Locomotives 2

One of the strangest locomotives built at Coven must have been the “Lion”, which was described in a series of articles that appeared in the “Locomotive” magazine in the 1920s. The articles by A. R. Bennett, described some of the locomotives that were owned by Mr. I. W. Boulton or mentioned in his papers. The article about the “Lion” appeared in October 1921. He described “Lion” as an engine of unusual design and one of six that were built by John Smith in the early 1860s. Boulton’s engine came from a closed-down blast furnace somewhere in Staffordshire and had 2ft 6inch diameter wheels and a 2ft diameter boiler, filled with tubes and running at a pressure of 60 lbs per square inch. The firebox was enclosed in an enormous outer-casing with a haystack dome and the cylinders were 7 inches in diameter with a 12 inch stroke. The cylinders drove a crankshaft that was geared to the leading axle by pinion and spur wheels with a gear ratio of 5:1, so that 5 turns of the crankshaft were needed for each rotation of the wheels. The engine weighed 12 tons and steamed freely, but the very short boiler tubes led to a loss of heat up the chimney. Heat would also have been lost from the boiler, which may never have been lagged.


The "Lion".

 Lion’s coal-box and water tank were a little on the small side as was the footplate, which would have been rather cramped for the driver and fireman. The track at the furnaces followed a circuitous route and the driver would sometimes start the fully loaded engine and walk leisurely across a short cut to the end of the track. He would stand there and wait for the engine’s arrival and jump on board to apply the brakes. This was possible because the gearing would have allowed the engine to run very reliably at slow speeds. 
What would have happened if one of the couplings had broken and the locomotive lost its load is another story.

Boulton’s siding was close to the LNWR goods yard at Bushbury and Lion was once used there for shunting. It performed very well, moving 40 trucks of mixed sorts and sizes, both loaded and empty. This was considered to be a first-class performance for an engine weighing just 12 tons.
D. Kinnear Clark’s 1871 edition of Z. Colburn’s “Locomotive Engineering” mentions another type of locomotive that was built at Coven. This was a later type than Lion and was a narrow gauge 0-4-0 tank engine with 2 ft 6 inch diameter wheels and a 4 ft 9 inch wheelbase. It had 10 inch or 11 inch cylinders with a 16 inch stroke. The engine was numbered 122, which was a works number and like all of Smith’s products it had a Staffordshire knot painted in chrome yellow on the side.


A Smith 0-4-0 tank engine, believed to be "Ajax".

This locomotive was also mentioned in the “Locomotive” magazine in one of A. R. Bennett’s articles. He featured a letter that he received from Mr. Bridgden of Wolverhampton, who served his apprenticeship at the Village Foundry. The letter contained the following:

“The firm commenced building their engines at number 100 which meant that the engine shown was the 22nd built by them. The firm built 4 engines for the Chillington Ironworks at Wolverhampton and several saddle tank engines which were all narrow gauge. They built road traction engines, portable engines, winding engines, boilers, and power presses etc.”

Mr. Bridgden only remembered one engine of the “Lion” type mentioned in the “Chronicles of Boulton’s Siding”, in the “Locomotive” magazine of October 1921. He stated that the engine was built for a colliery somewhere in northern England and that his father was the leading fitter and often accompanied engines to their destination and saw them at work. He also mentioned that the firm built an engine for Barnett’s of Pelsall. He had this to say on the fate of the Village Foundry:

“The building occupied by the firm of J. Smith still stands in the village of Coven. After being in use as a brewery for several years it is now a concrete slab factory”.
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