Agenoria (locomotive)
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The ''Agenoria'' was an early steam locomotive built by the Foster, Rastrick and Co partnership of Stourbridge, England. It first ran on 2 June 1829 along the Kingswinsford Railway which was a line linking mines in the Shut End area of the Black Country with a canal basin at Ashwood on the
Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal The Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal is a navigable narrow canal in Staffordshire and Worcestershire in the English Midlands. It is long, linking the River Severn at Stourport in Worcestershire with the Trent and Mersey Canal at Haywoo ...
. It was withdrawn from service around 1864 and was donated to the
Science Museum (London) The Science Museum is a major museum on Exhibition Road in South Kensington, London. It was founded in 1857 and is one of the city's major tourist attractions, attracting 3.3 million visitors annually in 2019. Like other publicly funded ...
in December 1884. It is now on display at the
National Railway Museum The National Railway Museum is a museum in York forming part of the Science Museum Group. The museum tells the story of rail transport in Britain and its impact on society. It is the home of the national collection of historically significant r ...
in
York York is a cathedral city with Roman origins, sited at the confluence of the rivers Ouse and Foss in North Yorkshire, England. It is the historic county town of Yorkshire. The city has many historic buildings and other structures, such as a ...
.


Historical background

In 1823, James Foster, who controlled the firm
John Bradley & Co John Bradley & Co was a company established in 1800 by John Bradley (ironmaster), John Bradley at Stourbridge in the West Midlands (region), West Midlands area of England. The company developed into a large industrial concern with Metallurgical furn ...
., took a lease of land at Shut End,
Kingswinford Kingswinford is a town of the Metropolitan Borough of Dudley in the English West Midlands, situated west-southwest of central Dudley. In 2011 the area had a population of 25,191, down from 25,808 at the 2001 Census. The current economic focus ...
from J.H.H. Foley with the aim of exploiting the rich mineral deposits there and building an ironworks. In 1825, Foster wrote to local land owner John William Ward, the 4th Viscount Dudley and Ward proposing to build a railway to transport minerals from both Foster's and Lord Dudley's lands. In 1827 an agreement to construct a rail line to link the Shut End area to a purpose-built canal basin at Ashwood on the
Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal The Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal is a navigable narrow canal in Staffordshire and Worcestershire in the English Midlands. It is long, linking the River Severn at Stourport in Worcestershire with the Trent and Mersey Canal at Haywoo ...
was signed by James Foster and Francis Downing, the mineral agent of Dudley Estate. The locomotive that ran on this line ''Agenoria'' was constructed by
Foster, Rastrick and Company Foster, Rastrick and Company was one of the pioneering steam locomotive manufacturing companies of England. It was based in Stourbridge, Worcestershire, now West Midlands. James Foster, an ironmaster, and John Urpeth Rastrick, an engineer, beca ...
which was a partnership between James Foster and the engineer
John Urpeth Rastrick John Urpeth Rastrick (26 January 1780 – 1 November 1856) was one of the first English steam locomotive builders. In partnership with James Foster, he formed Foster, Rastrick and Company, the locomotive construction company that built the '' ...
. The name ''Agenoria'' was taken from a Roman goddess who was supposedly the "Goddess of Industry".


Design and construction

The locomotive was constructed at the New Foundry, Stourbridge, which was situated on the other side of the river Stour from John Bradley & Co's Stourbridge Ironworks. The works, which were designed and constructed by
John Urpeth Rastrick John Urpeth Rastrick (26 January 1780 – 1 November 1856) was one of the first English steam locomotive builders. In partnership with James Foster, he formed Foster, Rastrick and Company, the locomotive construction company that built the '' ...
, were connected to the Stourbridge canal by a tramway. Although the designer Rastrick had many years experience of steam engine construction and railway engineering, the only locomotive he had built before was the ''
Catch Me Who Can ''Catch Me Who Can'' was the fourth and last steam locomotive, steam railway locomotive created by the inventor and mining engineer Richard Trevithick. It was an evolution of three earlier locomotives which had been built for Coalbrookdale, Pe ...
'', designed by
Richard Trevithick Richard Trevithick (13 April 1771 – 22 April 1833) was a British inventor and mining engineer. The son of a mining captain, and born in the mining heartland of Cornwall, Trevithick was immersed in mining and engineering from an early age. He w ...
. An article in ''The Engineer'' from 1890 points out the similarities between the design adopted for ''Agenoria'' and that of the celebrated ''Puffing Billy'' of 1813–14. The locomotive, tender and water weighed around 11 tons according to an exhibition catalogue of 1884. It had four coupled wheels of 4 ft in diameter and two cylinders of 8.5 inches diameter by 36 inches stroke. The cylinders acted through grasshopper beams, generally an unusual feature, but used on all of Foster, Rastrick's locomotives. ''Agenoria'' was probably the first locomotive to use mechanical lubrication for its axles. The
flued boiler A shell or flued boiler is an early and relatively simple form of boiler used to make steam, usually for the purpose of driving a steam engine. The design marked a transitional stage in boiler development, between the early haystack boilers and t ...
was 10 feet in length and four feet diameter. The grate was contained in a furnace tube of 29 inches diameter, which branched into 2 flues which were each of diameter. The locomotive featured an extremely tall chimney of height . The boiler had two
safety valve A safety valve is a valve that acts as a fail-safe. An example of safety valve is a pressure relief valve (PRV), which automatically releases a substance from a boiler, pressure vessel, or other system, when the pressure or temperature exceeds ...
s, one of which was inaccessible to the enginemen. An unusual feature of the locomotive are the balance weights in the driving wheels, which also act as decorative nameplates. According to '' The Engineer'' of 1890:
The ''Agenoria'' has upright cylinders working half-beams, thus reducing the stroke of the pistons to the cranks. The cylinders are in diameter, with a stroke of 3 ft. There is a parallel motion to the piston-rod, and the feed pump is worked from one of the half-beams. The fire is within a large tubular boiler, branching into two tubes, with the chimney at the end of the boiler, the barrel of which is 10 ft long and 4 ft diameter. The excentrics for driving the slides are loose on the axle, with a clutch to drive either way, and there is hand gear to the valves to cause the axle to turn half round to bring the right clutch into action. The exhaust steam is discharged into the chimney, but it does not necessarily follow that it acted as a steam blast. Indeed, the great height given to the chimney can have no other object than to create the required draught. The driving wheels are 4 ft in diameter, and there are coupling rods to the front wheels, which are provided with springs.
Foster, Rastrick and Company only produced four locomotives, of which three were exported to the USA. These included their best known locomotive, and the first in the US, the ''
Stourbridge Lion The ''Stourbridge Lion'' was a railroad steam locomotive. It was the first foreign built locomotive to be operated in the United States, and one of the first locomotives to operate outside Britain. It takes its name from the lion's face painted ...
''.


Operation

The railway opened on 2 June 1829, the opening being described in ''
Aris's Birmingham Gazette The ''Birmingham Gazette'', known for much of its existence as ''Aris's Birmingham Gazette'', was a newspaper that was published and circulated in Birmingham, England, from the eighteenth to the twentieth centuries. Founded as a weekly publicatio ...
''. The track, of standard gauge, was around in length but featured two inclined planes that were too steep for the ''Agenoria'' to climb so the locomotive worked about two miles of near-level track. On the opening day, which according to Aris's ''Gazette'', took place "amidst an immense concourse of spectators from the surrounding country", the locomotive first pulled eight carriages filled with 360 passengers along the level section at a rate of . For its next demonstration it was attached to twenty carriages, twelve of which carried coal whilst eight carried passengers. For this test it travelled at . For its final test of the day it ran for a mile with just the tender attached carrying 20 passengers when it achieved a speed of at half power. ''Agenoria'' had a long working life, being withdrawn from service in . It was housed at an engine shed near an incline that lead to Foster's Shut End industries. At a Parliamentary enquiry Rastrick described the working of the railway and stated that, after loaded wagons had descended an inclined plane, "a Locomotive then takes them , when another plane takes them to the bottom: the engine runs at a rate of , which is above its power, but is seldom out of order". Although it is not known when ''Agenoria'' finished its working life, a letter from the mineral agent of the Dudley Estate to James Foster's successor at John Bradley & Co, William Orme Foster, implied that the locomotive was not running on the line in April 1864 although it is not clear whether it was a temporary or permanent stoppage. Shortly afterwards, W.O. Foster's agent wrote back agreeing to provide a new engine as part of an agreement to improve the railway. A new locomotive was delivered to Foster's company John Bradley & Co. in 1865. It is generally assumed that ''Agenoria'' had been abandoned by this time.


Preservation

After a period of neglect, the locomotive was rediscovered disassembled and covered with rubbish. One of its cylinders had been removed and used as a pumping engine. The person who rediscovered it, Mr. E.B. Marten, obtained the permission of the owner
William Orme Foster William Orme Foster (29 October 1814 – 29 September 1899) was an English ironmaster, coalmaster and owner of the large industrial firm John Bradley & Co, which he inherited from his uncle, James Foster in 1853. He served as a Liberal MP for S ...
to reassemble the engine (including the missing cylinder) and display it at an exhibition in Wolverhampton in 1884. After the exhibition, Foster presented the locomotive and its tender to the
Science Museum (London) The Science Museum is a major museum on Exhibition Road in South Kensington, London. It was founded in 1857 and is one of the city's major tourist attractions, attracting 3.3 million visitors annually in 2019. Like other publicly funded ...
in December 1884. The museum disposed of the tender in 1897. The locomotive was loaned to the London & North Eastern Railway's Museum at York in 1937 but was sent to Reedsmouth in 1941 to preserve it during the war. In 1951, ''Agenoria'' featured as an exhibit at the Festival of Britain. The locomotive was sent back to York in 1974 and it is now on permanent display (with a replica tender) at the
National Railway Museum The National Railway Museum is a museum in York forming part of the Science Museum Group. The museum tells the story of rail transport in Britain and its impact on society. It is the home of the national collection of historically significant r ...
in
York York is a cathedral city with Roman origins, sited at the confluence of the rivers Ouse and Foss in North Yorkshire, England. It is the historic county town of Yorkshire. The city has many historic buildings and other structures, such as a ...
.


Notes


References

{{early-steam-locos Early steam locomotives Preserved steam locomotives of Great Britain 0-4-0 locomotives Standard gauge steam locomotives of Great Britain