Timothy Hackworth
Hackworth was born in Wylam, Northumberland, on 22nd December 1786 and died in Shildon, Co Durham, on 7th July 1850. He was a pioneer of steam locomotion. He was the eldest son of John Hackworth, who from 1782 until his death in 1802, was foreman blacksmith at Wylam colliery. He was educated at Wylam village school and at 14 began training under his father. From 1802 his training was supervised by Christopher Blackett (proprietor of the colliery) and in 1807 he became foreman smith, remaining at Wylam until 1816. During this period he was concerned in the design and construction of the early locomotivess built at Wylam (see Jonathan Foster and William Hedley). In 1813 he married Jane Golightly at Ovingham. Both were ardent Methodists, Timothy becoming a lay preacher.
In 1816 he moved to Walbottle colliery near Newcastle as foreman smith. On the opening of the Forth Street Works of Robert Stephenson & Co at Newcastle in 1824 he was asked to supervise the works during the absence of George Stephenson on the Liverpool & Manchester Railway and of Robert in South America. Reluctantly Hackworth agreed, and thus supervised the construction of the first locomotives at this works: it was Hackworth who suggested coupling the wheels of S & D locomotives No 1 Locomotion and its three successors with outside rods and return cranks instead of chains. He declined to take a share in the works, and in 1825 he was appointed to the S & DR to take charge of locomotivs and machinery. He established his headquarters at New Shildon. He first built the stationary winding engines for the Brusselton and Etherley inclines.
In 1827 he built the first six-coupled locomotive, Royal George, at Shildon. It was also the first locomotive on which the cylinders drove directly onto the wheels, and it was the first completely reliable locomotive on the S & DR.
Learning of the forthcoming Rainhill trials on the Liverpool & Manchester Railway in 1829 he designed and built a light 0-4-0 named Sanspareil, again with vertical cylinders driving directly onto the rear wheels, and with a return-flue boiler. It had to be withdrawn from the competition because of a cracked cylinder casting (the cylinders had been cast at Robert Stephenson & Co.), but when repaired the engine worked on the Bolton & Leigh Railway until 1844. It was then used at Coppull colliery near Chorley (see Daglish) for driving a pump, and for light winding, until 1863. After overhaul and restoration it was presented to the Science Museum, London, by John Hick (qv) of Bolton.
In 1829 Hackworth designed coal staithes on the Tees at the new town of Middlesbrough. To carry the S & D Middlesbrough extension across the Tees he designed a plate-girder bridge, then a completely new idea. Despite thorough testing in model form the design was rejected by the directors who adopted a suspension bridge designed by Capt Samuel Brown RN (1776-1852), erected in 1830. As Hackworth had predicted, it was a failure, and its replacement by Robert Stephenson's cast iron bridge in 1842 was also unsatisfactory (see J. Harris). Hackworth's next locomotive was the Wilberforce class 0-6-0 of which six were built in 1831-2. They had vertical cylinders at the rear driving cranks on a fixed shaft connected to the wheels by coupling rods, so allowing all axles to be sprung. They had 'return multitubular fire-tube' boilers with a heating surface of about 500ft2. In 1833 he entered into a new contract with the S & D in which he became responsible for the working of the locomotives and workshops but remained free to operate his own business as a builder of locomotives and stationary engines. He opened new workshops, foundry and built houses for workers, and put his brother Thomas in charge of the new works. Thomas remained there until 1840.
Throughout this period from 1827 Hackworth was studying the use of steam expansively, providing lap on all his slide valves. In 1835 he built a new engine for the Black Boy incline, with a cylinder 40in diam x 30in stroke, using a 'double trunk' principle in which the connecting rod was pivoted at the piston and worked inside a large tubular piston rod. It was in use until 1874. In 1836 he built a 2-2-2 for the Russian government using the same 'double trunk' principle. In 1838 he introduced an improved type of 0-6-0 in which inclined cylinders at the rear drove the front coupled wheels by long connecting rods. One of this type, the Derwent built by Kitching of Darlington in 1845, is preserved at Darlington. However, three 0-6-0s built by Hackworth in 1838 for the Albion Coal Mining Co in Nova Scotia, reverted to the earlier design with vertical cylinders over the rear wheels. One of these, Samson, is preserved at New Glasgow, Nova Scotia.
In 1840 he gave up the S & D contract and concentrated on his own Soho Engineering Works at Shildon where he built locomotives, stationary engines and boilers. His son John became works manager. His last engines for the S & D were two 0-6-0s, similar to Derwent, built in 1842. In 1846 he began an order for twelve 2-2-2s for the London & Brighton Railway to a design by John Gray who, however, made so many alterations to the design that the final delivery time passed before the order could be completed. As a result Gray was dismissed, Hackworth's last locomotive was the 2-2-2 Sanspareil (No 2) to his own design embodying all his experience. It was purchased by the York, Newcastle & Berwick Railway in 1854, becoming No 135, and gave excellent service, running at speeds up to 75mph with trains heavy for the period. It was broken up in 1881. Marshall considered that Hackworth has an assured place in locomotive history as the first to establish the steam locomotive as a thoroughly reliable machine. Throughout his 25 years at Shildon he took an active interest in the welfare of his employees and their families as Holcroft makes very clear:
The biographers of Timothy Hackworth not only relate his triumphs in mechanical engineering, but lay stress on his life as a Christian and philantropist. At the age of 24 he became a member of the Weslyan Society, and was a local preacher and class leader until the period of his death. When he came to Shildon, Durham, there were no facilities for worship, but in three years a commodious chapel was built and there were no less than 34 local preachers; and all this progress took place under the guidance of Hackworth. Every moment of his life was pressed into service, either professionally or in the performance of some good work.
Summary
Young makes two substantial claims that tend to become buried: that Hackworth developed the spring-loaded safety valve (previously weighted safety valves had been used) and the distinctive cast iron driving wheel. In the 0-6-0-type he was also responsible for introducig the typical British freight locomotive. In North East England descendents of the type remained in service hauling coal until the end of steam. Hackworth had a key role in making steam traction a routine form of motive power. He also assisted in the development of Shildon.
Lowe considered that Hackworth should be credited with the blast pipe; six-coupled locomotives, the spring-balance safety valve; cylinders being placed under the smokebox; eccentrics to work feed pumps; the use of waste steam to preheat the feedwater; steam drying chamber in boiler; separate crankshaft hung in bearings fixed between frames, and equalising beams.
Carpenter in his ODNB entry stated that "Hackworth was one of the great pioneers of the steam locomotive and the eminent railway engineer D.K. Clark stated in 1855 that no single individual had, up to the year 1830, done so much for the improvement of the locomotive. He had the reputation of a kindly man, much respected by those who worked for him."
Patent
7233 Rotary engine [two-cylinder] 22 November 1836
Carpenter, George W. biography
Oxford Dictionary of National
Biography
Pearce, Thomas
R. The Locomotives of the Stockton and Darlington
Railway. Historical Model Railway Society.
250pp.
Young, Robert, Timothy Hackworth and
the locomotive. Transactions of the Newcomen Society, 1921/1,
2, 70-87
Young, Robert. Timothy Hackworth and the
steam locomotive. 1923. 408pp.
See Ottley 378. Rutherford notes several errors in Backtrack:
(vol. 9 p. 534) see 9-528. Reissued
as part of the150th Anniversary celebrations by Shildon Town Council in
1875.
Brother of Timothy Hackworth: involved with George Fossick in Fossick & Hackworth which constructed locomotives in Stockton from 1839 until retirement of Thomas Hackworth in 1865 (Lowe).
One of Timothy Hackworth's three sons and six daughters; the eldest of whom, John Wesley Hackworth (1820–1891), carried on the business after his father's death.
Updated 2006-08-20