The Restoration of ‘Lord Nelson’
This book is dedicated to Tim Tomlins whose various steam engines have given great pleasure to Bamptonians of all ages in the past four decades.
www.bamptonarchive.org
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The Restoration of “Lord Nelson” The work of Tim and David Tomlins compiled by Jo Lewington
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Contents
Page 6.
Brief Biography of Tim Tomlins
Page 8.
A Brief History of the Steam Traction Engine
Page 10.
History of Garrett's Engineering Works
Page 12.
'The Baroness' – a Garrett Steam Engine
Page 14.
A History of the Avelyn and Porter, Engineering works
Page 16.
A History of Alchin Engineering Works
Page 18.
A History of Burrell engineering works
Page 20.
'Keeling' – a Burrell Steam Engine
Page 22.
A History of Tasker Engineering Works
Page 23.
'Jolly' – a Tasker Steam Engine
Page 24.
'Lord Nelson' – a Burrell Steam Engine. The story of the restoration of the Lord Nelson in photographs.
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TIM TOMLINS: A BRIEF BIOGRAPHY.
Tim is a man of few words, so the biographic material is not very fulsome. He was born in Burwash, a village in Sussex, north of Hastings 11 miles from the sea. A village smaller than Bampton, in an area of outstanding beauty, its most famous resident was Kipling, who wrote 'Just So Stories', 'Kim' and the poem 'If' while he lived there. Tim was born into a farming family and went to the primary school in Burwash. He hated it, (in fact he hated it so much he said so eight times); he hated being inside, he hated having to sit, he hated having to learn to read and write. He described sitting in the classroom as “torture”. He was, he said, the most truanting boy in Sussex. This was war time and he used to pray for an air raid because then the school would be closed or at least disrupted. One holiday there was a rumour that a bomb had fallen on the school and he felt jubilant, only to find that it had left only minor damage and the school was fixed ready for the new term. Did he like sports? Not really. He was a fast runner, but not a team player. Football was “crap”. He used to kick the football over the fence and then run after it - and keep running! From the age of 12, Tim only attended school from Tuesday until Thursday, working each extended weekend on the farm. This is, of course, against the rules but one does feel that his teachers might have been relieved. He left school at the earliest possible date, aged 15, and went to work on his uncle's farm, and then, after the age of 17, on other farms. Though he made a bit of money on the side, selling rabbits (and other bits and pieces), he left farming aged 21 because “there was no money in it”. He then went into the building trade, where, for 20 years, he learned how to do everything but “the electrics”. In 1964 he moved to Shrivenham and in the same year bought 'The Swan' in Bampton. The Swan, as its name suggests, was one of Bampton's many pubs. When I knew it in the 1950's Mrs Sollis was the proprietor and it had only 2 or 3 clients, one of whom was Mr. Sollis, so as a pub, it was not a good business proposition. While continuing to work as a builder, Tim started to breed parrots, “to make money”. He bred Australian rosellas and Amboina parakeets, which he hatched from eggs, and Maccaws from South America, which arrived in boxes. He stopped breeding parrots when he had enough money to buy his first steam engine and he stopped being a builder in 1986, because he “couldn't stand all the regulations”. He then constructed his greenhouses in which, until 2013, he grew mostly fuchsias of all shapes and sizes.Which of his jobs did he like best? The one with the least book-work, of course.
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Tim bought his first steam engine in 1972. Starting with a less powerful one, the aim was to get the biggest, most powerful possible. How much coal do they need? “A mine full!” depending on the quality of the coal. “'Steam coal' is the best. Nowadays the Polish and Russian coal is not such good quality.” He is not a collector; each engine was bought and restored in order to sell and buy the next, bigger one. Remember that all these restorations were made with few tools and without a large, fully equipped workshop, (“now people have specialist workshops and riveting machines”), without blueprints, and without a qualification in engineering. He also had no internet access. -“I hate computers!” They have been restored through many hours of patience, and the hard manual labour of both Tim and his son, David, (known in the steam engine world, as Willie). It also needed an understanding of the machines, an understanding which came, not from books, but from taking them apart and getting to know them. And why did he do it? “cos I wanted to.” This exhibition is a record of those steam engines restored by Tim Tomlins. We have photographs of all the steam engines and especially, we have a record of the progression of work done on Lord Nelson, the machine that still lives at The Swan. Most of these photographs are by Adrian Simmonds who has always admired Tim's work.
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A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE STEAM TRACTION ENGINE.
We may all remember from school that it was a Scotsman, James Watt, ruminating on a boiling kettle, who first thought of steam powered locomotion. In fact it was a French man, Nicolas Cugnot, a military man, who, in 1769, demonstrated the first steam engine, achieving a speed of 2 mph and running for 15 minutes. His second machine ran into a wall in the streets of Paris and lost the backers it might otherwise have had.
If we look at the brief histories of steam engineering in Britain, those families whose names came to dominate the engineering industry, were frequently blacksmiths. Blacksmiths were always close to agriculture, shoeing horses, fixing ploughs and other tools. In the 18th century the British countryside underwent a revolution in agriculture which pre-dated the industrial revolution. It was blacksmiths who were often responsible for inventions which made agriculture more efficient; the improved threshing machines and seed drills. With the awareness of steam power, this inventiveness took a new and very significant direction and the names of the modest 18th century blacksmiths became huge employers in the 19th and 20th centuries selling their machines on a world wide market. Richard Trevthick of Cornwall built the first self moving steam engine in this country, followed between 1800 and 1815, by several 'steam carriages' and a number of stationary steam engines. He was not financially successful and died in debt. Ransomes of Ipswich introduced the first traction engine as we know it in 1840 and he was followed by others who were also improving agricultural implements – Aveling, Burrell, Clayton, Fowler and Garrett. The first portable engines, usually owned by contractors, had to be pulled round the farms by horses who took them from farm to farm. They were used for threshing and sometimes, using 2 machines with a cable and winding drums, they pulled a plough from one side of a field to the other.
Road locomotives were developed to carry heavy loads on roads. Metal springs and rubber tyres helped make this possible. The development of the extra water tank (the belly tank) allowed them to travel much further. Showman's engines were a variation on these – able to carry the heavy loads required by fairground rides, they were highly decorated and colourful and could also be used to generate electricity for the rides. The road roller was another variation of the steam engine. Early ones could be as heavy as 30 tons, but with the use of tarmac in road building, lighter engines were used, 12 or 15 tons became the most favoured. 8
The engineering companies manufacturing these machines grew in size throughout the 19th century, from small workshops with a handful of employees to factories employing hundreds of workers. Any flagging of their fortunes in the early 20th century was compensated by the needs of World War I. With the arrival of the internal combustion engine, in the 20th century, these manufacturers had to adapt, amalgamate or disappear. Towards the last quarter of the 20th century, we see the decline of British industry countrywide. Not only the manufacture of the steam machinery, but of ship building, mining, weaving, paper-making and so-on. Ownership of the assets sometimes went abroad. The centres of manufacturing also went across the globe. What happened to these centres of British inventiveness and energy? The mills and workshops became quality homes, or in some cases, museums celebrating the very industries they were replacing.
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History of Garrett's Engineering Works The history of the Garrett family's involvement in engineering exactly echoes much of the history of engineering in the UK; from modest beginnings as a blacksmith, to an interest and inventiveness in agricultural machinery, to industrial growth in the Victorian age of steam, to an amalgamation with other firms in the early 20th century and the inevitable takeover by a foreign company in the 1970s. Ultimately, like so many of our historic industrial buildings, the engineering works of Garrett were turned into housing and a museum. The firm of Garrett engineering traces its origin to the arrival of Richard Garrett in Leiston, Suffolk in 1778; he married Elizabeth Newson and acquired a blacksmith's shop and a forge. Their son took over the forge in 1805 and married Sarah, daughter of John Balls of Hethersett (inventor of an improved threshing machine). The third Richard Garrett, born in 1807, was in complete charge of the business by 1836 and the following thirty years were a period of rapid expansion, the workforce increasing from 60 to over 600. Two of his sons entered the firm (which remained a family partnership until 1897, when it was incorporated as "Richard Garrett and Sons Ltd") while a third founded a similar business in Magdeburg, Germany. At its peak, the labour force numbered over 2,000 and exports of agricultural machinery were the dominant part of the business. Part of the works, including the pattern shop, were destroyed by fire in 1913 and a number of records were lost or damaged. A new works, adjoining Leiston railway station, was built later in 1913, though the original Town site continued in use. Military work carried the firm forward until 1918 but the repudiation of foreign debt by the revolutionary Russian government precipitated a financial crisis. Garretts were forced into an amalgamation with eleven other firms (including Aveling and Porter of Rochester, Davey Paxman of Colchester and Charles Burrell and Sons of Thetford) under the title of "Agricultural and General Engineers" in 1920. The new organisation, which built and operated from Aldwych House in London, never achieved its full potential due to difficult trading conditions, inter-firm rivalry, and over-diversification. After 1930, financial problems loomed ever larger and following the resignation of the Chairman of A.G.E. in 1931, a Receiver was appointed. The constituent companies were sold independently, Richard Garrett and Sons Ltd being purchased in 1932 by Beyer Peacock and Co. Ltd of Gorton, Manchester and re-named "Richard Garrett Engineering Works Ltd" - the word Works was later dropped.
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In 1976, the equity of the Beyer Peacock group was acquired by N.C.I., a construction company based in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. At that time Garretts were the largest and indeed almost the only active constituent, the Gorton works having closed in 1965. In 1980, Garretts were sold again to the Nicol Industries Group who appointed a Receiver and the firm was sold in five divisions; the Town Works had already closed in 1978. The foundry was taken over by the Henry Boot Group and part of the Station Works site was occupied by S & S Engineering Works Ltd (a subsidiary of S & S of Brooklyn), who continued to build box-making machinery until it too went into Receivership in 1985. The Works House and offices at the Town Works site have subsequently been redeveloped as housing, but a nucleus of historic buildings (including the "Long Shop" dating from 1853, where portable engines had been erected on an assembly line system) and associated artefacts were purchased by the Long Shop Museum Trust and the surviving archives were purchased by Suffolk Record Office. Both these purchases were assisted by grants from the Fund for the Preservation of Technological and Scientific Material.
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'The Baroness' This is a Garrett road roller. Date of manufacture 2/1922. Registration number BJ 7045 Engine number 34084 Weight 10 ton 5 horsepower
Made in Leiston, Suffolk.
Tim Tomlins bought The Baroness in Norfolk in 1971. It was his first steam engine. It cost him £500 because it was “in rubbish condition” but it enabled him to restore and sell and be on his way to buying the engine he really wanted.
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'Baroness' being unloaded in the Buckland Road
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AVELING AND PORTER In the early 1850s Thomas Aveling had a millwrighting business in Rochester. The business specialised in the making and repairing of agricultural machinery. Aveling, concerned himself with the improvement of agricultural machinery and by 1852 was experimenting with steam cultivation, which lead to the first steam plough in 1856. In order to bypass the use of horses needed to drag steam machines from farm to farm, he adapted the Clayton and Shuttleworth portable steam engines, by attaching a chain from the fly wheel to a cog on the rear wheel, to make the engine mobile. Later by using a device to vary the tension in the chain so that it could be disengaged, he produced a machine that could be both a stationary and a mobile vehicle. His premises were small so that his inventions were manufactured by Clayton and his own workshop concentrated on repairs and as an agent. However, Aveling continued to invent improvements. The early steam engines required a horse between the front shafts for steering, so in 1860, Aveling replaced the horse with a steering wheel. By 1861 he had enlarged his premises and was manufacturing 7½ ton engines. Needing more capital he went into partnership with Richard Porter with whom he continued to make improvements to the steam traction engine. In 1865, Aveling produced the first steam roller which was tested in Rochester, Chatham and Hyde Park. It proved to be a huge success and Aveling and Porter steam rollers were exported to Europe, India and even North America. From 1868, Aveling and Porter began to provide the military in Britain, France and Russia with 'steam sappers', machinery capable of dragging gun carriages through the rough terrain of battlefields. In 1868 the firm had invented a mobile crane, 'Little Tom' and in 1870 introduced a reverse gear. The workforce which was 440 in 1872, peaked at 1,500 in the mid 1880s. In the slump following World War I, A&P merged with 12 other engineering companies, to form Agricultural and General Engineers. This combine went into receivership in 1932 bringing A&P with it.
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THE BARON' The Baron was an Avelyn and Porter, single cylinder, 10 ton road roller. Made in Rochester in February 1921. Registration number YA 1177. Engine number 9370.
This steam engine was bought by Tim Tomlins in 1971, When it was bought, it had been abandoned and greenhouses had been built all around it so this 10 ton road roller had to be backed out carefully between the greenhouses, down a bank and onto the road. It hadn't been 'steamed up' for years but it had to be 'steamed up' to get it out. Due to neglect, it was in bad condition and cost ÂŁ500.
The Baron coming over Fisher’s Bridge 15
ALLCHIN
William Allchin founded an engineering business at the 'Globe Works 'by the River Nene in Northampton in 1847. The firm built its first steam engine in 1872. By 1890, when the founder died, the firm was well known for the manufacture of steam engines and saw benches. The firm became a limited company in 1900, calling itself William Allchin and Sons Ltd, and specialised in manufacturing steam wagons and traction engines. They stopped building steam engines by 1925 having only built some 220 over the past 50 years. The firm was not part of the grand combine called the AGE which brought so many long existing engineering firms down. But the depression which followed W W I , which greatly affected farming and related industries, saw the end of Allchin engineering.
An Allchin steam engine 'Rebel'
Tim Tomlins standing next to 'Rebel'.
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‘REBEL’ - an Allchin Steam Engine Engine number 1546. Registration number AP 7079 7 horsepower single cylinder Date of manufacture 1912 Manufactured in Northampton. Tim bought 'Rebel’ in 1973. It needed a lot of work, stripping down, sanding down metal parts, welding or riveting patches, fixing holes with welding metal, sanding down the repairs and re-painting. 'Rebel' had a problem with static accumulation which was dealt with by placing an ordinary fire poker in a strategic place to earth the build up of electricity. The 'Rebel' had a working life in Lewes before Tim bought it. It was in such bad condition that Tim had to fix on the wheels before driving it away.
Rebel on the open road pulling the live-in caravan
Rebel parked at The Swan. Note the sign for Swan Aviaries where Tim bred Parrots 17
Charles Burrell & Sons Limited Joseph Burrell founded the business in the late 1770s, like the firm of Garrett, setting up originally as a general smith and repairer of agricultural tools in Thetford, Norfolk. He produced ploughs, harrows and rakes. Early in the 19th century, with his brothers, James and William, he began designing his own patent agricultural machinery. In 1803 his 'improved drill for sowing crushed oat cake manure with wheat, turnips etc' won a silver cup at the Holkham sheep-shearing festival (a forerunner of the great agricultural shows). A small iron and brass foundry was started under James and continued at the St Nicholas foundry. One of James's sons, James junior, had a small shop and foundry, while the other son Charles inherited the family firm. Charles (grandson of the founder) was 20 when he took over in 1837, and was to see the name of Burrell become world-famous during his 69-year 'reign' to his death in 1906. Charles Burrell & Sons, steam and agricultural machinery manufacturers, were the first to introduce a practical heavy duty traction engine for use on roads. The firm produced traction engines, steam rollers and ploughing engines. More than 4,000 engines left the works during the life of the firm and many were put in countries around the world. In 1848 Burrells produced their own single cylinder (SC) portable in 1848 which they exhibited at the Royal Agricultural Show. The firm continued to manufacture other agricultural machinery, and produced the first combined threshing and finishing machine about this time. Burrell joined forces with engineer, James Boydell, to produce the first practical traction engine, a self-moving road engine for pulling loads. Boydell patented a system called the 'Endless Railway', which foreshadowed the track-laying vehicles of many years later. Demonstrations of the Burrell-Boydell traction engine at Croxton near Thetford and at Brackenborough near Louth were held in 1857 and made a very favourable impression. Several Burrell-made ploughs were drawn at a time behind the engine, which also showed its prowess in hauling loads over soft uneven ground. Burrell's reputation was now established. Orders for Burrell-Boydell engines came in from public and private sources at home and abroad - one was exported to Brazil in 1860. For a few years they enjoyed success, but the Endless Railway proved noisy and unable to stand up to the wear and tear of roadwork. Along with other firms, Burrell's looked around for new ideas, and produced the first chain-drive engine in 1862, later to be replaced by the geared engine. Thereafter a succession of improvements followed until the basic development of the traction engine was complete by the mid-1870s. Another type of engine, the road locomotive engine, was adapted for hauling large loads and travelling long distances. Its special features included a compound (two cylinder) engine, a 'belly tank' for carrying extra water, and a three-quarter length cab. Springs and solid rubber tyres were later additions. Charles Burrell took out a patent for rubber tyres protected by steel clips in 1871, the year of his first high-speed road engine. 18
Other patents representing technical improvements over the years covered further wheel refinements, clutch gearing, and Burrell's famous single crank compound (SCC) system of 1889. Frederick, Robert and Charles junior were senior partners with their father, and each contributed his own particular talent. Charles junior (1847-1929) was to take over as Chairman in 1900 from his father, who died in 1906, and like him played a prominent part in the life of the town. He was Mayor several times and his own sons also entered the firm. Frederick was a designer and craftsman; Robert was an engineer and businessman, and travelled the world. The range of Burrell products besides traction engines was extensive. They included ploughs, straw elevators and saw-benches as well as portable corn mill, beetroot distiller and brushmaking equipment. Patents were also taken out for improvements to sashwindow catches, bacon slicers and ice-cream machines among others, though not all such Burrell inventions were actually manufactured. Following on from successful Burrell marine engines, steel launches were built for a short time from 1884, and tramway engines were also supplied. The first purpose-built Showman's Road Locomotive - the type of engine for which the firm of Burrell's is most remembered - was no.1451 Monarch, in 1889. Such engines were ordered for travelling 'amusement caterers', who operated roundabouts, dodgems and other fairground rides. In fact they served the highly practical dual purpose of hauling the dismantled rides in trucks from fair to fair, and generating electricity to light and drive the rides. Burrell's made 207 showman's engines, not counting the many conversions made from road locomotives and steam tractors, which was far more than any other firm. In 1911 Burrell's built their first steam wagons, curious hybrids of lorry and traction engine, which enjoyed success for a time. During the Great War the machine shop and turnery at St. Nicholas Works produced shells for the war effort, while the boiler shop made Admiralty gun mountings. The post-war slump brought a last-ditch amalgamation of traction engine manufacturers including Burrell's. Agricultural and General Engineers Limited was formed in 1920, but the idea of a central administration from London proved a total failure. Those firms - Burrell's among them which could not adapt to the internal combustion engine were doomed. From 1928 the firm was wound down and finally closed completely in 1930, when the plant and equipment at St. Nicholas Works were auctioned. The last engine to be finished at Thetford was no.4088, a 7 nominal horse power single compound traction engine. Spares and unfinished orders were transferred to Richard Garrett & Sons of Leiston in Suffolk, where the last Burrell of all, the 8 nominal horse power. SC traction engine no.4094, was completed in 1932.
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'KEELING' 'Keeling' was the first Burrell engine that Tim onwned. It was an 8 horsepower, single cylinder machine, weighing 11½ ton. The engine number was 3121 and the registration number NO 1310.
Tim bought Keeling in Cornwall, in 1975, from a private person for £5,000. It was his fourth engine and was in a 'rough condition' Tim had no specialist tools for these restorations and the firebox and tank had to be rebuilt from scratch.
Old tank out
New tank in
‘Keeling’ at work 20
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TASKER
In 1806, Robert Tasker, son of a blacksmith in Stanton St. Bernard, Wiltshire, travelled to Abbots Ann in Hampshire to join the forge ironworks of Thomas Maslen. In 1809 he took over the business but due to being a non conformist, not a member of the Church of England, he found it hard to make his business a financial success. In 1815 he and his brother William, opened the Waterloo Ironworks in the Anna Valley. Its location near the Andover Canal, gave access to coal and iron ore, and its nearness to the Pithill brook gave it water power. The brothers joined forces with another family member George Fowle. After the opening of the London Southampton Railway the canal was closed and buried and made way for another railway line which replaced the wharfs on the canal with a series of railway sidings for the Waterloo Ironworks. In 1857 two of William Tasker's sons took over the business and had an agreement to sell and service the engines made by Clayton and Shuttleworth. In 1865 The Waterloo Ironworks made its own first steam engine and from then until 1891, it became know as a producer of bespoke steam engines, each one uniquely designed to a specific purpose. After William's third son, Henry, joined the business in the 1890's he created the first of the standardised designs, an 8 horsepower engine, called 'The Economic'. Like most engineering firms at this period, Taskers was given a boost to business during World War I, but in the slump that followed in the 1930's it went into receivership. The Waterloo Ironworks was finally closed down in 1937.
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The Tasker, called 'Jolly'. 4 horse power traction engine “horrible little bloody thing - because”, he said, “it is small and too fiddly – too temperamental” This was another job of total re-build though it had not been out of use for long - it was still used in the 1950's.
The ‘Jolly’ arriving in Bampton 23
A photographic record of the restoration of ‘Lord Nelson’ The 'Lord Nelson' is another Burrell machine. Tim was able to buy it in 1995. It is a single cylinder, 8 horsepower, road locomotive for heavy haulage. It weighs 18½ tons; registration number CO 3822; engine number 3443 and was made in February 1913 in Thetford, Norfolk.
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‘Lord Nelson' just arrived at The Swan in Bampton. The brightly coloured paint hides a lot of wear and tear which Tim is to spend 3 years putting right.
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The first job is to take the canopy off so that Lord Nelson can be worked on in the barn.
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The lagging has been removed from the tank.
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Blocks and jack to get the wheels off.
Drilling out the old rivets, to remove the old worn tyres.
Renewed wheel 28
Each piece of new tyre has to be cut and shaped to the wheel by means of clamps. It must then be riveted into place.
Tim riveting the new pieces of tyre onto the wheel. The bottle of water is to cool the rivets.
The wheel with its new tyre welded into place
The wheel, newly painted with its new tyre. 29
Lord Nelson propped up with blocks and jacks. All this is going on in a barn – no cranes and gantries and NO hard hats!
The axle has been put in crooked and has worn away, so it needs building up with weld-metal and then polished down to fit exactly in the hole.
David grinding the repaired front axle to make it fit.
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The gear guard attached to the engine.
The engine with the gear guard removed.
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Moving the gear wheels around. Each one weighs about 5 cwt.
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Tim and David manhandling the gear wheels.
The gears in place.
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The valve chest painted blue.
Grinding low pressure valve
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The tender cut open ready for removal.
The back removed from the tender.
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Tim and David fixing the new back on the tender.
Starting to rivet the new back on the tender.
The new back of the tender primed with red oxide paint.
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Tim drilling out the old rivets of the firebox.
David drilling old rivets from the old firebox.
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The old firebox is pulled out.
Taking the foundation ring off the firebox.
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The smaller holes are for the metal 'stays' which run through the firebox to give it strength.
The new firebox in place
Getting the new firebox into place. 39
Replacing the valve chest.
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Practically every part of the engine had to be either re-made or repaired, then sanded down and given a coat of anti-rust iron oxide paint.
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The eccentric straps have had a coat of paint and are hanging up to dry.
Sanding down the belly tank (which holds extra water for the boiler) before painting it. The belly tank's seam was loose and leaking so had to be re-riveted.
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The gear wheels – coming out or going in
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The old wooden lagging from around the tank had to be removed and renewed.
A new metal coat had to be fitted over the lagging.
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A crane had to be used to replace the canopy.
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Fitting the canopy
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Job done!
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BCA-14/A March 2015