Bromsgrove Rail User Group

Thus, in one fell swoop, he not only greatly reduced the overall weight of the machine but such weight as there was in the water and coke would now be bearing on the driving wheels, which, he believed, would improve their traction. The performance of PHILADELPHIA was greatly improved but McConnell decided that a purpose-designed banking engine was required and decided to build one to his own design in the company's works, a works that had been equipped only for repairing locomotives, not for making them.

GREAT BRITAIN, as the loco was called, was rolled out in June 1845 and was an immediate success. She had three pairs of driving wheels and coped with loads of 135 tons up the Incline at 8 to 10 mph. With GREAT BRITAIN the saddle tank engine was truly born and she became the world blueprint for short haul loco design that would last until the end of the steam age.

The sensation in the world of railway engineering caused by McConnell's locomotive brought engineers to Bromsgrove from far and wide, to see the machine in action on the Incline and to speak to its designer. It was during such a meeting on the trackside of the Incline one day in the summer of 1846, when a particularly influential group of engineers was present, that a storm sent the assembled party into a platelayers' hut for shelter. Whilst in the hut, the conversation turned to the question of the lack of an institution devoted to the subject of mechanical engineering.

 

GREAT BRITAIN