The Engines of the Garstang and Knot End Railway

by N Thompson and M A Cook

1. "Hebe" 1869-1872

The Garstang and Knot End Railway operated as a separate entity for some fifty-three years before its amalgamation with the London, Midland and Scottish Railway in 1923. Throughout this period, the Railway had a chequered career with periods of comparative success and prosperity and others of decline and near insolvency. Various episodes in the history of the Company reflect these changes, none more so than the events surrounding the purchase, operation and 'disposal' of the Company's first locomotive "Hebe".

On 3 July 1869, MI A S Hamand (the agent for Galbraith and Tolme, the consulting engineers for the Garstang and Knot End Railway) was authorised by the Directors to make arrangements for the purchase of locomotives for the sum of £1,500 or less with the terms of purchase to be reported to the Directors before final acceptance. Mr Hamand entered into negotiations with Messrs Black, Hawthorne & Stephenson of Gateshead. On 6 August 1869, he reported back to the Directors that he had successfully negotiated with that Company for the purchase of an engine. The Directors instructed him to conclude the purchase for the sum of £1,360, payments of £340 to be made at three, six, nine and twelve months from the date of delivery.

The engine was delivered in June 1870 and was named "Hebe" (Hebe was the Greek goddess of youth). There may be a reason for the choice of name by the Railway Company for their first engine but as yet we have been unable to find one. "Hebe" was an 0-4-2 saddle tank, Works No 118, weight 16 tons approximately, with a working boiler pressure of 140 psi. Her water tank capacity was 400 gallons and bunker capacity 3/4 ton. The engine is believed to have been painted green with yellow lining. The Preston Chronicle of 9 July 1870 reported that the engine belonging to the Company had been and still was transporting coal, lime, minerals, etc from Garstang Station to Stakepool, Pilling and various villages along the line. This was some four months prior to the Board of Trade's final inspection and approval of the line on 30 November 1870.

The first quarterly payment of £340 on the engine was paid in July 1870 by the contractors Messrs Noble & Addie and on 13 August the Common Seal of the Company was affixed to Lloyds Bond No 19a for £340 in favour of the Contractors on that account. At a further meeting of the Directors of the Railway Company on 27 October 1870, it was resolved to pay the Contractors the sum of £90, due from Mr Bush for the use of the engine and all the receipts for traffic, the Contractors paying for the expenses incurred in the working of the engine and also the wear and tear at a rate of 2% per annum until the line was passed by the Board of Trade. This move illustrates the poor financial position that the Railway Company appeared to be in at this time in that it was charging the Contractors for the use of the engine even though they had paid the first quarterly instalment in the first place and been covered only by a Banker's Bond from the Company.

The finances of the Company had always been rather shaky. Four years before, work on the line's construction had ceased for some two years due to the collapse of the railway's shares on the Stock Market and the original contractor, Wheatly Kirk of Manchester, had gone bankrupt as a consequence. Three directors of the company had then formed a new Company (Noble, Allen & Addie) to complete the line but the money for this completion had not been forthcoming from the shareholders, many of whom were in arrears with their calls.

By the Autumn of 1870, the line was completed from Garstang to Stakepool, Pilling but only through much cost-cutting and the purchase of second-hand sleepers and rails. This meant that the old method of laying longitudinal sleepers under the rails was used in preference to the more modern bridge section lines. In future years, this was to lead to a great deal of expense and maintenance problems for the Company.

On 7 December 1870, the second instalment of £350 for the purchase of "Hebe" became due to the builders. As the finances of the Company were in such a poor state, the Directors agreed to stand this amount out of their own pockets until such time as the Company had sufficient funds to repay them. A week later, on 14 December 1870, the first official passenger train ran. The original service was for six trains a day with the one engine working over a sixteen hour period. No trains were run on Sundays in order that basic maintenance could be carried out on the engine.

Things did not appear to improve despite the receipt of revenue from passengers. When the time came to pay the third instalment on the engine in March 1871, the Company's accounts showed a balance of only £19 and with a bill of £680 owing on the engine, it would appear that the Directors were not prepared to dig into their pockets once more. On 23 March 1871 the Secretary was requested to write to Mr Thompson, Chairman of the Garstang Rolling Stock Company (formed in 1870 in order to buy all the rolling stock etc for the railway as the Railway Company had had insufficient funds to buy their own), asking if that Company would buy "Hebe" for £700 and then let it back to the Railway Company on deferred payments on the same terms as those operating on the carriages etc.

On 28 April 1871, Major Mounsey, one of the Directors, was instructed to see Messrs Black, Hawthorne & Stephenson with reference to their bill due on the engine. Major Mounsey reported back on 6 May with regard to his meeting with the engine builders. It appears that they had recommended that the Company should try and secure a loan from the British Wagon Company against the engine. Major Mounsey reported that he had written to that Company asking if they would purchase the engine on deferred payments. The reply from the British Wagon Company was read out at the meeting, offering to put the engine on deferred payments over seven years of £32 5s 0d a quarter (a total payment of £903). The Secretary was instructed to reply accepting the offer and to inform Messrs Black, Hawthorne & Stephenson of the arrangement. For some obscure reason, the loan deal fell through and on 29 May the Secretary wrote to the engine builders stating that the Company hoped that they would not take proceedings against them until they had heard the results of the negotiations they were now undertaking for an advance on the engine.

These new negotiations were between Walter Mayhew, a shareholder in the Railway Company, and the Directors over the possibility of his making a loan of £680 to cover the out- standing debt on the engine. His offer of a loan of £667 7s 0d was accepted by the Company. The remaining £12 13s 0d of the outstanding debt being made up from money owed to the Company by a Mr Coulthard. On 18 June 1871, a cheque was forwarded to Black, Hawthorne and Stephenson for the outstanding amount whilst, on the same day, an agreement of hire, for the engine, with the option to purchase, was signed by the Company with Mr Mayhew. This agreement was to have serious consequences for the Company within ten months of its being signed.

Problems over "Hebe" continued into 1872 when, in January, three boiler tubes burst in the engine's boiler, luckily with no loss of life to any of the staff. New tubes were ordered from Black, Hawthorne & Stephenson and were duly delivered and fitted. On 26 January, the Secretary was instructed to write to the makers for an invoice for the tubes. He was also asked to contact Mr Longbottom, the London and North Western Railway Company's Locomotive Superintendent, to arrange for monthly boiler inspections to be carried out on "Hebe" and also to see if Mr Longbottom could purchase a Gutta Percha hose- pipe or one that he could recommend in order to wash out the engine's boiler. (It would appear that when the engine was purchased, no-one had told the Company that the boiler would require regular washing out and subsequently after two years' use the boiler was in a poor state of repair.) The Secretary was also requested to write to Messrs Fairburns of Manchester for the purchase of a further nine boiler tubes. It is presumed that the original engine makers had no wish to have any further dealings with the Garstang & Knot End in the light of past experience.

From 1 March 1872 until 30 March 1872 it appears that, because of the state of the engine's boiler, the traffic on the line all but stopped. Various people were contacted for tenders for the repair of the boiler and the tender of a Mr Topping was accepted on 2 March. As with many previous agreements, this also fell through and on 30 March Mr Coulthard was requested to get the engine repaired. For what next took place, we must return to the agreement made by the Company with Walter Mayhew on 18 June 1871. Mr Mayhew had, by this time, begun to have doubts about what was happening to his engine. Thus, when the creditors of Messrs Noble & Allen, the Railway's Contractors, declared them bankrupt on 23 March 1872, Mr Mayhew took the necessary steps to have his engine repossessed. So it was that, sometime during April 1872, whilst "Hebe" was supposed to be away for repairs, the engine was repossessed by its rightful owner, never to return to the tracks of the Garstang and Knot End Railway.

Material for this article has been taken from the following sources:-

The Minute Books of the Garstang and Knot End Railway Company, 1868-1900.
(Now in the possession of British Rail.)

News items from, The Fleetwood Express, The Preston Chronicle, The Lancaster Observer,
1869-1872.
(Deposited at the Lancashire County Library.)

The authors wish to thank the two bodies named above for allowing them access to these sources.