Talk:East London Harbour 0-4-0VB

Vertical boiler loco info from John Middleton

The contents of an email received from John Middleton regarding the vertical boilered locomotives in South Africa:

From: John Nicholas Middleton
To: Andre H Kritzinger
Sent: 14 September 2013 04:18 PM
Subject: Re: The Grasshopper

Andre

Just ask! There were 4 of these locos delivered to East London - we never called them "Grasshoppers" in the UK - just "vertical boilered" - there were several others on industrial lines in SA - Sentinel in particular importing a number. Of course the Clayton and Sentinel railcars on SAR also had a vertical boiler arrangement. The name "grasshopper" seems to have come from the movement of the exposed valve gear.

East London Harbour was surveyed by Sir John Coode in 1870 and construction began in 1872 under resident engineer William Lester. There were four stone quarries of which No. 1 Quarry opened in June 1872, although this only employed convicts and oxen drawn rail wagons. Construction of the South breakwater on the West Bank of the Buffalo River was completed by August 1873. The first locomotive arrived on 2 July 1873 but only started work on 17 August 1874 being used for passenger rides on the first day. From April 1875 crushed stone was made into 20-ton concrete blocks and block laying started in August 1876 using the breakwater crane “Hercules”. Ship unloading took place on the West Bank from 1880 to 1907 although the East Bank developed more rapidly.

The West and East Banks were connected by pontoon ferry until 1907 when a wooden road / rail bridge was built, replaced in 1935 by the present day double deck bridge. The West bank lines were not standard gauge (4' 8 1/2") but broad gauge of 7'0" (as on Brunels Great Western Railway) - or more correctly 7' 0 1/4" and the East Bank lines 3'6" gauge until 1907 when the 3'6" gauge was extended across the new bridge. The broad gauge lines on the West Bank were probably closed in the period 1909-1912 and much of the area was later excavated and flooded to provide an area for ships to turn.

Chaplin was one of the more prolific builders of such locomotives and the book "Vertical Boiler Locomotives and Railmotors built in Great Britain" by Rowland A S Abbott (Oakwood Press 1989 ISBN 0 85361 385 0) lists 135 built between 1860 and 1899. Chaplin's works was the Cranstonhill Engine Works, Port Street, Anderson, Glasgow which is where the EL locos were built although in 1890 Chaplin moved to another works in Govan.

The reason for the Chaplin locomotives being Broad Gauge (as at Table Bay), is thought to have been that it made it easier on breakwater construction to drop rock from wagons between the rails which were run out to sea on a timber framework which was a method of construction perfected by John Coode (I have a couple of very good articles on harbour construction in SA which I can scan if you are interested).

These locomotives worked on construction and later on the West Bank lines of the ELHB. They were Chaplin 1584 (ex wks 12.4.1873), 1694 (ex wks 30.6.1874), 2117 (ex wks 21.6.1879) and 2129 of 1879 (ex wks 26.12.1879). The well known photo of No. 4 is 2129 but we have no evidence the others were Nos 1-3 but it seems logical that they would be.

They were 15 HP locomotives with 7 " x 14" cylinders.

Rather interestingly 1584, 1694 and 2129 were ordered by Sir John Coode but Abbotts book shows 2117 was ordered by McKendrick, Ball & Co. John McKendrick was a partner in the Chaplin company c1860 and Henry Ball was the London agent. These two gentlemen formed the company and eventually took over the engineering side of Chaplin's. During this time some locomotives bore works plates showing "McKendrick Ball & Co", so its possible 2117 did. Possibly 2117 was built for stock and later sold to Coode.

I have looked at the harbour board reports (Eric Conradie has copies) and one "old 15 HP locomotive" was still on the books in 1904 and is almost certainly the last of the Chaplins - possibly No. 4 which quite possibly lasted until the Broad Guage lines finally closed in the 1909-1912 period. There is no firm evidence that any of the Table Bay Broad Gauge locos came to East London but Table Bay No. 4 a Broad Gauge 0-4-0ST (Black Hawthorn 642 of 1881) disappeared from the books in 1904 when the Table Bay Broad Gauge lines closed and may have come to EL. It was not converted to 3'6" gauge as its two sisters Table Bay 5 and 8.

The above shows that while Holland's work was brilliant, he unfortunately took at face value some of what he found and probably did not have access to some of the reference sources we have now found.

André Kritzinger (talk) 21:41, 15 September 2013 (UTC)