A Mapleton Garratt ?
Herbert William Garratt was an
Englishman who was working as an inspecting engineer for the New South Wales Government Railways when he conceived his grand
idea for a new type of articulated steam engine early in the 20th century. He
had noted how long bogied wagons could easily negotiate sharp reverse curves in shunting
yards, and developed a plan for a locomotive based on a similar principle. According to his design, the
locomotive
had a large boiler mounted on a strong frame like the Shay, but there the
resemblance ended. Garratt's loco had two swivelling engine units front and rear,
so was virtually two independent steam engines sharing one boiler and one crew.
He did not have the financial backing to put his design into practice, so in
1906
approached the locomotive building firm of Kitson's, but they rejected his
ideas.
By a stroke of good fortune he visited Beyer Peacock's Gorton Works in Manchester in 1907, soon after they had received an order for a locomotive to run on the 2 feet gauge North East Dundas Tramway in Tasmania, part of the Tasmanian Government Railways. At this stage Garratt had not worked out the specific details of his new locomotive, in particular how to make the flexible high-pressure steam joints to the bogie-mounted cylinders. He knew though that the problem could be solved, for at that time the Hunslet Engine Company at nearby Leeds was building Fairlie type engines which used similar joints. Nevertheless, he was able to convince Beyer Peacock that his new concept was the ideal way to fill the Tasmanian order.
Detailed design work was largely handled by the locomotive manufacturer's staff, in particular a young draughtsman named Sam Jackson, and by July 1907 the idea had been sufficiently developed for Garratt to be granted a patent. Construction of the prototype then began, and so the first Garratt locomotive in the world was built by Beyer Peacock and Company for the North East Dundas Tramway in 1909. It was an 0-4-0+0-4-0T engine, and was sent to Tasmania in three pieces: the boiler with cab and coal bunker attached, and two engine units, each with a large water tank on top. After being assembled in the Zeehan Railway Workshops, the locomotive, known as 'K1', began work in 1910. It weighed 33 tons and had a tractive effort of about 17 900 lbs. It was very successful, and the North East Dundas Tramway soon ordered a second identical 'Garratt', as they became known.
K1 and its sister K2 performed sterling service until 1930, when the North East Dundas Tramway closed down and its equipment was stored by the Tasmanian Railways. Though put up for sale, there were no buyers, and both locos sat abandoned in a shed for many years. In 1947, Beyer Peacock recognised the historic value of the locos, being the very first Garratts. They bought K1 back, and shipped it home to Manchester, where it was placed on static display at the Gorton Works where it had been built. Some of K2's parts went with it, but the bulk of K2 was scrapped. In 1955 they tried to restore K1 to steam for the Works' Centenary, but failed in the attempt. When Beyer Peacock closed down in 1965, the fate of this historic loco was in the balance, but fortunately it was purchased in 1966 by the Festiniog Railway (a narrow-gauge preservation railway in Wales). As no funds were available for restoration, the locomotive languished for ten years until being loaned to the National Railway Museum at York, where many thought it would rust in peace.
Happily for K1, in 1995 the Festiniog Railway Company decided to build the Welsh Highland Railway, and made the restoration to working order of K1 a key objective of this venture. They reclaimed the engine from York, completely rebuilt it, and it is now operational once more. Their railway project is now nearing completion, and K1 has made some test trips under her own steam. Despite some teething troubles with hot bearings, the nearly 100-year-old loco will be back in occasional revenue-earning traffic soon.
More about Herbert William Garratt and his visit to Beyer, Peacock
The world's first Garratts, K1 and K2
K1 is restored and running again - restoration diary
For some unknown reason, in 1916 the Maroochy Shire Council approached Beyer Peacock and Company who had retained the sole licence to build Garratt-type locomotives. Even though the Council had recently taken delivery of their second Shay, they were investigating an alternative type of locomotive, and made detailed reference to the specific requirements of the Mapleton Tramline. Perhaps they wanted to improve the service, and had a 2 feet gauge Garratt in mind, similar to the ones that had been operating for the past six years in Tasmania. If so, they would have been disappointed to find that the Tasmanian Garratt, though nearly three times as powerful as their Shays, would have weighed 2.6 times as much, far too heavy for the track to Mapleton. So, a Mapleton Tramway Garratt was not to be.
Herbert W. Garratt died at the early age of 49 in 1913, and did not live to see the success of his creation. Many hundreds of his locomotives were built and put to work all over the world, particularly in Africa and Australia. The largest ones (apart from a slightly larger but unsuccessful Russian prototype) were the 42 members of the giant 260 ton 'AD60 class' on the New South Wales Government Railways, which hold the record as the largest steam locomotives in the Southern Hemisphere. The 59 class Garratts of the East African Railways were nearly as heavy, but more powerful. A 137 ton Queensland Railways Beyer-Garratt built in 1950 was restored as a heritage locomotive and returned to revenue service by Queensland Rail in 1995.
Beyer, Peacock Garratt Locomotives
The restored Queensland Railways Beyer-Garratt
The NSWGR AD60
Beyer-Garratt (second picture)