Sans Pareil

Sans Pareil
The original locomotive preserved at Shildon Railway museum
Type and origin Power type Steam Builder William Hedley and Timothy Hackworth
Specifications Configuration: ​  • Whyte 0-4-0 Driver dia. 54 in (1.372 m) Loco weight 4.25 long tons (4.32 t; 4.76 short tons) Fuel type Coal Cylinders 2 Cylinder size 7 in × 18 in (178 mm × 457 mm)
Career Operators Liverpool and Manchester Railway, Bolton and Leigh Railway

Sans Pareil is a

While a capable locomotive for the day, its technology was somewhat antiquated compared to

Sans Pareil had two cylinders, mounted vertically at the opposite end to the chimney, and driving one pair of driving wheels directly - the other pair were driven via connecting rods, in the typical steam locomotive fashion.

At the Rainhill Trials, Sans Pareil was excluded from the prize because it was slightly over the maximum permitted weight.^[1] Nevertheless it performed very well, but had a strange rolling gait due to its vertical cylinders and the draft from the blastpipe was, in Hackworth's trademark style, very strong, so most of the coke was expelled out of the chimney unburnt. It was this more than its antiquated design that caused its poor fuel economy. ^{[citation needed]} It was pulled out of the competition because of a cracked cylinder: the design thickness for the cylinder walls was some 1+3⁄4 inches (44 mm), but at the point of failure, it was found to be a mere 5⁄8 inch (16 mm).

The manufacture of the cylinders had been contracted out to

Replica

A replica locomotive, built in 1980, is now preserved by the National Railway Museum at its new Shildon Locomotion Museum annex, which is also home to what remains of the original locomotive.

Other locomotives

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Sans Pareil (early locomotive).

• Sans Pareil