LINCOLNSHIRE WOLDS RAILWAY - Robert Heath No. 6

LINCOLNSHIRE WOLDS RAILWAY - Robert Heath No. 6 in steam. One of the real unique gems of the steam collection at Foxfield, this is a thoroughly local engine and a very remarkable survival. Robert Heath & Sons were well known local ironmasters, at one time reputed to be the largest producers of bar iron in the world. Furnaces, forges and mills were operated at Black Bull, Biddulph and Ford Green, together with collieries and a network of private railway lines. From the late 1880s the company even had running rights over parts of the North Staffordshire Railway to Congleton. To work these lines, Heaths not only bought locomotives, they also made their own. The original source of the design of Heath's four-wheeled locomotives appears to be one bought new from Falcon of Loughborough in 1885, and numbered 8, though little is known about the loco fleet at that time. Very quickly Heaths set to work to copy it, which was no mean achievement even for an established engineering workshop. It seems that every component, even the boiler, was constructed at Black Bull. The first copy was number 6, although it is not known what the Falcon company thought about its latest product being so blatantly copied by a customer within a year of delivery! Heath's went on to build a further eleven four-wheeled locomotives up to the First World War, and they were gradually modified and rebuilt over the years. In addition two six-wheeled locomotives were built in 1915 and 1924 based on a much rebuilt ...