Alfred Luther Beattie (1852 – 2 May 1920), typically referred to as A. L. Beattie, was a pioneering locomotive engineer. Born in

Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ; abbreviated Yorks), formally known as the County of York, is a Historic counties of England, historic county in northern England and by far the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its large area in comparison with other Eng ...

, England,The Rock, September 2010 http://www.stpeterscaversham.org.nz/The%20Rock/1009.pdf he gained fame as the Chief Mechanical Engineer of the

New Zealand Railways Department The New Zealand Railways Department, NZR or NZGR (New Zealand Government Railways) and often known as the "Railways", was a government department charged with owning and maintaining New Zealand's railway infrastructure and operating the railway ...

(NZR) between 1900 and 1913. During this time, Beattie designed the Q class, the first

4-6-2 Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, represents the wheel arrangement of four leading wheels on two axles, six powered and coupled driving wheels on three axles and two trailing wheels on one axle. The locomotiv ...

steam locomotive A steam locomotive is a locomotive that provides the force to move itself and other vehicles by means of the expansion of steam. It is fuelled by burning combustible material (usually coal, oil or, rarely, wood) to heat water in the locomot ...

class in the world, and he was also one of the earliest people to use other

wheel arrangement In rail transport, a wheel arrangement or wheel configuration is a system of classifying the way in which wheels are distributed under a locomotive. Several notations exist to describe the wheel assemblies of a locomotive by type, position, and c ...

Early life

Born in 1852, his birth was registered in Hunslet as Alfred Luther Betty. He arrived in

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

Port Chalmers Port Chalmers is a town serving as the main port of the city of Dunedin, New Zealand. Port Chalmers lies ten kilometres inside Otago Harbour, some 15 kilometres northeast of Dunedin's city centre. History Early Māori settlement The origi ...

in 1876, when he joined NZR. In February 1897, Beattie was given the position of Locomotive Engineer at

Addington Workshops The Addington Railway Workshops was a major railway workshops established in the Christchurch suburb of Addington in 1877 by the Public Works Department, and transferred in 1880 to the newly-formed New Zealand Railways Department (NZR). The wor ...

Christchurch Christchurch ( ; mi, Ōtautahi) is the largest city in the South Island of New Zealand and the seat of the Canterbury Region. Christchurch lies on the South Island's east coast, just north of Banks Peninsula on Pegasus Bay. The Avon River / ...

.McGavin, ''Steam Locomotives of New Zealand'', pg. 53. Unlike in some countries, where "locomotive engineer" is the title of regular

train drivers A train driver, engine driver, engineman or locomotive driver, commonly known as an engineer or railroad engineer in the United States and Canada, and also as a locomotive handler, locomotive operator, train operator, or motorman, is a pers ...

, the title in New Zealand then referred to a specific position that oversaw the design and construction of new

s and the maintenance and enhancement of existing locomotives.

Career as Engineer

In April 1900, the Chief Mechanical Engineer, Thomas Forth Rotheram, left NZR to work for the

Western Australian Government Railways Western Australian Government Railways (WAGR) was the operator of railway services in the state of Western Australia between October 1890 and June 2003. Owned by the state government, it was renamed a number of times to reflect extra responsi ...

and was succeeded by Beattie. When Beattie was appointed to the position, the title was "Locomotive Superintendent", but it was restyled as Chief Mechanical Engineer early in his term, between July 1901 and April 1902. During his time in the role, Beattie designed a number of innovative and original locomotives. He retired after holding the position for 13 years and was succeeded by Henry Hughlings Jackson on 13 October 1913.

The Q class

Beattie was almost instantly faced with a problem upon appointment as Chief Mechanical Engineer: New Zealand's railway network was expanding, traffic volumes were growing, faster speeds were required, and accordingly, a more powerful type of locomotive was required.History of Technical Innovation in New Zealand – The Steam Railways
/ref> Furthermore, although this new class was to haul the heaviest and fastest expresses, it was to burn low grade

lignite Lignite, often referred to as brown coal, is a soft, brown, combustible, sedimentary rock formed from naturally compressed peat. It has a carbon content around 25–35%, and is considered the lowest rank of coal due to its relatively low heat ...

coal from

Canterbury Canterbury (, ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and UNESCO World Heritage Site, situated in the heart of the City of Canterbury local government district of Kent, England. It lies on the River Stour, Kent, River Stour. ...

and

Otago Otago (, ; mi, Ōtākou ) is a region of New Zealand located in the southern half of the South Island administered by the Otago Regional Council. It has an area of approximately , making it the country's second largest local government reg ...

Baldwin Locomotive Works The Baldwin Locomotive Works (BLW) was an American manufacturer of railroad locomotives from 1825 to 1951. Originally located in Philadelphia, it moved to nearby Eddystone, Pennsylvania, in the early 20th century. The company was for decades t ...

recommended a

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design to solve the problem, but Beattie conceived the idea of an enhanced

4-6-0 A 4-6-0 steam locomotive, under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives by wheel arrangement, has four leading wheels on two axles in a leading bogie and six powered and coupled driving wheels on three axles with the abse ...

U^B class locomotive with a two-wheel trailing

truck A truck or lorry is a motor vehicle designed to transport cargo, carry specialized payloads, or perform other utilitarian work. Trucks vary greatly in size, power, and configuration, but the vast majority feature body-on-frame construction ...

to support a wide

Wootten firebox The Wootten firebox is a type of firebox used on steam locomotives. The firebox was very wide to allow combustion of anthracite waste, known as " culm". Its size necessitated unusual placement of the crew, examples being camelback locomotives. The ...

. This created a 4-6-2

under

Whyte notation Whyte notation is a classification method for steam locomotives, and some internal combustion locomotives and electric locomotives, by wheel arrangement. It was devised by Frederick Methvan Whyte, and came into use in the early twentieth ce ...

, and an order was placed with Baldwin for thirteen locomotives to Beattie's specifications in 1901. These locomotives became the Q class, and the first entered service on 24 December 1901 after being shipped across the Pacific Ocean. This voyage led to the 4-6-2 arrangement being nicknamed the ''Pacific'' type, and it became a popular arrangement worldwide.

The A class

Described as the "triumph of Beattie's term in office", the A class was designed in 1905 for service on the

Main South Line The Main South Line, sometimes referred to as part of the South Island Main Trunk Railway, is a railway line that runs north and south from Lyttelton in New Zealand through Christchurch and along the east coast of the South Island to Inverca ...

and the nearly-complete

North Island Main Trunk Railway The North Island Main Trunk (NIMT) is the main railway line in the North Island of New Zealand, connecting the capital city Wellington with the country's largest city, Auckland. The line is long, built to the New Zealand rail gauge of and ser ...

. It was a further development of the Q class and earlier

designs such as the U class, seeking to rectify faults with those designs and improve efficiency and hauling power. Beattie created the initial design before passing it on to Chief Draughtsman G. A. Pearson to complete, and when the first members of the A class entered service in 1906, they were considered to be the country's most handsome locomotives.

The X class

After pioneering the Pacific wheel arrangement, Beattie went on to pioneer the

4-8-2 Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, represents the wheel arrangement of four leading wheels, eight powered and coupled driving wheels and two trailing wheels. This type of steam locomotive is commonly known as t ...

''Mountain'' type. The A class locomotives were not sufficiently powerful to tackle the steep grades on the North Island Main Trunk, and Beattie's solution was the 4-8-2 X class. Designed in 1908 for the opening of the Trunk, the first of eighteen Xs entered service on 9 January 1909, and they were some of the largest and most powerful locomotives in New Zealand.

Other locomotives

Beattie introduced a number of other classes during his term, though none so notable as the A, Q and X classes. These included

tank locomotive A tank locomotive or tank engine is a steam locomotive that carries its water in one or more on-board water tanks, instead of a more traditional tender. Most tank engines also have bunkers (or fuel tanks) to hold fuel; in a tender-tank locom ...

s such as 1903's W^F class, 1910's W^G class, and 1913's W^W class.Leitch, ''Railways of New Zealand'', pp. 170 and 172. Beattie was also one of, if not the, first to employ the

4-6-4 Under the Whyte notation for the classification of locomotives, represents the wheel arrangement of four leading wheels, six powered and coupled driving wheels and four trailing wheels. In France where the type was first used, it is known as t ...

T arrangement – the 1902 conversions of three B class locomotives into the W^E class and the W^G and W^W are some of the earliest examples in the world of the 4-6-4T arrangement.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Beattie, A. L. Locomotive builders and designers New Zealand people in rail transport 1852 births 1920 deaths 19th-century New Zealand engineers 20th-century New Zealand engineers