The LNER Encyclopedia

This loco is recorded here as one of eight 0-6-0STs bought by the MSLR/GCR from contractors, though it stands out having been built by Hudswell, Clarke (the rest were Manning Wardle) and at a more recent date (1909, the rest being no later than 1879). The earlier ones were bought around the time Grimsby Docks were expanded and no 278, bought in 1911, coincides with the construction of Immingham docks, formally opened in 1912.

This information is confirmed by the Baxter British Loco Catalogue (Vol 5B p249), but my "Locomotives Illustrated" No 156 tabulates no 278 as bought from the Barton & Humber Light Railway, a name I cannot trace and probably refers to the Barton & Immingham Light Railway.

Can anyone please let me know which version is correct, or are both contractors and Light Railway involved in a more complicated story? Referenced replies especially welcomed.

Thanks

Kudu

I'm not sure if I'm adding to the question or just confusing it further.

I picked up a small booklet some years ago with typewritten pages titled Engine Class Book, Loco.Work's Manager's Office, Gorton, dated 1 6 1929, placing it well into LNER time.

There is a maker's index showing H.C as Hudswell Clarke and, against the entry for Engine no. 5278, the text reads-
P age header.

ENG. NO. CLASS TYPE MAKER BUILT
5278 4 J61 0-6-0 4.31 H.C 7-1909 .
Entered in manuscript in the l/h margin by 5278 is written 'HUMBER' ex I.D.H.B. which I surmise is Immingham Dock and Harbour Board.

make of it what you will!

Dave

Might want to look at book from 80’s:

Railways around Grimsby, Cleethorpes & Immingham

King & Hewins Foxline Publishing

Recon Immingham Museum will have useful stuff too?!

Thanks for your replies.

Although mention of the IDHB adds further mystery, it also probably strengthens the case for the contractor as original owner, ownership possibly passing to the IDHB before the GCR. Not that these were necessarily totally separate entities anyway. My Locomotives Illustrated remains my only reference to the (non-existent?) Barton & Humber Light Railway.

I wonder if Yeadon has anything to say? (I have a large enough collection of reference books etc already, covering the whole country, not just the LNER, and have so far resisted adding Yeadon.)

Thanks again

Kudu

With a little more time to hand, I have consulted Dow vol 3. There are references(p223, 235 & 236) about the railway construction around Grimsby & Immingham. There is no reference to the Barton and Humber Light railway, which suggests to me that the title used in the Locomotives Illustrated 156 (2005) may have arisen in error, as Dow gives clear mention of 3 light railway lines, linking different areas between Grimsby & Immingham ,which formed the Humber Commercial Railway & Dock, then leased to the GCR in Dec 1912. (My understanding is that Dow's research was detailed and from many original source papers.

Also in Dow vol 3 is a locomotive roster Appendix 5. The entry, on p 367, refers to 278 as named 'HUMBER' and 'used on the construction of the Barton -Immingham line.'

I'd forgotten about Dow. Since Locos Illustrated can't get the name right and other references support Dow it's reasonably certain it was a contractor's loco. It's perhaps conceivable it briefly passed into ownership of the Barton & Immingham Light Rly before the GC but I shan't pursue it further. The info forms part of my database of locos in the Grouping, so I've got 24,000 other locos to worry about besides Humber!

Thanks for your help.

Kudu

The Barton and Humber Light was, I believe, a plan to extend the New Holland - Barton branch to Winteringham on the Lindsey light. Somewhere I have a plan of changes to Barton station that would be needed. The time period that this plan was being pursued was much the same as the building of Immingham Docks so it is possible that the proprietors obtain an interest in this loco before the whole plan was shut down by the GCR.

Thanks, Bill, for your contribution. You've provided the only indication that the Barton & Humber actually existed, even if it never got beyond the planning stage.

Kudu