Novelty/ Replica

Novelty was an early steam locomotive built by John Ericsson and John Braithwaite to take part in the Rainhill Trials. more...

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It was an 0-2-2 locomotive and is now regarded as the very first tank engine. It had a unique design of boiler and a number of other novel design features (perhaps explaining the choice of name). Unfortunately, several of the major components had significant design weaknesses which ultimately resulted in its failure at the Trials.

Novelty in the Rainhill Trials

Ericsson and Braithwaite Partnership

During the late 1820s Ericsson and Braithwaite were working together building horse drawn fire engines with steam pumps. These used a boiler designed by Ericsson and were built in the London works of John Braithwaite.

These fire engines were known for their ability to raise steam quickly and looked very similar to Novelty.

Charles Vignoles has also been associated with Novelty, but his practical involvement is know known. He may have aligned himself with the engine because of a continuing feud with George Stephenson.

Building the Engine

It is said that Ericsson and Braithwaite only found out about the Rainhill Trails seven weeks before the event was due to take place, when Ericsson received a letter from a friend referring to a ‘Steam Race’. This incredibly short space of time has led people to suggest that Novelty is in fact a converted fire engine. It is more likely that it used many of the same parts as their fire engines and these parts may even have been built for an existing order and diverted to Novelty.

Novelty was constructed in the London Workshop belonging to Braithwaite and transported to Liverpool by boat. There was no time to test Novelty in London before transportation, and following test runs at Rainhill before the trials, modifications were carried out with the help of Timothy Hackworth.

The Boiler

The boiler used on Novelty was designed by John Ericsson. The design was very scientific for the era but proved to be very hard to build and maintain compared with the boiler design adopted for Rocket and most steam locomotives since.

The most prominent feature for the boiler is the vertical firebox (the large vessel to the left in the illustration here). It was polished copper. Within the vertical vessel was the inner firebox and the space between the two was filled with water (to a level just about the same as the driver’s ankle). Fuel (Coke) was added from the top, where a tube passed down through the top of the firebox. This firebox construction was not dissimilar to some types of vertical boiler, but this was only part of Ericsson’s design.

Read more at Wikipedia.org