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(Top, left) Ascension No. 1was an early example of the classic Avonside narrow gauge side tank but unlike its later South African sisters it led a cold and lonely life on the dreary mud flats of Hoo Ness island in the Thames estuary. (Top, right) Now being rebuilt by Alan Keef Ltd for further service in Ireland, Avonside 0-6-0T Nancywas built in 1908 for use on the three-foot gauge ironstone tramways of South Leicestershire. It was photographed at Harston in 1947 shortly before the line was converted to standard gauge. (Lower, left) Pride of the fleet on the extensive 18in gauge Woolwich Arsenal railway were the ‘Charlton’ class Avonside 0-4-0Ts. The class namesake Charlton(1752 of 1916) poses for an official photograph in 1921. (Lower, right) Ex Woolwich Arsenal Railway Avonside Woolwichawaits a buyer at Pitt’s yard at Brackley, Northants. It later saw many years service on the Bicton Woodland Railway in Devon. undertook major boiler repairs on the Festiniog’s two Fairlies, that on Merddin Emrys being undertaken shortly before Avonside’s end in 1934. With its rival Peckett being disinclined to work on locomotives not of its own make and no other builders in the south of England, Avonside also did work on a variety of other narrow gauge industrials. This included such odd jobs as re-tyring an early German built petrol locomotive for a local quarry. 20■NARROW GAUGE WORLD – N0 52 As early as 1912 Avonside had begun considering the virtues of the internal combustion engine and in 1914 four small narrow gauge petrol/paraffin locomotives were actually built, all with a two-cylinder engine and side rods coupling the four wheels. The experience gained with these proved useful the following year when the War Office ordered a batch of twelve much larger 0-4-0 petrol locomotives for service on military 2ft 6in gauge lines in the Middle East. These were to a similar specification to some Hawthorn Leslie locomotives previously supplied, having a 60 hp Parsons engine driving through a clutch, four-speed gearbox and a jackshaft at the front on to the side rods. World War 1 gave Avonside its largest single narrow gauge order in 1916. To cope with greatly increased traffic on the extensive 18in gauge railway serving all parts of Woolwich Arsenal it supplied sixteen ‘Charlton’ class 0-4-0Ts in 1915-16. Clearly based on contemporary sugar estate designs these had outside frames and cylinders on a wheelbase of 3ft 3in and were oil burners. With the gradual run down of the Woolwich system these were the locomotives that were retained with the last survivor, Woolwich, being withdrawn and sold via a dealer to the new Bicton Woodland Railway in Devon in 1962. After many years there it is now at the Waltham Abbey powder works museum where it is hoped eventually to return it to service. Tough times Like all the other builders Avonside found the depression years of the 1920s tough going and sometimes had to accept orders at virtually cost price in order to stay occupied. A few orders for petrol locomotives continued to be received and about 1921 the works drawing office schemed out a simple narrow gauge articulated locomotive with a pair of cylinders in ‘V’ formation, clearly influenced by the American Heisler locomotive. The project got as far as producing a sales brochure with a cleverly faked picture that implied that at least one had been built, but it failed to generate any orders so the project was shelved. In 1928 things began to happen when the company got a new Chief Draughtsman, L.T.Grime, who came down from a more junior post with Hawthorn Leslie at Newcastle. Grime was an exceptionally gifted designer who saw his new post as a chance to show what he could really do given a free hand. Traditional designs were still built but Grime saw new ideas as the way out of the depressed order book. At this time the diesel engine was just starting to be recognised as a superior prime mover to the petrol unit and both Hudswell Clarke and Kerr Stuart had built such locomotives. At the same time Grime realised the articulated locomotive would be attractive to Avonside’s sugar estate customers, as it would give a much more powerful machine that could operate over the lightly laid and badly maintained track of the average estate. All these ideas came together in 1930 when he designed a double-bogie 0-4-4-0 diesel of two-foot gauge for the Ellingham sugar estate railway in Natal. Works number 2046 had a Gardner 6L2 diesel engine mounted on a full-length main frame of
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Umtwalume Valley Estates No. 2was the second last Avonside to be supplied to the sugar estates of South Africa in 1933. It is seen in May 2005 at Ixopo on the Paton’s Country Narrow Gauge Railway – a restored part of the line immortalised in Alan Paton’s famous book Cry the Beloved Country . (David Joy) rolled steel sections, which also carried the three-speed gearbox, water and fuel tanks and central cab. The drive was taken to the two bogies via a reversing gearbox mounted centrally with cardan shaft drive to a worm and wheel on the outer axle of each bogie and the wheels connected by conventional side rods. Although the locomotive remained a one-off it was perfectly successful. More importantly the frame and bogie design was utilised in a twin-cylinder articulated geared steam locomotive that like the earlier stillborn design was based on the Heisler. The first of these was a twin-cylinder version for Renishaw sugar estates and this was followed by several larger four-cylinder versions for Natal Estates. All were of two-foot gauge. By now it was 1931 with the industrial recession at its worst and Avonside was battling to survive. As well as conventional steam locomotives Grime designed and built several diesels, the last being a pair of small three-foot gauge units for a stone quarry in Somerset. There were narrow gauge steam orders too, notably the five two-foot gauge 0-4-0Ts of entirely new design built in 1933 for the Durham County Water Board’s Burnhope reservoir scheme (see NGW-36 ‘Narrow Gauge in the Hills’). Another interesting order turned out in 1933 was Burnett Hall, a 0-4-2T for the Admiralty’s 2ft 6in inch gauge Chattenden & Upnor Railway down in Kent. When the Admiralty wanted a second similar locomotive the following year the order went to the hated rival Peckett. Sadly all these efforts to survive were just not enough and on 29 November 1934 the Avonside Engine Co went into voluntary liquidation, the final locomotive built being appropriately another typical two-foot gauge side tank for a Natal sugar estate. The following year the goodwill, drawings and patterns were sold to the Hunslet Engine Co on 10 July 1935. It was a most useful purchase for Hunslet as, apart from much valuable spares business, it inherited a range of well-proven steam designs and diesel locomotive knowledge and experience that would assist in its own efforts in this sphere. Up to the outbreak of war, Hunslet built ten Avonside pattern steam locomotives, including three more articulated steam versions of both the two and four-cylinder type that were completed and shipped to Natal just before war broke out. Avonside designs continued to be offered after 1945 and one interesting spares order executed about 1955 was the supply for one of the four-cylinder Avonside Heislers of a new bevel gear transmission, replacing the original worm and wheel unit that was worn out. The high cost of cutting this unit had caused Hunslet-built Heislers to use this type of drive from the outset. One of the last new steam locomotive orders turned out by Hunslet was effectively a perpetuation of an Avonside design when two 2ft 6 in gauge 0-6-2Ts were built for the JaynagarJanakpur railway in Nepal in August 1962. It is ironic that that the number of narrow gauge Avonside in this country has actually increased, thanks to the increasing tendency by the preservation movement to repatriate or import suitable steam locomotives from overseas. Several typical side tanks and an Avonside Heisler have come back from the Natal sugar lines and just recently one of the surviving Durham County Water Board 0-4-0Ts, laterElidir at Dinorwic slate quarries, has returned from Canada. These imports have also included a later Hunslet copy of an Avonside, namely the 1940 0-4-2T Chaka’s Kraal No. 6, which is currently residing at Toddington. It is pleasant to think that although it is over seventy years since Avonside locomotives were built, various examples still give good service and pleasure to all those who get to go and see them. (Left) The first successful Avonside articulated locomotive was this twofoot gauge 0-4-4-0 diesel turned out for Ellingham sugar estate in Natal in 1930. Despite its success it was destined to be the only one of its type. (Right)Avonside 2059 of 1931, the first of the larger four-cylinder two-foot gauge articulated locomotives built for Natal Estates in 1931. NARROW GAUGE WORLD – N0 52 ■21

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(Top, left) Ascension No. 1was an early example of the classic Avonside narrow gauge side tank but unlike its later South African sisters it led a cold and lonely life on the dreary mud flats of Hoo Ness island in the Thames estuary. (Top, right) Now being rebuilt by Alan Keef Ltd for further service in Ireland, Avonside 0-6-0T Nancywas built in 1908 for use on the three-foot gauge ironstone tramways of South Leicestershire. It was photographed at Harston in 1947 shortly before the line was converted to standard gauge. (Lower, left) Pride of the fleet on the extensive 18in gauge Woolwich Arsenal railway were the ‘Charlton’ class Avonside 0-4-0Ts. The class namesake Charlton(1752 of 1916) poses for an official photograph in 1921. (Lower, right) Ex Woolwich Arsenal Railway Avonside Woolwichawaits a buyer at Pitt’s yard at Brackley, Northants. It later saw many years service on the Bicton Woodland Railway in Devon.

undertook major boiler repairs on the Festiniog’s two Fairlies, that on Merddin Emrys being undertaken shortly before Avonside’s end in 1934. With its rival Peckett being disinclined to work on locomotives not of its own make and no other builders in the south of England, Avonside also did work on a variety of other narrow gauge industrials. This included such odd jobs as re-tyring an early German built petrol locomotive for a local quarry.

20■NARROW GAUGE WORLD – N0 52

As early as 1912 Avonside had begun considering the virtues of the internal combustion engine and in 1914 four small narrow gauge petrol/paraffin locomotives were actually built, all with a two-cylinder engine and side rods coupling the four wheels. The experience gained with these proved useful the following year when the War Office ordered a batch of twelve much larger 0-4-0 petrol locomotives for service on military 2ft 6in gauge lines in the Middle East. These were to a similar specification to some Hawthorn Leslie locomotives previously supplied, having a 60 hp Parsons engine driving through a clutch, four-speed gearbox and a jackshaft at the front on to the side rods. World War 1 gave Avonside its largest single narrow gauge order in 1916. To cope with greatly increased traffic on the extensive 18in gauge railway serving all parts of Woolwich Arsenal it supplied sixteen ‘Charlton’ class 0-4-0Ts in 1915-16. Clearly based on contemporary sugar estate designs these had outside frames and cylinders on a wheelbase of 3ft 3in and were oil burners. With the gradual run down of the Woolwich system these were the locomotives that were retained with the last survivor, Woolwich, being withdrawn and sold via a dealer to the new Bicton Woodland Railway in Devon in 1962. After many years there it is now at the Waltham Abbey powder works museum where it is hoped eventually to return it to service.

Tough times

Like all the other builders Avonside found the depression years of the 1920s tough going and sometimes had to accept

orders at virtually cost price in order to stay occupied. A few orders for petrol locomotives continued to be received and about 1921 the works drawing office schemed out a simple narrow gauge articulated locomotive with a pair of cylinders in ‘V’ formation, clearly influenced by the American Heisler locomotive. The project got as far as producing a sales brochure with a cleverly faked picture that implied that at least one had been built, but it failed to generate any orders so the project was shelved. In 1928 things began to happen when the company got a new Chief Draughtsman, L.T.Grime, who came down from a more junior post with Hawthorn Leslie at Newcastle. Grime was an exceptionally gifted designer who saw his new post as a chance to show what he could really do given a free hand. Traditional designs were still built but Grime saw new ideas as the way out of the depressed order book. At this time the diesel engine was just starting to be recognised as a superior prime mover to the petrol unit and both Hudswell Clarke and Kerr Stuart had built such locomotives. At the same time Grime realised the articulated locomotive would be attractive to Avonside’s sugar estate customers, as it would give a much more powerful machine that could operate over the lightly laid and badly maintained track of the average estate. All these ideas came together in 1930 when he designed a double-bogie 0-4-4-0 diesel of two-foot gauge for the Ellingham sugar estate railway in Natal. Works number 2046 had a Gardner 6L2 diesel engine mounted on a full-length main frame of

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