W&S No.5

## Brendam

W&S No.5 (Also known as Brendam) is the original Wellsworth and Suddery Railway No.5!

## Technical Details:

Originally known as 'A' class, these diminutive tank locomotives were designed in 1870 to haul commuter trains on the heavily congested lines in South and South-East London. These included routes from London Bridge to both East and West Croydon, London Victoria to Sutton and the line from Victoria to London Bridge via Peckham Rye and Denmark Hill, as well as operating on the East London Railway under the Thames through the Thames Tunnel designed by Marc Isambard Brunel. Six locomotives were built for these services during 1872, and were successful thanks to their high acceleration between the closely spaced station stops and the use of lightweight trains. A further 44 were built between June 1874 and September 1880 to complement the original six.

The locomotives were finished in the livery known as "Stroudley's Improved Engine Green", which was actually an ochre colour, not green. The actual shade of the livery has been much disputed, with opinions ranging from a more yellow type of livery to a livery closer to brown, as worn by the model named *Como* in the Brighton Toy and Model Museum.

Shortly after construction, No. 40 *Brighton* was chosen by William Stroudley to represent the LB&SCR at the Paris Exhibition of 1878, and won a gold medal for workmanship. On a run from Dieppe to Paris, arranged to persuade the Chemins de Fer de l'Ouest that the company's boat trains that met the LB&SCR ferries from Newhaven could make better time to the capital, *Brighton* maintained a speed of nearly 50 mph, previously unheard of on that line.

During the last two decades of the 19th century, London was expanding outwards as suburbs became more built up and were absorbed into the built-up area of London itself. Towns such as Croydon, Sutton and Norwood, which had previously been commuter towns separate from London, grew to form one large area of housing. Much of this was because of the success of the 'Terriers' themselves, as they had speeded up suburban passenger services, encouraging people to move out of the centre of London. Trains became progressively heavier while the need for shorter journey times remained the same. As a result, the engines gradually became largely unsuited for their original purpose, and they were replaced by the larger D1 class tank engines. However the 'Terriers' were so reliable that they were put on other work, often finding use on branch line passenger and freight workings and as shunting engines.

Twenty-three members of the class were withdrawn between 1898 and 1905, but the majority of these were sold in working order rather than scrapped. Purchasers of these locomotives included the Newhaven Harbour Company, the Isle of Wight Central Railway (four locomotives), Pauling & Co. (five locomotives), the Kent and East Sussex Railway (two locomotives), the London and South Western Railway (two locomotives), and the South Eastern and Chatham Railway (one locomotive). Others were transferred from capital to departmental (non-revenue earning) stock as pilots at Brighton locomotive works and Lancing carriage works. It is likely that the remainder of the class would have been withdrawn over the subsequent few years if the railway had not adopted push-pull or 'motor-train' working on many lightly used branch line services. The 'A1' class (as the locomotives were designated after 1905) were found ideally suited for conversion to this form of working.

Between 1911 and 1913 twelve survivors were re-boilered under the instruction of Douglas Earle Marsh, Stroudley's successor as CME of the LB&SCR, with another four so treated after the Great War; these engines formed the **A1X Class** with an increased weight of 28.2 long tons (28.7 t). Other changes made during the rebuilding were the extension of the smokebox (removing the smokebox 'wings', and moving the sandboxes from this same area (where they formed a forward extension of the leading driving wheel splasher) to below the running plate (although some locos rebuilt later retained the original sandboxes). The tube which had been used as part of the original condensing arrangement between the smokebox and side-tank was also removed. The engines were repainted during this time in 'Marsh Umber' livery.

Five locomotives were bought by the British Government in 1918 and sent to Scotland to work at the U.S. Navy's North Sea Mine Barrage minelaying project at Inverness and Dalmore, near Invergordon. The facilities were built by the Admiralty, using distillery sites, but administered by the U.S. Navy. The locos were Nos 37 *Southdown*, 79 *Minories*, 81 *Beulah* and 83 *Earlswood* at Dalmore, and 38 *Millwall* which was used at Glen Albyn, Inverness. Nos 38, 81 and 83 later went on to the Shropshire & Montgomeryshire Railway.