Steam Elephant

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Steam Elephant from an 1820 painting

Steam Elephant was an early steam locomotive from North East England.

Historiography

An illustration of the locomotive first came to modern attention in 1931[1] and it was then generally assumed to be the work of George Stephenson. More recent interpretation is based on research carried out at Beamish Museum for construction of a replica. This interpretation is based largely on contemporaneous paintings (one being the earliest known oil of a steam locomotive, by an unknown artist) and other material from the Museum archives.[2] It is from the paintings that the name Steam Elephant has become associated specifically with this locomotive.

Description and interpretation

Replica Steam Elephant locomotive, Beamish Museum

Steam Elephant was a six-wheeled locomotive of

Stephenson gauge.[3]
It was built for the Wallsend Waggonway,
edge railway now known to have been of 4 ft 8 in gauge.[4][5][i]

As with Stephenson's

reduction gears between the frames. It had a tall, tapering chimney, the lower part being surrounded by a feedwater heater
. It would have weighed about 7.5 tons and had a top speed of around 4.5 miles per hour (7 km/h) and a load capacity of about 90 tons over a short distance.

It is now considered

rails
at Wallsend, it had a working life there longer than many contemporaneous locomotives, until at least the mid-1820s.

There is evidence[2] that it was then rebuilt for use at the Hetton collieries, working there for a further decade.

Replica

Steam Elephant was recreated by

Alan Keef
. The replica was designed and built by engineers Ross Clavell, Jim Rees and Dave Potter, finished in 1998. Clavell also designed and built the famous weather vane atop the engine shed at Beamish.

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Steam Elephant.
  1. standard gauge of 4 ft 8+1⁄2 in (1,435 mm).[5]
  1. ^ Appleby Miller R. N. (1931). "George Stephenson's first experiment". The Engineer. 152: 298–99.
  2. ^
    ISBN 0-904685-08-X
    .
  3. ^
    ISBN 978-0-7524-9101-1
    .
  4. ^ Tony Henderson (26 July 2013). "200-year-old railway discovered along banks of River Tyne". The Journal. Archived from the original on 1 August 2013. Retrieved 17 January 2021. the earliest surviving example of the standard gauge railway.
  5. ^ a b "Excavation of waggonway in Newcastle". Heddon-on-the-Wall Local History Society. 27 July 2013. Unlike other waggonways in the area which used a variety of gauges ranging from 3'10″ to 5'0″, that excavated at Walker was built to 4' 8".
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