The Salvation Army Peckett Engine

Cardiff Contractor J E Billups was responsible for constructing the railway line at The Salvation Army Colony and for starting up the brickworks.
(An article in the Southend Standard and Essex Weekly Advertiser reports that he was visiting the Colony on Wednesday 16^th March, 1892.)
A friend of the Founder, William Booth, he was greatly experienced, being the principal contractor for the highly successful Taff Vale Railway Company in South Wales, and also having his own brickworks at Llandough. The light railway constructed on the colony, including sidings, was probably something of the order of a mile in length. It would appear that the rails were for the most part fixed to timber sleepers by railway spikes or nails, with metal sleepers being used on the wharf, and possibly also on the bridge over the London, Tilbury and Southend Railway main line.
Ownership of the contractor’s locomotive and trucks passed to The Salvation Army after the construction works were completed. The engine, named “Prosperity”, but of unknown manufacture, was quickly replaced, but it is likely that the trucks continued in use for longer.

 In December 1894 The Salvation Army became the proud owner of a new 4 wheel, standard gauge, saddle tank engine manufactured by Peckett and Sons at their Atlas Engine Works in Bristol. The engine, number 596, was first steamed in Bristol on 1^st May 1894 and was despatched to Hadleigh Colony on 20^th December 1894.
It was delivered with a 15 ton jack, presumably so that repairs and maintenance could be carried out on site. Peckett’s built a range of different models, or classes of engine and 596 was a class R1 engine. Between 1890 and 1908 Peckett’s constructed 55 of these engines which had outside cylinders of 12 x 18 inches, and a usual wheel diameter of 3 feet or 3 feet and half an inch. However Peckett’s would listen to their customers and make adaptations to their designs when requested, and the wheels on the Peckett supplied to The Salvation Army were actually smaller than usual for an R1 engine at just 2 foot four inches. A major repair was required in September 1902 when Peckett’s works sent 2 replacement pistons and rods. 

 The end of The Salvation Army railway, and the disposal of the engine, seems to have come in 1914, thereby coinciding with the start of the First World War and the urgent need to put the economy on a war footing. Whilst General Bramwell Booth was pondering the difficult issues of how an international Salvation Army should respond to an international war – with Salvationists living in countries on opposing sides – Peckett 596 was quickly put to work to support the British War effort. Initially the engine was working for the Government at the Ministry of Munition’s Government Rolling Mills at Woolston, Southampton. Here cupro-nickel strip was rolled for the manufacture of cartridges; apparently the site became a full munitions factory later. 

However, although the premises were opened in December 1916, the engine cannot have been there that long for she was soon working for contractors Sir John Jackson Ltd on the construction of the Larkhill Military Railway, North Wiltshire. This line was in use by February 1915 and served a number of camps and military institutions on Salisbury Plain. The Military Railway had its own engine shed at the junction with the Bulford Branch line at Ratfyn, and it seems that the engine may have subsequently been one of those used by the War Office to operate the line. King George and Queen Mary made a number of visits to troops on Salisbury Plain around this time and, probably reflecting one such visit, the engine finally acquired a name, a very posh name given its humble origins – “Queen Mary”.

 Subsequently Jackson’s moved the engine north and by June 1918 it was working for them at the Admiralty Works, Grangemouth, Scotland. Peckett records show that the engines tyres* were replaced whilst it was here, in December 1918.

It is not clear how the engine ended up in Egypt! Perhaps Jackson’s shipped it for use on one of their large overseas contracts. From 1927 to 1930 Sir John Jackson Company Ltd was engaged in constructing the Egyptian 100 sluice gate Nag Hammadi Barage stretching for about half a mile into the River Nile, 35 miles upstream of Luxor.
However at some stage between 1919 and 1927 ownership of the engine passed to railway contractors Topham, Jones and Railton. It was under their ownership that the Queen Mary ended up working on the prestigious contract to raise the height, for the second time, of Egypt’s (lower) Aswan Dam, a project taking place between 1929 and 1933 (the first such increase in height being between 1907 and 1912).
Unfortunately at this point the trail goes cold. Perhaps the engine is quietly rusting away somewhere in Egypt!

{Ed:  *The author explains:  Locos actually do have tyres. They are made of steel and therefore to the naked eye it is difficult to spot where the wheel stops and the  tyre begins.
Like rubber tyres on a car they wear with time. So they are replaceable (saves having to replace the whole wheel every time.) When fitting them the tyres are heated to high temperatures, placed over a rim on the unheated wheel, so as it cools you can imagine a seamless (and virtually invisible) grip taking place.}

Sir John Jackson Limited – Engineering Contractor to the War Department – Salisbury