Isaac Dodds and Son was a locomotive manufacturer based in the Holmes district of

Rotherham Rotherham () is a large minster and market town in South Yorkshire, England. The town takes its name from the River Rother which then merges with the River Don. The River Don then flows through the town centre. It is the main settlement of ...

South Yorkshire South Yorkshire is a ceremonial and metropolitan county in the Yorkshire and Humber Region of England. The county has four council areas which are the cities of Doncaster and Sheffield as well as the boroughs of Barnsley and Rotherham. In N ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. Isaac Dodds took over part of the works of Samuel Walker and Company in Rotherham sometime while he was Superintendent of the

Sheffield and Rotherham Railway The Sheffield and Rotherham Railway was a railway line in England, between the named places. The North Midland Railway was being promoted but its route was planned to go through Rotherham and by-pass Sheffield, so the S&RR was built as a connecti ...

. It is likely, therefore, that he used it to maintain the company's locomotives, or even build new ones. There, however, seems to be no record.

History

Isaac Dodds was born on 9 July 1801 at Felling Hall,

County Durham County Durham ( ), officially simply Durham,UK General Acts 1997 c. 23Lieutenancies Act 1997 Schedule 1(3). From legislation.gov.uk, retrieved 6 April 2022. is a ceremonial county in North East England.North East Assembly �About North East E ...

. His father Thomas was manager of the Felling Colliery and died when Isaac was four at the

Hebburn Hebburn is a town in the metropolitan county of Tyne and Wear, England. It governed under the borough of South Tyneside; formerly governed under the county of Durham until 1974 with its own urban district from 1894 until 1974. It is on the south ...

Colliery. The local parish clerk, Willie Woolhave, contributed greatly to his schooling with Isaac showing aptitude for mathematics and drawing. About 1813 aged 12 Isaac was apprenticed as a mining engineer by his uncle Ralph Dodds and

Killingworth Killingworth, formerly Killingworth Township, is a town in North Tyneside, England. Killingworth was built as a planned town in the 1960s, next to Killingworth Village, which existed for centuries before the Township. Other nearby towns and ...

Colliery. When

George Stephenson George Stephenson (9 June 1781 – 12 August 1848) was a British civil engineer and mechanical engineer. Renowned as the "Father of Railways", Stephenson was considered by the Victorians a great example of diligent application and thirst for ...

joined Killingworth around 1815 and joint patented a Steam engine with Ralph it appears young Isaac built a model of said engine and his use of

coupling rod A coupling rod or side rod connects the driving wheels of a locomotive. Steam locomotives in particular usually have them, but some diesel and electric locomotives, especially older ones and shunters, also have them. The coupling rods transfer t ...

s rather than

gears A gear is a rotating circular machine part having cut teeth or, in the case of a cogwheel or gearwheel, inserted teeth (called ''cogs''), which mesh with another (compatible) toothed part to transmit (convert) torque and speed. The basic p ...

was adopted by Ralph and George for their engine. In 1832 Isaac Dodds started duties with the Horsley Iron Company, with his winning design resulting in the 1833 locomotive ''Star''. He retired from the Ironworks in 1836 when an accident there caused him to lose his right eye. Isaac Dodds set up the Holmes Engine and Railway Works by buying the candle and soap factory of Messrs. Dodd and Layton.

Locomotives

The first locomotive known about is an

0-4-2 Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, represents the wheel arrangement with no leading wheels, four powered and coupled driving wheels on two axles and two trailing wheels on one axle. While the first locomotiv ...

named ''Fitzwilliam'' in 1849 for the

South Yorkshire Railway The South Yorkshire Railway was a railway company with lines in the West Riding of Yorkshire, England. Initially promoted as the South Yorkshire Coal Railway in 1845, the railway was enabled by an act of 1847 as the South Yorkshire Doncaster and ...

. The firm produced around seventy locomotives in all. One, a

2-4-0 Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, represents the wheel arrangement of two leading wheels on one axle, four powered and coupled driving wheels on two axles and no trailing wheels. The notation 2-4-0T indi ...

named ''Ysabel'' was tried out on the

Lickey Incline The Lickey Incline, south of Birmingham, is the steepest sustained main-line railway incline in Great Britain. The climb is a gradient of 1 in 37.7 (2.65% or 26.5‰ or 1.52°) for a continuous distance of two miles (3.2 km). Constructed ...

in 1853, with some success, though none appear to have been ordered. The largest order would seem to be twelve 2-4-0 locomotives for the Isabel II Railway,

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, in 1856. For whatever reason, these were not paid for, which could hardly have been good for the company's finances.

Liquidation

In 1866, the company quoted for the

London, Brighton and South Coast Railway The London, Brighton and South Coast Railway (LB&SCR; known also as the Brighton line, the Brighton Railway or the Brighton) was a railway company in the United Kingdom from 1846 to 1922. Its territory formed a rough triangle, with London at its ...

and received an order for two. The required delivery time of three months could not be met and by 1867 the firm was in liquidation. Though the order had been cancelled, work had already started and the two engines were completed for the LB&SCR by the official receiver, and they finally ran in 1871.

Innovations

Dodds was known for his patented wedge

valve gear The valve gear of a steam engine is the mechanism that operates the inlet and exhaust valves to admit steam into the cylinder and allow exhaust steam to escape, respectively, at the correct points in the cycle. It can also serve as a reversing g ...

. In 1839 Isaac Dodds was the first to fix the boiler at the smokebox end only which allowed for boiler expansion.

Notes

References

* Franks, D.L., ''The South Yorkshire Railway'' (Photograph and details of "Fitzwilliam") * * {{Refend

Dodds The Department of Defense Dependents Schools (DoDDS) are a network of schools, both primary and secondary, that serve the dependant, dependents of United States military and civilian United States Department of Defense (DoD) personnel in three ar ...

Companies based in Rotherham Defunct companies based in Yorkshire