1833 Bagworth: The introduction of the first whistles?

1833 Bagwor th: the introduction of the first whistles? Chapter 2

According to some accounts, an engine colliding with a horse and cart led to the introduction of one of the most distinctive features of a steam locomotive – its whistle! It is astonishing that Stephenson’s Rocket, despite its many mechanical innovations, did not have brakes when Liverpool MP William Huskisson was killed in 1830. Neither did early locomotives have warning whistles. Five locomotives were built by Robert Stephenson & Co. for the Liverpool and Manchester Railway. The first was 0-4-0 Comet, its first trip being on the opening day in 1830, when its 13ft-high chimney was said to have been knocked down by Glenfield Tunnel. The second engine, Phoenix, was delivered in 1832 and sold in 1835 for use on the construction of the London & Birmingham Railway. The next were Samson and Goliath, delivered in 1833. They were initially 0-4-0s, but were extremely unstable and a pair of trailing wheels was added. This 0-4-2 formation was also used for the fifth engine, Hercules. These were the first six-wheeled goods engines with inside cylinders and, after the flanges were taken off the centre pair of wheels, were so satisfactory, that Robert Stephenson never built another four-wheeled engine. It is said that Samson collided with either a horse and cart or a herd of cows at Thornton level crossing near Bagworth on its way to Leicester market with a trainload of butter and eggs. Although no one was injured, the incident was considered serious. Although Samson had a horn, which was sounded by driver Weatherburn, it was not loud enough, and the company manager, Ashlin Bagster, suggested that a horn or whistle that could be activated by steam should be constructed and fixed to the locomotives. George Stephenson invented and patented a ‘steam trumpet’ for use on the line after calling a meeting of the railway’s directors. A copy of the trumpet drawing signed May 1833 shows a device about 18in high with an ever-widening trumpet shape with a 6in diameter at its top or mouth. He visited a musical instrument maker in Leicester’s Duke Street and instructed him to build the trumpet, which was tested in his presence 10 days later. Stephenson mounted the trumpet on the top of the boiler’s steam dome, which delivered dry steam to the cylinders. The company went on to mount the device on its other engines. The idea caught on very rapidly, although steam whistles soon replaced locomotive steam trumpets. However, author C.R. Clinker has cast doubt on the accuracy of this story, or indeed whether it happened at all. In his account of the Leicester & Swannington Railway, he stated that while minutes of directors’ meetings recorded some trivial accidents, there was no mention of this particular accident, nor of any records of payments made for claims for damages or to a ‘musical instrument maker’. Trade directories of Leicester for the time do not include an instrument maker in Duke Street.