The steam whistle of LNER 4498 Sir Nigel Gresley.
Wisps of steam curl about the whistle of London and North Eastern Railway steam locomotive No. 4498 Sir Nigel Gresley, mounted above the sloping profile of her smokebox cladding. Sister to No. 4468 Mallard, which has held the world speed record for steam locomotive since July 3rd, 1938, she is named after the railway engineer Sir Herbert Nigel Gresley CBE (1876-1941), the LNER’s Chief Mechanical Engineer. Despite dizzying progress in locomotive technology over the preceding century, the steam whistle invented by Mr Bagster had kept its place.
Part 1 of 2
ON Saturday, May 4th, 1833, Driver Weatherburn reported to the Engine Superintendent, Mr Cabry, that “when driving the engine ‘Samson’ on the first train this morning, on approaching the level crossing of the road from Bagworth to Thornton at a point close to the Stag and Castle Inn,* I observed a horse and cart approaching. I blew the horn, lifted the ‘safety valves,’ and opened the cylinder taps, but failed to attract the attention of the man in charge of the covered cart.
“The horse passed over the rails, but the left-hand buffer of the engine caught the back corner of the cart. The horse was so injured that it had to be killed, but the driver of the cart, although thrown out, was not much hurt. The cart and contents were completely smashed up.”
Upon hearing the facts, Mr Cabry asked, “Were the gates shut across the road?”
“Oh, no,” replied the driver, “they were wide open, and I saw nothing of the gatekeeper.”
The matter was at once reported to the Manager, Mr Ashlen Bagster, who informed Mr Roger Miles, the clerk to the Company, and Mr John Ellis, one of the directors.
* A pub, built in 1832, at The Hollow between Thornton and Bagworth, which served as the ticket office for the nearby Thornton railway station. The station closed in 1865.
Précis
In 1833, a train on the newly-opened Leicester and Swannington Railway caught a road waggon a glancing blow on a level crossing. Mr Bagster, the manager of the line, informed his superiors that the crossing-keeper had failed to close the gates against road traffic, and that the waggoner had not heard the engine-driver’s frantic blasts on a hand-held horn. (58 / 60 words)
Part Two
Oakworth level crossing, near Keighley.
At their suggestion, by the next train on the same day, Mr Bagster went over to Alton Grange to report the circumstance to Mr George Stephenson, who was the largest shareholder in the line. After various ideas had been considered, Mr Bagster remarked, “Is it not possible to have a whistle fitted on the engine which steam can blow?” to which George Stephenson replied, “A very good thought; go and have one made.”
Mr Bagster at once went to a musical instrument maker in King Street, Leicester, who constructed a “steam trumpet,” which was put on in ten days, and tried at West Bridge Station in the presence of the Board of Directors. Similar trumpets or whistles were ordered for the other engines, and one was also sent from Leicester to the Liverpool and Manchester Railway.
The owner of the cart put in a claim against the Company for a new horse and cart, and for fifty pounds of butter and eighty dozen eggs, which he was conveying to Leicester market, and as the person who should have closed the gates was clearly to blame and neglected that duty, the Company’s solicitors, Messrs S. and R. Miles, advised that the claim should be paid, and that course was adopted by the directors.
* See The Liverpool and Manchester Railway, the world’s first intercity line, which had opened in 1830.
Précis
During the discussions that followed, Mr Bagster remarked that steam power rather than lung power might have prevented the accident. George Stephenson, the line’s principal investor, thought this a splendid idea. Within days, the hand-held warning horns had gone, and L&SR locomotives sported noisy steam-whistles fashioned by a local music shop. The waggoner, meanwhile, was compensated for his losses. (61 / 60 words)
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