed in the London Workshop belonging to Braithwaite
   and transported to Liverpool by boat. There was no time to test Novelty
   in London before transportation, and following test runs at Rainhill
   before the trials, modifications were carried out with the help of
   Timothy Hackworth.

The Boiler

   The boiler used on Novelty was designed by John Ericsson. The design
   was very scientific for the era but proved to be very hard to build and
   maintain compared with the boiler design adopted for Rocket and most
   steam locomotives since.

   The most prominent feature for the boiler is the vertical firebox (the
   large vessel to the left in the illustration here). It was polished
   copper. Within the vertical vessel was the inner firebox and the space
   between the two was filled with water (to a level just about the same
   as the driver’s ankle). Fuel ( Coke) was added from the top, where a
   tube passed down through the top of the firebox. This firebox
   construction was not dissimilar to some types of vertical boiler, but
   this was only part of Ericsson’s design.

   Like George Stephenson, Ericsson understood that a large area was
   needed to extract heat from the hot gasses. This he did in a long
   horizontal tube filled with water which ran under the full length of
   the engine. It can be seen of the illustration here, sticking out to
   the right, with the vertical chimney attached to it. Within the
   horizontal section was a tube carrying the hot gasses, this formed an
   ‘S’ shape so the gasses made three passes through the water. This ‘S’
   shaped tube was also tapered causing the gasses to speed up as they
   cooled down. In practice this tube is almost impossible to clean.

   The resulting boiler was the shape of a hammer and was required to be
   fitted to the Frames before the footplate, cylinders or blower could be
   added.

   The boiler used a ‘Forced Draught’ provided by a mechanical blower (the
   triangular structure on the right in the illustration). This forced air
   along a pipe and into the sealed ashpan (below the fire). Very few
   steam locomotives have ever used a forced draught like this, the main
   reason is that in order to add fuel either the draft must be stopped or
   some form of airlock fitted. Novelty used an airlock to feed the fuel
   in, but there was still a chance of flame and hot gasses being blown
   into the face of the fireman.

   The blower was driven from the rods linking the cylinders to the
   wheels, thus the draught was proportional the speed of the engine, not
   how hard it is working as with a blastpipe. It is assumed that either
   the blower was worked by hand when the engine was standing or the drive
   wheels were lifted of the rails. Details of the blower design are not
   known for certain.

   Water was forced into the boiler using a pump driven off one of the
   cylinders (this was normal practice at the time).

Drive to the Wheels

   At this time, engineers were worried about uneven wear on pistons and
   cylinders when they were mounted horizontally, so most were mounted
   vertically, but vertical cylinders driving directly on the wheels (as
   on Sans Pareil) caused problems with poor riding and did not work well
   with the springs.
   Cylinder on replica of Novelty
   Enlarge
   Cylinder on replica of Novelty

   On Novelty, the cylinders were mounted vertically towards the rear of
   the engine (to the right of the men in the illustration). Directly
   below were bell cranks which changed the drive to horizontal.
   Connecting rods linked the bell cranks to the crank axle (the axle on
   the left in the illustration).

   The valve gear took a similar route to the drive. One effect of this
   was it had many pins and links, resulting in lost motion.

   The wheels themselves were of the suspension type (similar to a bicycle
   wheel).

   It is easy to think that Novelty is an 0-4-0 locomotive as it had equal
   sized wheels, however is actually an 0-2-2. Only the wheels under the
   firebox (those to the left on the illustration here) were driven, the
   other wheels were not connected to the drive in any way.

The First Tank Engine

   Novelty is regarded as the first tank engine as the fuel was carried in
   baskets on the footplate and water was in a well tank between the
   wheels.

   As one of the rules for the Rainhill Trials related to the weight of
   the engine without a tender, a special allowance had to be made for
   Novelty.

Performance in the Trial

   Novelty was the crowd’s favourite to win the Trials. This may be
   because it looked like a steam carriage (which people associated with
   speed and improvements in transport) or it may be because it did not
   look like a typical colliery engine of the time. In the demonstration
   runs that took place on the first day of the trials, Novelty did not
   disappoint, managing a speed around 30 mph.

   In the preparations for the trials, Novelty was shown to be very
   lightweight and very quick to raise steam.

   Novelty was the first locomotive to be tested. Starting on the second
   day of the trials, it began the planned series of runs but very quickly
   the blower failed and repairs had to be made. The repairs took up all
   of the next day however when Novelty next ran the water feed pipe burst
   and more repairs had to be made, which seem to include a seal on the
   boiler. At the time, the boilers were sealed with a cement-like
   substance which required days - if not weeks - to set properly, time
   would not allow this and the seal quickly failed once the trial runs
   were restarted.

   The recurring boiler problems prompted Ericsson and Braithwaite to
   withdraw from the Trials.

   Before it failed, the Stephensons were said to be seriously worried by
   Novelty, as it was well-suited to meet the conditions of the trial. For
   one thing the Stephensons considered the weight to be pulled to be too
   light for a practical railway.

After the Rainhill Trials

   Once all the repairs were properly complete, Novelty made a number of
   successful demonstration runs but it was too late to have any effect on
   the competition. It is sometimes claimed that one of these
   demonstration runs included the locomotive reaching a speed of 60 mph,
   but there is little to back this up and it may be a misinterpretation
   of a newspaper report trying to give an impression of the great speeds
   that the Rainhill engines were achieving.

   Two further engines were built by Ericsson and Braithwaite named
   William IV and Queen Adelaide. These were generally larger and more
   robust than Novelty and differed in a number of details (for example,
   it is thought that a different design of blower was used which was an
   ‘Induced Draught’ type, sucking the gasses from the fire). The pair ran
   trials on the Liverpool and Manchester Railway but the railway declined
   to purchase the new designs.

   Novelty was transferred to the St Helens and Runcorn Gap Railway and
   worked there for a few years. During its time there (around 1833) it
   received new cylinders and a new boiler.
   Replica that includes parts from the original Novelty
   Enlarge
   Replica that includes parts from the original Novelty

   Somehow, all the wheels and both cylinders (assumed to be the original
   one not those from the 1833 rebuild) survived.

   During 1929 the original wheels and a one cylinder were incorporated
   into a rebuilt/replica (?) locomotive. This early replica was rebuilt
   in 1988 and currently includes batteries and an electric motor to allow
   it to operate (all wheels are driven making the engine a 4wBE). The
   other cylinder is on display at Rainhill Public Library .

   No other British locomotives are known to have been built in this
   style. Comparisons are made with 20th century vertical boilered engines
   such as those by Sentinel of Shrewsbury, but in fact the principles
   were very different.

The Replica

   The Replica Novelty at the Rainhill 150 calvacade in 1980, carried on a
   well wagon.
   Enlarge
   The Replica Novelty at the Rainhill 150 calvacade in 1980, carried on a
   well wagon.

   For the Rocket 150 event in 1980, a completely new replica of Novelty
   was constructed by Locomotive Enterprise in the Springwell Workshop of
   the Bowes Railway. It was a fully working replica that was built to
   look correct when display at the planned event, however many changes
   were made to reduce the construction costs and meet modern standards.
   It has been suggested that the replica was only built to last 3 day
   (the length of the Rocket 150 event).

   Some of the differences between the original and replica are:-
     * Carbon steel used instead of Wrought Iron

          Wrought Iron was no longer commercially produced, while carbon
          steel was understood by every commercial fabricator.

     * Boiler built from welded steel instead of Copper

          A copper boiler would have been very expensive in materials and
          would have needed specialist skills while welded steel had much
          in common with industrial pressure vessels.

     * Blower built from plywood and painted copper colour

          The blower is likely to have been the subject of development
          work, plywood being much cheaper and easier to work with.
          Additionally few people would get close enough to tell the
          difference.

     * Handbrake fitted to act on both wheels

          This may have been fitted after the ‘Rocket 150’ event.

     * Boiler fitted with Gauge glass and bourdon Pressure gauge

          Requirements for any steam boiler, vital if the engine was to be
          operated safely.

     * Safety valve is ‘Pop’ type rather than ‘Dead Weight’ Safety Valve.

          Firstly the Pop Valves were a type used in industry. Secondly
          the Dead Weight type could be held down (so it would never work
          properly) and thirdly a Dead Weight valve tends to bounce and
          thus wasting steam.

     * The boiler of the replica contains approximately twice the volume
       of water

          This is mainly as a result of the construction methods used
          (flanged joints on the barrels and standard steel pipe for the
          flue tube). It is also gave bigger water spaces between the
          inside and outside plates. In consequence, the fire grate must
          have considerably smaller than on the original.

   For a reason that is not fully understood, the wheels of the replica
   were built with very narrow treads. It is possible that wheels were
   scaled off a model in the London Science Museum. As a result it was
   unable to travel over modern pointwork.

   During the Rocket 150 event, Novelty was carried on a Well wagon,
   supported in such a way as to allow the engine to be run and its wheels
   to rotate freely.

   Following the Rocket 150 event, Novelty was steamed on a small number
   of occasions in Manchester. Around 1982, it was sold to the Swedish
   Railway Museum, Gavle and left the UK.
   Replica of Novelty at Manchester, September 2005
   Enlarge
   Replica of Novelty at Manchester, September 2005

   During July 2002, Novelty was collected from its then home in the
   Angelholm, for use in a TV programme. It was returned to Sweden during
   the Spring of 2003, but made a short visit to the Museum of Science and
   Industry in Manchester during the autumn of 2005.

2002 Restaging – The Television Programme

   For the BBC TV programme ‘Timewatch – ‘Rocket and its Rivals’ the
   replica of Novelty was transported to the National Railway Museum in
   York. Here it was completely dismantled to allow examination of the
   boiler and working parts. Several items needed to be attended to before
   the locomotive could be run:-
     * Full boiler inspection for insurance purposes
     * Minor boiler repairs
     * Modifications to the wheels to allow safe operation on normal
       railways
     * Cleaning and repainting of the water tank
     * Releasing of several water valves that has seized
     * Partial repaint

   Of this work, the major item was the modification of the wheels. The
   solution adopted by the National Railway Museum Workshop was to employ
   a metal fabricator to cut four rings from 40mm thick steel plate. These
   were cut with enough precision not to need any further machining. The
   rings were then bolted to the existing wheels and were a complete
   success.

   Following re-assembly, the locomotive was steam tested at York before
   transport to Carrog station on the Llangollen Railway. Early tests
   showed up two major problems, firstly the linkage to the blower was not
   strong enough and secondly the operating the water feed pump caused
   very serious priming of the boiler. It was later shown that the feed
   pump was five times the size of that required for the engine, this and
   entrained air being fed into the horizontal boiler tube probably caused
   the priming.

   To fully recreate the Rainhill Trials, 20 return runs along a section
   of the Llangollen Railway were required (between Carrog and Glyndyfrdwy
   stations). Novelty was only able to complete 10 runs before the fire
   became completely filled with clinker. The inability to clear clinker
   from the fire in this type of boiler was a major problem, the only way
   being to drop the fire completely and start again.

   During the runs for the restaging of the trials Novelty was run with an
   electric fan (powered by a petrol generator) in place of the blower.
   Even allowing for this in the final calculation Novelty was much more
   efficient than Sans Pareil.

   For the Restaging, the replica of Novelty was too slow to meet the
   requirements of the original trials and did not complete the course.
   The maximum speed attained at any point was 17mph, possibly because the
   main steam pipe from the boiler was restricting the flow to the
   cylinders. The valve gear was also set incorrectly (indicated by the
   odd noise of the exhaust beats).

   With all the obvious differences between the original and the replica,
   added to the fact that the locomotive crew used had only four days
   experience of operating the locomotive, it cannot be said that in this
   restaging of the trial the replica of Novelty gave the performance that
   the original could have achieved if more time had been made available
   in 1829.

Other Locomotives Named Novelty

   Excluding the original and the replicas, the following locomotives have
   carried the name Novelty
     * LNWR no. 1682, built 1868, rebuilt 1892
     * LMS Royal Scot Class no. 6127, built 1927 (later renamed)
     * LMS Jubilee Class no. 5733, built 1936
     * British Rail Class 86, no. 86 235 (ex-E3194), built 1965 (later
       renamed)

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   with only minor checks and changes (see www.wikipedia.org for details
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