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BEYER, PEACOCK & CO.
Fine contemporary works photograph of a locomotive and tender made for the Smyrna & Cassaba Railway in Turkey.Manchester, Beyer, Peacock, 1864
Description
Beyer, Peacock & Co., founded in 1854 at Gorton Foundry, Manchester, was one a highly-regarded firm of locomotive and machine tool makers. Its founding partners were Charles Frederick Beyer, who had been chief engineer to the locomotive builders, Sharp Brothers & Co, and Richard Peacock, who had been locomotive superintendent of the Manchester & Sheffield (later Manchester, Sheffield & Lincoln) Railway. The firm survived until 1958, supplying locomotives to railway companies all over Britain but they were particularly renowned for the many engines they made for companies in further-flung parts of the world. They were also unusual in that they took a splendid record photograph of every type of engine they made from 1856 onwards. Although the negatives still exist, the actual photographs themselves rarely come on the market.
This photograph shows an 0-4-2 locomotive with a cover over the footplate, a standard feature on locomotives destined for hot climates to protect the crew from the sun. It is possible to read the date 1864 on the works plates. Given its wheel arrangement and its covered footplate, it can therefore be identified as one of 6 locomotives built that year for the standard gauge Smyrna & Cassaba Railway, built 1863-66, in Turkey, nos. 454-459 in the progressive numbering sequence of locomotives. (See: Hills, Some contributions of locomotive development by Beyer, Peacock & Co., Trans. of the Newcomen Society, Vol. 40).
Collation
Fine contemporary photograph 25 x 14½ ins on original mount, 17½ x 23 ins. Unfaded and in fine condition.Price
£450.00Catalogue No: 6403