Surprise locomotive

The Surprise locomotive was a railway locomotive in England in the nineteenth century. It is notorious as having been tried unsuccessfully in the early days of the Lickey Incline, killing its crew when the boiler exploded.

It was built by William Church, who is mainly remembered for his typesetting machine, but did also experiment with locomotives. [Huss, Richard E. (1976). "Dr. Church's "Hoax": An Assessment of Dr. William Church's Typographical Inventions in which is enunciated Church's Law." Graphic Crafts, Inc. ISBN 1299798527]

It was an 0-2-2 Well tank locomotive, with horizontal outside cylinders at the rear. Dr Church had invented an expanding mandrel for fixing boiler tubes, and it was the first tank engine to have a multitube boiler. It used piston valves and eccentric motion.

It began running trials in January, 1838 on the London and Birmingham Railway as a ballast locomotive, then transferred to the Grand Junction Railway. At this time it was named "Victoria". Notwithstanding that it was said to have achieved 60 miles an hour, [Prosser, R.B. (1881) "Birmingham Inventors and Inventions" Private publication, reprinted 1970 Wakefield: S.R.Publishers.] it was never particularly successful. [Lowe, J.W., (1989) "British Steam Locomotive Builders," Guild Publishing]

In 1840, when the Birmingham and Gloucester Railway were looking for engines to work the Lickey Incline, the locomotive, now called "Surprise" was brought in, and its boiler exploded at Bromsgrove Station. Both crewmen, Thomas Scaife and John Rutherford were killed and several people were injured.

A new boiler was later fitted and it was renamed "Eclipse". In 1850, it was seen at Camp Hill Station. By the late 1850s, it had been rebuilt as a six coupled engine on the Swansea Vale Railway.

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