"Berang" (berang)
08/29/2020 at 18:50 • Filed to: None
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"Berang" (berang)
08/29/2020 at 18:50 • Filed to: None | 21
| 25 |
Browsing old photos on ebay, I noticed one of a steam locomotive. One of a peculiarly distinctive steam locomotive, on account of the oval-section boiler. I knew immediately that I was looking at one of the weirdest locomotives ever built, the James Toleman. This was a one of a kind, British built, experimental locomotive, that never went into production, was never copied, and then vanished after several years of languishing in the midwestern U.S. So of course I bought it.
I only knew about a paragraph’s worth of history on this machine, but knew it was a rare find to see it in a photo, any photo. I started looking into the history of it last night, reading 116-year old articles from old trade papers and magazine, and a story emerged of hubris. Stark, raving, unbridled hubris - and the inevitable miserable failure that follows.
The James Toleman was built by Hawthorne, Leslie and Co. of Newcastle upon Tyne, to the specifications of Frederic Charles Winby. Winby was a railroad man, a contractor, who laid rails, built bridges, surveyed lines etc. He even patented a form of the grooved streetcar rail we still see today. But he had no experience designing locomotives - and hoooboy, did he go all in on this one.
The James Toleman was (supposed to be) revolutionary. It was driven by four cylinders. The driving wheels were 7 feet, 6 inches in diameter. The heating area of the boiler and firebox combined was 2000 square feet. In theory , this locomotive should have been able to blow any other out of the water. Winby brought the James Toleman to the United States for the 1893 world’s fair in Chicago. He was so sure that his locomotive was absolutely the best in the world, he began challenging other builders. James Toleman against whatever they got. He’d stake 1000 pounds on it. Race from Chicago to New York, fastest train wins. Nobody took him up on the offer.
After the fair, no buyers came forward. But the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific R.R. (the Milwaukee Road) was interested in giving the locomotive a trial run. And heres where things went south, very quickly. Winby had never given the James Toleman a test run in England. It had never pulled a train. Why bother? On paper, it was brilliant. It should just work , right? Well as it turns out, it didn’t work. At all. Like at all,at all. It could barely move itself, never mind trying to pull a train.
The first problem was the boiler. It couldn’t make enough steam pressure to move the engine. In theory, it should have made plenty of steam... with 2000 square feet of heating area, and an eight foot long firebox... it should have made more than enough steam. But Winby’s boiler was built differently than any locomotive boiler ever made before, or since. The oval shape was created so that the boiler would fit in between the huge driving wheels - a conventional round boiler would be limited in its diameter, as it could only be as wide and tall as the distance between the wheels (ie. about 4'8"). The oval boiler, was actually made of two semicircular sections joined together, and internally stayed to prevent the boiler just returning to a circular form when under pressure. This is all very weird yes, but not the reason for the poor steaming ability of the boiler.
The really peculiar thing about the boiler was that the boiler barrel (ahead of the firebox) was around 9 feet long. And the firebox was about 8 feet long. But the boiler tubes were 14 feet long. How? The barrel section of the boiler was set into the inside of the firebox by about four feet. That means the four feet of the fire grate, was underneath the bottom of the boiler barrel. (one foot of the barrel was hidden in the smokebox, accounting for the rest of the tube length). When the Milwaukee Road tried the engine, they found that the coal that was under that four foot section wouldn’t burn. So effectively, half the firebox wasn’t making heat. So no steam.
Winby carried out some modification, and eventually the James Toleman was able to pull a train of cars, and did make some successful trips, albeit at an average speed of about 15mph. This might sound abysmal, but in 1894 even expresses rarely exceeded a 30mph average in the U.S. But in any event, it was not the 100mph super locomotive Winby had expected it to be.
Shortly after this Winby disappeared back to England. And the James Toleman just sat on a siding of the Milwaukee Road for several years. Here’s where things get a little murky. The Milwaukee Road donated the engine to Purdue University (which was, at the time, building a collection of railroad machinery) c.1900. And claimed to have no knowledge of what became of it after that. But in 1914 a railwayman who remembered the locomotive saw it in a scrap yard outside of Chicago and took a few photographs of what was left. Soooo, what happened there? I have not yet been able to find an answer, but I wonder if it has something to do with the next bit of mystery.
Who the heck was James Toleman? And why was this locomotive named after him? After lots of digging, I do not have any definite answers. I did find out that James Toleman was a real person, and he did have business dealings with Frederick Winby. Toleman died c. 1895, which may explain why Winby left his loco, instead of continuing to alter it into a workable state. Toleman was an investor in the Transvaal Railway, of South Africa, and Winby’s company was one of the contractors hired to complete the line. The last mention I can find was regarding their dealings with each other, were in legal proceedings, where the executors of Toleman’s estate were representing Toleman’s estate and Winby, in a claim for money owed to them for construction of the Transvaal Railway (which the second Boer War had stalled). At this point things get pretty murky, and there’s a lot of dense legalese to decipher - it’ll take me a while to find out the real end of this story. Let’s just say, Winby’s company received a shitton of money to build the railway, so it’s no mystery how he was able to just build a locomotive to his own specification, and then abandon it.
Or did he? One thought nagging in my mind is that perhaps the James Toleman was scrapped because Winby reasserted ownership? I’ll probably have to seek information from Purdue about why they let the engine out of their possession and why it was scrapped, when the rest of their items eventually ended up in museums.
In any event, the photograph I found seems to depict the James Toleman after its trials on the Milwaukee Road, but before it was sent to Purdue. It’s in a pretty rough state from having sat outside for several years, but not quite in the condition I’ve seen in what I believe is a later photograph taken at a different location (probably when it was delivered to Purdue).
If only EssExTee could be so grossly incandescent
> Berang
08/29/2020 at 19:47 |
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I like trains
Jayvincent
> Berang
08/29/2020 at 19:56 |
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just to be clear, when you say
“ This was a one of a kind, British built, experimental locomotive, that never went into production, was never copied, and then vanished after several years of languishing in the midwestern U.S. So of course I bought it.”
you mean you bought the postcard not the train ... because I almost had heart palpitations there for a second.
Amazing find, thanks for posting!
ITA97, now with more Jag @ opposite-lock.com
> Berang
08/29/2020 at 19:58 |
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Very cool! Depending on what you could learn from Purdue and dig up on Toleman, there's possibly a History master's thesis here for somene so interested.
Taylor Martin
> Berang
08/29/2020 at 20:10 |
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Awesome history lesson man! That’s a neat little train, even if it wasn’t exactly an efficient little train... at first. Still, this is why we test things.
Who is the Leader - 404 / Blog No Longer Available
> Berang
08/29/2020 at 20:30 |
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Absolutely riveting (hehe) history here. Thank you for sharing.
I wonder just why James Tollman was the namesake of the locomotive. I suppose it could have been intended to be the futuristic new style of train to be used on the African railroad he commissioned but why name the prototype Winby was trying to sell to other railroad companies?
pip bip - choose Corrour
> Berang
08/29/2020 at 20:31 |
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very interesting story
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Berang
> Jayvincent
08/29/2020 at 20:58 |
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While it’s probable nothing of the locomotive exists... two world wars and all that, it’d be pretty interesting if maybe some bits and pieces are still sitting in a scrap yard somewhere, or in somebody’s private collection of train junk.
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Berang
> Who is the Leader - 404 / Blog No Longer Available
08/29/2020 at 20:59 |
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My suspicion is that he put up money for the project, or perhaps Winby just wanted to honor him for investing in the Transvaal project. There’s really just not much out there to go on.
Bandit
> Berang
08/29/2020 at 21:29 |
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You should seriously send an email to the Purdue archivists, they’re good people and I’m sure would be willing to do some digging. https://www.lib.purdue.edu/?q=spcol
SmugAardvark
> Berang
08/29/2020 at 21:55 |
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I just learned more about 19th century locomotives in the last 10 minutes than I had learned in the previous decade. Great research, hopefully you learn more about the fate of the locomotive and share with the rest of the class!
ranwhenparked
> Berang
08/29/2020 at 22:06 |
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Weird that there’s so little records on it. Even on Winby’s other ventures - his iron & steel works was apparently in Mill Lane, Cardiff (now a pedestrian mall), but he and his brother lost control of it at some point in the 1880s, and it last operated as Kyte & Co. before disappearing sometime between 1895-1904.
RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars
> Berang
08/29/2020 at 22:09 |
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Wow, that is an amazing story and some cool research by you, kudos for sharing it! :D
shop-teacher
> Berang
08/29/2020 at 22:10 |
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Neat stuff!
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Berang
> ranwhenparked
08/29/2020 at 23:14 |
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I’m sure somewhere, in some archives there’s plenty to be dug out. But so far as finding info online - not much to go on. I can’t find anything about Winby after 1900. I presume he probably retired shortly after that, and he died in 1915.
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ranwhenparked
> Berang
08/29/2020 at 23:36 |
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You’d probably have to go to Wales and dig around in historical society archives in Cardiff, or to Newcastle - the Hawthorn & Leslie archives have to survive there in some part, somewhere. The shell of that company survived into the early 1990s, but they were just a phone card business by then, having shed all their manufacturing assets. Doubt they kept any of their old records themselves.
ClassicDatsunDebate
> Berang
08/30/2020 at 00:17 |
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Great read, thanks!
a r
> Bandit
10/01/2020 at 09:33 |
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Hello there - I actually work part-time at the Purdue Archives, and ca me upon this post in my own efforts to find more information about the James Toleman (on behalf of a patron request). We only get information that departments 1) have decided to keep and 2) later decide to donate. I have not been able to find much more information in our records here. It did arrive at Purdue on Christmas day, 1900, but little mention is found of it in any Engineering or other records. My hunch is that this was due to its severe functional limitations.
The Toleman was part of Purdue’s Railway Museum, which was built in 1902 , but this was dismantled in 1951, with 3 trains (not the Toleman) and the Inter-urban car being sent to the Nat’l Museum of Transportation outside St. Louis. Other engines were returned to their historic owners, but I could not find any mention of the James Toleman after 1907. (If you do look into any information on this locomotive , the Purdue student publication, “The Exponent, ” consistently spelled it without the “e”: James Tolman.) ajrumba@yahoo.com
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a r
> Berang
10/01/2020 at 09:42 |
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Do you have any additional information (or source information) about the “ railwayman who remembered the locomotive, saw it in a scrap yard outside of Chicago and took a few photographs of what was left” in 1914? I work part-time in the Purdue Archives and am actually on this trail on behalf of a patron. Thanks!
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Bandit
> Berang
10/01/2020 at 10:05 |
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From another poster: Hello there - I actually work part-time at the Purdue Archives, and came upon this post in my own efforts to find more information about the James Toleman (on behalf of a patron request). We only get information that departments 1) have decided to keep and 2) later decide to donate. I have not been able to find much more information in our records here. It did arrive at Purdue on Christmas day, 1900, but little mention is found of it in any Engineering or other records. My hunch is that this was due to its severe functional limitations.
The Toleman was part of Purdue’s Railway Museum, which was built in 1902, but this was dismantled in 1951, with 3 trains (not the Toleman) and the Inter-urban car being sent to the Nat’l Museum of Transportation outside St. Louis. Other engines were returned to their historic owners, but I could not find any mention of the James Toleman after 1907. (If you do look into any information on this locomotive, the Purdue student publication, “The Exponent,” consistently spelled it without the “e”: James Tolman.) ajrumba@yahoo.com
https://oppositelock.kinja.com/1845238847
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Bandit
> a r
10/01/2020 at 10:08 |
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Wow, do you have any more info on the railway museum? I attended Purdue and didn’t know we ever had one.
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a r
> Bandit
10/01/2020 at 10:57 |
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The Railway Museum was created largely as a result of the efforts of Dr. W.F. M. Goss, Dean of Engineer ing. He had actually arranged for the university to collect engines prior to having a building. He had collected three, including the Toleman. ( It arrived in Lafayette in December 1900 and was on the campus in West Lafayette on Dec. 25.) These were housed in a “rough shed” until co nstruction of a temporary building began in 1902. This was only 60 x 64 feet . It was modified in 1903 to accommodate space for the new power plant that was built that year. It is not clear whether a permanent building was ever raised for the Museum. By 1922, the Museum is referred to as a “time worn shack.” My guess is that a lack of funding, space, and foresight led to the Museum being neglected and then dismantled.
Here are some links to publicly available articles in the student newspaper, The Exponent, which describe the creation of the museum and the arrival of the “English locomotive of unusual design. ”
There is no date to accompany this photo, but it was included in a history written in 1928 of Purdue’s railway involvement. (The history does not mention the James Toleman at all. )
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Bandit
> a r
10/01/2020 at 11:22 |
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That 1907 map is very cool, looks like the rail museum was right there in the center of modern campus by the Armory, HPN , and ME buildings. Thanks for sharing, always wish I took more advantage of learning more from the archives when I was in school !
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a r
> Bandit
10/01/2020 at 11:43 |
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Archives has a very cool interactive buildings database. http://collections.lib.purdue.edu/campus/ You can adjust the timeline bar to certain years as well as search text for particular buildings . I t shows the locations of the two different locomotive museum buildings that were apparently used. Even our description of the first building does not mention the James Toleman , however.
Locomotive Museum 1:
http://collections.lib.purdue.edu/campus/buildings/192
This was within the footprint of a number of later power plant “north” buildings, and is currently the site of the new WALC library.”
Locomotive Museum 2:
http://collections.lib.purdue.edu/campus/buildings/236
This falls under the footprint of
the current Mechanical Engineering building.
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a r
> Bandit
10/01/2020 at 11:49 |
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There is also an interesting write-up in the 1921 yearbook: https://earchives.lib.purdue.edu/digital/collection/debris/id/16161
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Berang
> a r
10/07/2020 at 22:11 |
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November 1914 issue of Railway and Locomotive Engineering. It is possible to find it on google books. Thank you.