page_title: Avonside Engine Company
section_title: Fairlie
hierarchical_section_title: Avonside Engine Company / Locomotive types / Fairlie
caption_attribution_description: Festiniog Railway locomotive James Spooner at Blaenau Ffestiniog
context_page_description: The Avonside Engine Company was a locomotive manufacturer in Avon Street, St. Philip's, Bristol, England between 1864 and 1934. However the business originated with an earlier enterprise Henry Stothert and Company.
context_section_description: This lack of records is particularly unfortunate in that the company was the largest British builder of the Fairlie articulated locomotive. Amongst the first to be built at Bristol was James Spooner built in 1872 for the Ffestiniog Railway. Although built to the same basic design as the remarkably successful Little Wonder built by George England and Co. in 1869, it incorporated many detailed improvements and became the prototype for subsequent Ffestiniog Railway engines built in that company's works at Boston Lodge.
  In 1872 on the recommendation of Sir Charles Fox and Sons, Avonside built two large 42-ton 0-6-6-0 T Fairlies for shipment to Canada, one each to the Toronto, Grey and Bruce Railway and the Toronto and Nipissing Railway. The Avonside Works Manager at the time these locomotives were built was Alfred Sacré, the brother of Charles Sacré Locomotive Engineer of the Manchester Sheffield & Lincolnshire Railway. Alfred Sacré trained under Archibald Sturrock at the Doncaster Plant of the Great Northern Railway and in 1872 moved from Avonside to the Yorkshire Engine Company, Sheffield where he built more Fairlie types.
  Avonside locomotives were exported also to Uruguay, where two 1874 Fairlie type locomotives (plate numbers: 1032/33, 1034/35) worked in the Ferrocarril y Tranvía del Norte, at Montevideo.
  In 1874, New Zealand Railways ordered two types of Double Fairlie locomotives from Avonside. Both the B class and E class Double Fairlies were fitted with Walschaerts valve gear. This was certainly the first use of this technology to be used in New Zealand, and is possibly the first time a British manufacturer has supplied it. The B class lasted in service until the late 1880s. The E class were officially written off in 1899, however, most were still in use during the first world war.
  An 0-4-4 T single Fairlie was built for the Swindon, Marlborough and Andover Railway in 1878. To use a valve gear that fitted entirely outside the wheels, leaving the space between the frames clear for the boiler, this was the first British-based locomotive to use Walschaerts valve gear.
  In 1878-1879 on the recommendation of Robert Francis Fairlie Avonside built the R class of 18 0-6-4 T single Fairlies for the New Zealand Government Railways. One, a single fairlie R class number 28 (of 1878) survives at Reefton.
  Avonside Fairlie Works list.
  Avonside issued a double works plate for each double Fairlie, however it is believed that this policy was not always adhered to.
caption: Fairlie locomotive James Spooner built for the Ffestiniog Railway in 1872.
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