David Ratcliffe looks at Bagnall industrial locomotives
W.G. Bagnall began building steam locomotives at its Castle Engine Works at Stafford in 1875 eventually switching to the construction of industrial diesels in the 1950s. Known for robust and reliable 0-4-0 and 0-6-0 designs, Bagnall built a range of diesel mechanical locomotives, from a 9ft wheelbase 208 bhp design which weighed 29 tons to larger 10ft wheelbase 300 plus bhp locomotives weighing from 38 to 50 tons powered by either National or Dorman six-cylinder engines. Bagnalls’ customers included the British Waterways Board at Sharpness Docks, Briton Ferry Steel, the National Coal Board (Staffordshire area) and Mobil Oil. Works No. WB3160 was a 370 bhp 0-6-0DM built in 1959 for use at Mobil’s Coryton Refinery in Essex where it worked for twenty years before being sold to Resco Railways of Woolwich in December 1979. In December 1980 it was resold to Tunnel Cement, being based at their Pitstone Cement Works at Tring until that plant closed in 1991. In February 1992 the locomotive was transferred to the Ketton Cement Works in Rutland, Ketton like Tunnel having become a part of the Castle Cement Group during the mid 1980’s, and is pictured when acting as the spare locomotive at Ketton on 2nd October 1996.
The last two locomotives to be built at Bagnall’s Stafford works were a pair of 16 ton 4wh diesel hydraulics fitted with 89 bhp Dorman engines. Both were ordered by Leys Malleable Castings, the first being based at the company’s Derby factory while the other went to the Harrison & Co. Malleable Iron Works at North Hykeham, Lincolnshire, who were part of the Leys group. Subsequently the second of the pair, works No. WB3208 built 1961, worked for G. Cohen & Son’s Coburn Works at Tinsley, Sheffield, before being sold in July 1986 to Booth Roe Metals Ltd. However, it did not languish for long at Booth’s Rotherham scrapyard before being resold to the Trafford Park Company, a wholly owned subsidiary of Trafford Park Estates Ltd, in March 1987. The locomotive is pictured in August 1987 at Trafford Park where the Bagnall was used to assist in bringing parts of the industrial estate’s extensive rail network back into use although its small size and lack of train braking made it unsuitable for working trains to and from the BR exchange sidings. Consequently, once the engineering work to bring the track back into operation was completed, it then spent several years stored in the estate company’s small shed near to Trafford Park Road. After moving to Beaver
