I dropped into Elsecar to see the fabulous Newcomen engine house and found a whole heritage centre and preserved industrial railway. Now in DB under Darwin Ironworks.

In the shed was a very notable locomotive which in my opinion is well worth a mention here.

The preserved loco is a Peckett Works number 2150 'Mardy No 1' (1 of 3), an 0-6-0ST designed for heavy shunting in Port Talbot steelworks, however Peckett did not win the contract. The design was completed ('OQ' Class) and Works number 2124 was sold to the NCB at Tower in 1950, another 2 going to Mardy Colliery in 1954. These locomotives are the biggest and most powerful 0-6-0 saddle tank industrial loco's ever built and are probably the ultimate design in terms of Stephenson inside valve gear locomotives of a classic saddle tank design. It has been calculated that this 0-6-0 has a Tractive effort of over 32,000lbs and in BR terms would have qualified as a 7F in power classification. Given its power and bulk 'Mardy No 1' is affectionately known as the 'Mardy Monster' and weighs in at a wopping 55T in working order. Apparently when they work this at the Elsecar steam railway it can be heard for quite a few miles, what a superb site these must have been thrashing up the grades into Mardy. :thumbsup:
Sadly the Tower loco was cut up as was Mardy No 2 (works number 2151). 😞
What made the trip really special was I have just restored the 2 attached works pics off water damaged slides of this loco!
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Mardy No 1 at Elsecar on shed.
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Works photo
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Works photo

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Great job restoring the photo's. They look like they came straight from the manufacturer's copy material.

Was there any particular reason for the heavily enclosed (for a saddletank) cab ?

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The cab is quite spacious for an industrial but its a bit of an illusion as the the plates hide the fact that the boiler comes well into the cab and the bunker starts just behind the door opening. I think they did this on purpose to make the cab in proportion to the bulkiness of the rest of it. I think it needed fully enclosing also to protect the Crew as it was originally designed for steelworks use.
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My friend actually owns the Peckett and Sons Ltd Co name and has the glass negs which had huge triangular water damage marks going right down pics in the centre... I restored 18 of these by printing the damaged plates then scanning them... still it was great to see em saved, even if it did my ed in!. :blink:

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Errr You can't.... thats the point! 😉

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