Some Notes on a St. Helens Railway Locomotive - and its Namesake
By Dr John Tolson

In my recent articles, Danger on the Line, six different St. Helens Railway locomotives (and one from the Manchester, Sheffield & Lincolnshire Railway) were mentioned by name. In common with almost all locomotives from the local line, their complete history is difficult to unravel, and can cause the serious historian many headaches. But, nevertheless, one of the six, John Smith, has an interesting tale to tell, both in terms of the railway and in the wider context of St. Helens. Firstly, apart from the short-lived Greenall of 1833-5, named in honour of Peter Greenall, the first chairman of the St. Helens & Runcorn Gap Railway from 1830 until his untimely death in September 1845, it was the only St. Helens Railway locomotive to carry the name of a local man closely associated with the enterprise. (1)

The locomotive, No. 6 John Smith, was almost certainly an 0-4-0 tender engine built by Edward Bury, which had made its way to St. Helens via Crewe in the late 1840s. Its name features in a list of about 1849, but it is more clearly defined in an inventory of the company's locomotives from January 1855. Extensively rebuilt later in the same year at the Sutton Workshops, John Smith was one of the very few St. Helens Railway locomotives retained by the London & North Western Railway for any length of time after the absorption of the local company in 1864. Together with No. 9 Swallow and No. 24 Alma, it was sent in the spring of 1865 to the Cromford & High Peak Railway, which had been retroactively leased by the LNWR from the end of March 1861. John Smith was used mainly on the relatively flat section between Ladmanlow, Hurdlow and Hopton Top from May 1865 until February 1870. It was then offered for sale unsuccessfully to various contractors, and was finally purchased for £450 by Barnes & Beckett of Nuneaton in December 1871.

John Smith, the man, had risen from humble beginnings to be a highly respected railway contractor and engineer. In 1840 he had reported on the disastrous condition of the local railway, and had taken over the operation of the line from February 1849, when he also became a director. Moreover, he was put in overall charge of all extensions, of which the major tasks were the branches to Garston and Warrington and the dock at Garston. In June 1851 his duties were greatly expanded when he became Superintendent of the Locomotive Department, a responsibility which lasted until the arrival of James Cross in 1854, although as a director of the company, Smith retained an active interest in all aspects of railway operations until his death some nine years later.

But this was only part of his contribution, as from his home in Sutton he never lost contact with his fellow citizens at all levels, and was always ready to help them both with advice and in material ways. A prominent Roman Catholic, he was a prime mover in the building of St. Anne's Monastery in Sutton, which was opened in October 1853. He was for many years one of the Poor Law Guardians for Sutton, he served on the St. Helens Burial Board, and held the office of Overseer for the Township of Sutton. When he died in June 1863 after a short illness, his obituary in the St Helens News said "...it was no idle or meaningless phrase to say that he died regretted by all who knew him".

The writer would like to thank Sheena Gooddy of St. Helens Central Library for her help with the biographical section of this article

(1) There was another celebrated John Smith in the history of St. Helens, but it is unlikely that the locomotive was named after him. He designed and built an early steam-powered boat, whose maiden voyage in June 1797 had been on the Sankey Canal to take some spectators from St. Helens to the race meeting at Newton. Thirtyfive years later Newton would become the first racecourse in Britain to have a railway passenger station used solely for its annual meetings but that's another story!

Index for this issue     Index of all Canal Cuttings issues      Home Page

Site design and content © 2002 - 2009 Sankey Canal Restoration Society
Site design by Phil D.Long