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Irish Narrow Gauge - Locomotives - Kitson & Co.

works: Airedale Foundry, Hunslet, Leeds
1835: established by James Kitson and Charles Todd, as Airedale Foundry
1838: David Laird joins
1838: named changed to Todd, Kitson and Laird
1838: Charles Todd leaves
1838: name changed to Kitson and Laird
1847: name changed to Kitson, Thompson & Hewitson, (partners: Isaac Thompson, William Hewitson).
1863: name changed to Kitson & Co.
1934: went into receivership
1938: last loco built
????: drawings bought by Robert Stephenson & Hawthorn
1960: drawings bought by Hunslet
documents:
- Armley Mills Industrial Museum
- National Railway Museum Library and Archives
article by D. Kinnear Clark

specs:
- weight: 18½Tons
- cylinders: 11"x15"
- driving wheels: 42"
- working pressure: 150psi
1888: CMR 4 "Blarney"
1911: scrapped
photos: [INGV1: b-5-p32- ]
[CMLRJ: b-5-p6-?1890 b-5-p64- ]

specs:
- weight: 9Tons
- cylinders: 8"x12"
- driving wheels: 28½"
- working pressure: 160psi
- heating surface: 116 sq ft
- wheelbase: 5'
- valvegear: Walschaerts
1882: PT 1
1926: To York Rd Works
1939: to Hull Museum of Transport
photos: [INGV2 b-6-p49-1920.05.05 b-7-p59-1920.05.05 b-7-p59-1920.05.05 ]
[ITJKY b-6-p53-1920.05.05 b-6-p53-]

specs:
- weight: 9Tons
- cylinders: 8"x12"
- driving wheels: 28½"
- working pressure: 160psi
1883: PT 2
1926: To York Rd Works
????: to Cookstown
1949: on display at Ballymoney Station
1954: preserved: Ulster Folk and Transport Museum
photos: [INGV2 b-5-p49-1993 ]
[ITJKY b-6-p53- ]

specs:
- weight: 18Tons
- cylinders: 12"x15"
- driving wheels: 33"
- working pressure: 140psi (reduced from 160psi)
- tanks (3, well); total capacity: 455gall
- tractive effort: 7753lb@85% (reduced from 8860)
- heating area: 33.5+235.8=269.3 sq ft
- tubes: 96 x 1¾"
- grate area: 7.3 sq ft
- bunker capacity: 22 cu ft
- valve gear: Walschaert
1891: C&VBT 3
1928.05: withdrawn
1928.12: scrapped
photos: [INGV2 b-6-p115-1924.05 ]
[CVBTP: b-6-p20- b-6-p45- b-6-p46-1924.05.24 b-6-p47- ]
[ITJKY b-7-p57- ]
drawings: [CVBTP: e-6-p79- ]

specs:
- weight: 9Tons
- cylinders: 8"x12"
- driving wheels: 28½"
- working pressure: 160psi
1901: PT 3
1926: Sold to Warke(Contractor) of Castlerock used for stationary work
1935: scrapped
photo: [ITJKY b-6-p53-1920 ]
Dr H. A. Whitcombe, Journal of the Institution of Locomotive Engineers, Vol.XXVII, no. 137, May-June 1937, p341:

In 1925 the Author made a special pilgrimage to Portstewart for no other purpose than to see this engine and her two veteran sisters of 1882 and 1883. He found them all in perfect order, literally as good as new, and had the pleasure of driving No. 3 several times. What astonished him most about them was their silent and smooth running (in spite of the appalling condition of the track), for since he had last seen steam trams he had forgotten these virtues in the racket and jolting to which twenty years of electric trams had accustomed him. The track had become so bad that towards the end of the same year, 1925, the Northern Counties Committee of the London Midland and Scottish Railway, who owned the line, condemned it and removed it early in 1926, replacing the trams by omnibuses.

2002.07.22

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