Vale of Neath 0-6-0 Locomotives in Great_Britain

Class 10 (Locobase 16108)

Data from drawing archived at [], last accessed 27 July 2015. Works numbers were 362-364 in 1854.

These were the first of two trios of saddle tanks delivered by Vulcan to the VofN; the later, larger engines appear in Locobase 15777.

At around the same time as these engines were delivered, the following land offering appeared in the Railway Times, Volume XVIII, No 17 (28 April 1855), p 456:

County of Glamorgan, For Sale, the Freehold Property known as THE " GNOLL ESTATE,ö WITH THE CASTLE,

Fit for immediate occupation, situated in the beautiful Vale of Neath; consisting, (exclusive of Mineral property,) of about SEVEN THOUSAND ACRES, almost in a ring fence, with a RENTAL of over SEVEN THOUSAND POUNDS a YEAR, in the town of Neath, and the parishes and hamlets of Neath, Lantwit, Lantwit Lower, Clyne, Resolven. Bagian, Aberavon, Cadoxton, Glyncorwg, and Michaelstone Lower; and comprising the manors of Neath Citra and Briton, Tyr-y-arll, and Avon Wallia, the manors of the boroughs of Neath and Aberavon, with Courts Baron, Rights, Royalties, Fines, Quit Rents, Tithe Commutation Rent-charge, and Rights of Fishery in the river Neath; Minerals, Coliieries, Tramways, and Stone Quarries. '

THE MINERAL PROPERTY, ..

(comparatively untouched) consists of Coal, from the highly bituminous to the Aberdare Steam Coal, with valuable deposits of ironstone, Black Band, Fire Clay, and Buildingstone (of a su erior character) under the whole of the above-mention property, except about 150 acres, and also under common and waste lands in the parishes of Liangonoyd, (near Maestegl. Aberavon, Raglan, Michaelstone Lower, Michaelstone Higher, and the hamlet of Clyne, supposed to consist of about 3,000 acres, and comprising therein a Mountain, known as ( Mynydd-y-Caera,ö in the parish of Liangonoyd, and extensive Marsh Lands at Aberavon, being in all nearly 10,000 acres of Mineral property.

The Vale of Neath Railway and Canal pass through three miles of the estate; there are stations of the South Wales and Vale of Neath Railways on the property, with direct communication with London, and there will be very shortly with the important Port of Milford Haven. The South' Wales Mineral line (for which a Bill has just been obtained) will pass through a great portion of the south-east side of the property, and the whole of the Minerals are within a moderate distance of the New Docks at Briton Ferry and Port Talbot.

Applications to treat for the whole or any Mon of this Estate, must be made direct to Mr. Wm. Bullock Webster, (The Gnoll," Neath, South \Vales, or to Messrs. Osborn. Ward, and 00., Solicitors, Bristol, and from whom further particulars may be obtained. "

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Class 13 (Locobase 15777)

Data from Daniel Kinnear Clark and Zerah Colburn, Recent Practice in the Locomotive Engine (Glasgow: Blackie & Son, 1859), p. 77; Report of the Committee of Investigation to the Shareholders of the Vale of Neath Railway Company, August 15,1859 (Neath, Wales: Whittington, Printer and Binder, 1860), p 8, and George Augustus "Sekon", Evolution of the Steam Locomotive, Second Edition (London: The Railway Publishing Company, 1899), pp. 199-200. Works numbers were 409-411 in 1856.

These engines joined an earlier, smaller trio of saddle tanks delivered by Vulcan in 1854; for those, see Locobase 16108.

Both accounts--that of Clark (the English editor of Recent Practice) and Nokes--affirm the compelling influence of designer Isambard Kingdom Brunel (Locobase can't resist spelling out the Great Western founder's name). Clark credits the class with pulling 25 loaded waggons (375 long tons trailing load) up a 1 in 90 incline (1.1%). Nokes adds the distance of the climb, which was 4 1/2 miles (7.2 km).

Clark's tube heating surface area, taken from the inside diameter of approximately 1.815" (46 mm) amounts to 1,306 sq ft (131.3 sq m). Adding the firebox heating suface area to this figure yields the 1,417.6 sq ft (131.75 sq m) given in both Clark and Nokes. Locobase offers the outside-diameter areas, which were almost universally used in later years in both the United Kingdom and North America.

Clark and Nokes disagree on weights. Clark's figure of 40 long tons (89,600 lb/40,642 kg), recorded shortly after the engines entered service, yielded a high factor of adhesion to begin with. Nokes apparently relied on a report by Mr T E Harrison, former manager of the North Eastern and hired by a committee to assess the V of N, that showed the working order weight was 50 tons. Moreover, because the axles did not distribute loadings through compensating beams, maximum axle loading reached 20 tons (44,800 lb/20,321 kg).

Such weights had been "very destructive to the permanent way" when Harrison rebuilt the set as 0-6-0 tender engines in 1860, shifting the burden of carrying almost 15,000 lb of water to a trailing car. With other changes, locomotive weight dropped to nearly the 40 long tons quoted by Clark.

Amalgamation of Vale of Neath with the Great Western gained approval in an 1866 Act and occurred in the first quarter of 1867.