Melbourne and Hobson's Bay Railway Company 2-2-2WT (1854) was the first locomotive operated after the inauguration of a public railway line in Australia. It had

diameter In geometry, a diameter of a circle is any straight line segment that passes through the center of the circle and whose endpoints lie on the circle. It can also be defined as the longest chord of the circle. Both definitions are also valid for ...

cylinders and was capable of producing , reaching and hauling . On 12 September 1854, the

Melbourne and Hobson's Bay Railway Company The Melbourne and Hobson's Bay Railway Company was a railway company in Victoria, Australia. The company was incorporated on 20 January 1853 to build the line from Melbourne to the port of Sandridge, now Port Melbourne. The proposal met ...

inaugurated the first railway line to operate in Australia using steam locomotives. The line extended from a Melbourne Terminal in Flinders Street and the beach at Sandridge (now

Port Melbourne Port Melbourne is an inner-city List of Melbourne suburbs, suburb in Melbourne, Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia, south-west of Melbourne's Melbourne central business district, Central Business District, located within the Cities of ...

). Four locomotives had been ordered from

Robert Stephenson and Company Robert Stephenson and Company was a locomotive manufacturing company founded in 1823 in Forth Street, Newcastle upon Tyne in England. It was the first company in the world created specifically to build railway engines. Famous early locomoti ...

Newcastle upon Tyne Newcastle upon Tyne ( RP: , ), or simply Newcastle, is a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England. The city is located on the River Tyne's northern bank and forms the largest part of the Tyneside built-up area. Newcastle is ...

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 ...

, but manufacturing delays made it likely that the railway would be without a locomotive when it opened. The company therefore took the bold step of tasking the Melbourne foundry company

Robertson, Martin & Smith Robertson, Martin and Smith was an engineering firm in Melbourne in the second half of the nineteenth century. The company manufactured the first steam locomotive to be built in Australia. Robertson, Martin and Smith comprised a partnership of W ...

, which had never produced one, to construct within 10 weeks a 2-2-2 well-tank locomotive to the design of the railway's chief engineer. The builders achieved the deadline with three days to spare. Robertson, Martin & Smith constructed the locomotive at Joseph Raleigh's disused

boiling down Boiling down was the term used in Australia for the process of rendering the fat from animal carcasses to produce tallow. It was a common activity on farms and pastoral properties to produce tallow to be made into soap and candles for domestic us ...

works on the Saltwater River (now

Maribyrnong River The Maribyrnong River is a perennial river of the Port Phillip catchment, located in the northwestern suburbs of Melbourne, in the Australian state of Victoria (Australia), Victoria. Course The Maribyrnong River draws its headwaters from near ...

) near Footscray, with boiler fabrication being subcontracted to

Langlands foundry Langlands foundry was Melbourne's first foundry and iron shipbuilder (1842–97). It was established in 1842 (only 8 years after the founding of the colony) by two Scottish immigrants, Robert Langlands (son of John Langlands, baker, of Dundee) and ...

. The locomotive's total cost was £2700. Following its trials starting on 9 September 1854, the locomotive hauled the inaugural passenger train at the official opening on 12 September 1854. It continued to do so for three months before the Stephenson locomotives went into service. Its operation was interrupted by down-time on three occasions while broken crank-axles were repaired. During those periods the 0-4-0 locomotive that had hauled

ballast Ballast is material that is used to provide stability to a vehicle or structure. Ballast, other than cargo, may be placed in a vehicle, often a ship or the gondola of a balloon or airship, to provide stability. A compartment within a boat, ship, ...

wagons during the railway's construction was utilised. However, on 1 December services were ended "until further notice" for an unknown period. It is not known when the locomotive was taken out of service and scrapped.

Notes

References

Further reading