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The New Zealand Railways Magazine, Volume 13, Issue 3 (June 1, 1938.)

A Famous Stationary Engine

A Famous Stationary Engine.

Although the L. M. & S. Railway possesses one locomotive that is still performing light work 72 years after it was built, this record of longevity is easily eclipsed by two railway engines that have never moved a foot from their positions for over a century apiece. Totalling between them 218 years’ continuous service, these two veteran stationary engines are employed at Middleton Top (Derby) and Swannington (Leicestershire) respectively. Both are still used for hauling wagons up and down steep inclines unsuitable for locomotives. The engine at Middleton Top is 113 years old, and is a twin-cylinder, low pressure, condensing-type beam engine, built for the Cromford & High Peak Railway in 1825 by the Butterley Iron Works. A treasured relic is the Swannington engine, for it was installed in 1833 to the instructions of George Stephenson, engineer of the Leicester & Swannington Railway, which was opened 1832–33, and was the first railway in the Midlands. Originally used for hauling up wagons of coal from various collieries reached by the Swannington Incline, the engine is now employed only for lowering wagons of coal required by a colliery pumping-plant at the bottom. The Swannington engine was made by the Horsley Coal and Iron Company, and is of the long-stroke (3 ft. 6 in.), single-cylinder, simple expansion type, the steam pressure being 80 lbs. per sq. in. It is capable of hauling six empty wagons up the incline (half–a-mile long and rising at 1 in 17) at a speed of 9 m.p.h.

George Stephenson's Stationary Engine at Swannington, Leicestershire.

George Stephenson's Stationary Engine at Swannington, Leicestershire.