Foster, Rastrick and Company

Last updated

Foster, Rastrick and Company
Company typePartnership
IndustryEngineering
FoundedMidsummer 1819
Founders James Foster, John Urpeth Rastrick
Defunct20 June 1831
FateDissolved
Headquarters
Stourbridge
,
England
ProductsMachinery, structural materials, locomotives

Foster, Rastrick and Company was one of the pioneering steam locomotive manufacturing companies of England. It was based in Stourbridge, Worcestershire, now West Midlands. James Foster, an ironmaster, and John Urpeth Rastrick, an engineer, became partners in 1816, forming the company in 1819. Rastrick was one of the judges at the Rainhill Trials in 1829. The company was dissolved on 20 June 1831.

Contents

Origins

Foster, Rastrick & Company were based at the purpose-built New Foundry, Stourbridge, constructed in 1821 and here shown in a derelict state before conversion into a health centre New Foundry, Stourbridge - geograph.org.uk - 781521.jpg
Foster, Rastrick & Company were based at the purpose-built New Foundry, Stourbridge, constructed in 1821 and here shown in a derelict state before conversion into a health centre

James Foster was the half-brother of John Bradley who founded the company John Bradley & Co, taking a lease on land near the canal at Stourbridge in 1800 with the aim of developing an ironworks. [1] The deed of partnership for the company was drawn up in 1802 which granted a share in the company to Bradley's six half-brothers and sisters. By 1813 only John Bradley and James Foster had shares in the company and on Bradley's death in 1816, James Foster took control of the enterprise, which included the Stourbridge Iron Works.

John Urpeth Rastrick was an engineer born in 1780 at Morpeth in Northumberland. After finishing an apprenticeship with his father, which included work on steam engines, he worked first at the Ketley Ironworks and subsequently worked in partnership with John Hazledine of Bridgnorth. [1] In 1808 he constructed a locomotive for Richard Trevithick and subsequently constructed a bridge at Chepstow (opened 1816). Shortly afterwards (1817) Rastrick left the partnership with Hazledine's company and moved to West Bromwich.

In June 1819 Rastrick and James Foster agreed to form the firm Foster, Rastrick & Company at a site next to the Stourbridge Iron Works. A new foundry was constructed from 1820-1821 to produce products for the partnership. [1]

Products

The company produced a variety of engineering products including steam engines, proving machines for chain cable, saws, mills, and boilers. It also produced structural components for buildings, bridges and gas works. It had the facilities to produce cast industrial components including beams, cylinders and flywheels as well as some household items. In 1825 it listed railway components in a catalogue of products including rail, railway sleepers and railway chairs. [1]

Locomotives

Foster, Rastrick and Company's locomotives commemorated in a sculpture above the subway leading to Stourbridge Town Station Stourbridge Subway.JPG
Foster, Rastrick and Company's locomotives commemorated in a sculpture above the subway leading to Stourbridge Town Station

At the end of the 1820s, Foster, Rastrick and Company produced steam locomotives intended for two railways: one in the USA and one just a few miles from the works at Stourbridge. The local opportunity had arisen after an agreement between James Foster and Francis Downing, the mineral agent of John William Ward, the 4th Viscount Dudley and Ward. The parties agreed to build a three-mile railway linking coal mines in the Shut End area with a purpose-built canal basin at Ashwood on the Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal. In America, at about the same time, the Delaware and Hudson Canal Company were developing a rail and canal link between coal mines at Carbondale and the Hudson River. [2] The Foster, Rastrick and Company built only four steam locomotives (each one having vertical cylinders, placed at the back and each side of the furnace, with grasshopper beams and connecting-rods from them to the crankpins in the four coupled wheels). Three were sent to America and one to the Kingswinford Railway in the Black Country.

For America

The first run of the Stourbridge Lion as depicted by the artist Clyde Osmer DeLand Stourbridge Lion.jpg
The first run of the Stourbridge Lion as depicted by the artist Clyde Osmer DeLand

The Delaware and Hudson Canal Company built a canal of total length 108 miles from Rondout on the Hudson River to Honesdale near a coal-bearing region named Carbondale. The canal was finished in 1828 but in order to connect the mines to the canal, the Chief Engineer of the project, John Jervis, planned to construct a railway of around 16 miles in length. Jervis entrusted an assistant, Horatio Allen, who was already planning to visit England, to purchase rail and a locomotive. In the end, Allen bought four locomotives, three from Foster, Rastrick and Company and one from Robert Stevenson & Co.

Horatio Allen arranged for the purchase of three locomotives from the company for the use of the Delaware and Hudson Canal Company Hon. Horatio Allen - NARA - 526419.jpg
Horatio Allen arranged for the purchase of three locomotives from the company for the use of the Delaware and Hudson Canal Company

Of the Foster, Rastrick and Company engines, the Stourbridge Lion built in 1828, was the first locomotive to run on rails in America. It was shipped from Liverpool in April 1829. Two others, named Delaware and Hudson were supplied later that year. The Stourbridge Lion was tested on blocks on May 28, 1829. In July of that year it was sent to Honesdale by boat. Its first test on the railway took place on 8 August 1829 when it ran on 3 miles of track. It quickly became apparent that the track was not stable enough to bear the weight of the locomotive and after a second on September 8, 1829, it was decided not to use the locomotives. [2] The railroad was subsequently operated using gravity, stationary engines and horse power.

For England

The fourth locomotive, Agenoria , was built for service on the Earl of Dudley's Shutt End Colliery Railway in Kingswinford, Staffordshire. It weighed 11 tons, had four coupled wheels of 4 ft ¾in diameter and two cylinders of 8.5 inches diameter by 36 inches stroke. [3] Agenoria was probably the first locomotive to use mechanical lubrication for its axles. The boiler was 10 feet in length and four feet in diameter. The locomotive featured an extremely tall chimney of height 14 feet and 4 inches - this being the most immediately obvious difference between Agenoria and The Stourbridge Lion, which had a shorter chimney. The railway opened on 2 June 1829, the opening being described in Aris's Birmingham Gazette. [4] The track, of standard gauge, was around three miles in length but featured two inclined planes that were too steep for the Agenoria to climb so the locomotive worked about two miles of near-level track. On the opening day, which according to Aris's Gazette, took place "amidst an immense concourse of spectators from the surrounding country", the locomotive first pulled eight carriages filled with 360 passengers along the level section at a rate of 7.5 miles an hour. For its next demonstration it was attached to twenty carriages, twelve of which carried coal whilst eight carried passengers. For this test it travelled at 3.5 miles an hour.

Unlike the company's first three steam locomotives it had a long life, being withdrawn from service in c.1864. After a period of neglect, the locomotive was rediscovered disassembled and covered with rubbish. The person who rediscovered it, Mr. E.B. Marten, obtained the permission of the owner William Orme Foster to reassemble the engine and display it at an exhibition in Wolverhampton in 1884. [5] After the exhibition, Foster presented the locomotive to the Science Museum (London) in December 1884 and it is now on permanent display at the National Railway Museum in York. [6]

Dissolution

Although pioneering, the company's locomotive designs were almost immediately outdated upon the arrival in 1829 of Robert Stephenson's Rocket , the locomotive which virtually set the pattern for the rest of the steam age. [7] Ceasing locomotive work, the company was officially dissolved on 20 June 1831, its assets being absorbed into the Stourbridge Iron Works of John Bradley & Co. (iron manufacturer and owner of several coal mines), [7] where James Foster was already the major partner and after 1832 the sole owner.

The factory building today

The original factory building in Lowndes Road where Stourbridge Lion and Agenoria were built is still standing, although near to collapse from a fire in 2004. Its renovation began in 2012 to house (with a new adjoining building) a Stourbridge medical practice, which will be known as the Lion Medical Practice. [8] Lion Medical Practice opened during April 2014.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Ward, 1st Earl of Dudley</span> British politician Foreign Secretary

John William Ward, 1st Earl of Dudley, PC, FRS, known as the Honourable John Ward from 1788 to 1823 and as the 4th Viscount Dudley and Ward from 1823 to 1827, was a British politician and slave holder. He served as Foreign Secretary from 1827 to 1828.

<i>Stourbridge Lion</i> Railroad steam locomotive built in 1829

The Stourbridge Lion was a railroad steam locomotive. It was the first locomotive and the first foreign built locomotive to be operated in the United States, and one of the first locomotives to operate outside Britain. It takes its name from the lion's face painted on the front, and Stourbridge in England, where it was manufactured by the firm Foster, Rastrick and Company in 1829. The locomotive, obtained by the Delaware & Hudson Canal Company (D&H), was shipped to New York in May 1829, where it was tested raised on blocks. It was then taken to Honesdale, Pennsylvania for testing on the company's newly built track. The locomotive performed well in its first test in August 1829, but was found to be too heavy for the track and was never used for its intended purpose of hauling coal wagons. During the next few decades, a number of parts were removed from the abandoned locomotive until only the boiler and a few other components remained. These were acquired by the Smithsonian Institution in 1890 and are currently on display at the B&O Railroad Museum in Baltimore.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Amblecote</span> Human settlement in England

Amblecote is an affluent urban village in the Metropolitan Borough of Dudley in the West Midlands, England. It lies immediately north of the historic town of Stourbridge on the southwestern edge of the West Midlands conurbation. Historically, Amblecote was in the parish of Oldswinford, but unlike the rest of the parish it was in Staffordshire, and as such was administered separately.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John B. Jervis</span> American civil engineer (1795–1885)

John Bloomfield Jervis was an American civil engineer. America's leading consulting engineer of the antebellum era (1820–60), Jervis designed and supervised the construction of five of America's earliest railroads, was chief engineer of three major canal projects, designed the famous, pioneering, DeWitt Clinton steam locomotive in 1831 while with the Mohawk & Hudson RR, designed the first locomotive with a swiveling 4-wheeled front bogie truck in 1832 for the M&H RR, designed and built the 41-mile Croton Aqueduct – New York City's fresh water supply from 1842 to 1891 – and was a consulting engineer for the Boston water system.

John Urpeth Rastrick was one of the first English steam locomotive builders. In partnership with James Foster, he formed Foster, Rastrick and Company, the locomotive construction company that built the Stourbridge Lion in 1829 for export to the Delaware and Hudson Railroad in America. From the 1830s he concentrated on civil engineering with his major project from 1838 being the construction of the London and Brighton Railway.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">James Foster (ironmaster)</span> English ironmaster and politician (1786–1853)

James Foster was a prominent Worcestershire ironmaster, coalmaster and senior partner in the important iron company of John Bradley & Co, Stourbridge, which was founded by his elder half-brother but greatly enlarged under his direction. As well as the Stourbridge ironworks, the business owned a number of coal and ironstone mines, furnaces, forges and other works in the Black Country and near Ironbridge. The business continued long after James Foster's death, ultimately being incorporated as John Bradley (Stourbridge) Ltd in the early 20th century. In the late 19th century, the company was a member of the Marked Bar Association, whose members were the makers of the highest quality bar iron of the time. Foster was also a partner in other companies including the engineering firm Foster, Rastrick and Company, which built the first steam locomotive to run on rails in the USA. He was also a banker and landowner as well as being elected Member of Parliament and appointed as Improvement Commissioner for Stourbridge, and High Sheriff of Worcestershire.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Horatio Allen</span> American civil engineer and inventor

Horatio Allen was an American civil engineer and inventor, and President of Erie Railroad in the year 1843–1844.

Wollaston is a village on the outskirts of Stourbridge in the English West Midlands. It is located in the south of the Dudley Metropolitan Borough, one mile west of Stourbridge town centre.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Stourbridge Line</span> Shortline railroad based in Honesdale, Pennsylvania

The Stourbridge Line is a shortline railroad that operates 25 miles (40 km) of former Erie Lackawanna Railroad trackage between Honesdale and Lackawaxen, Pennsylvania, where it connects with Norfolk Southern Railway. The line was previously owned by the Lackawaxen-Honesdale Shippers Association and operated under contract by Robey Railroads. The operation was contracted to the Morristown & Erie Railway in January, 2009; service ended in 2011. Service was resumed by the Delaware, Lackawaxen & Stourbridge Railroad (DL&S) on May 9, 2015.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Delaware and Hudson Gravity Railroad</span> American gravity railroad incorporated and chartered in 1826

A predecessor to the Class I Delaware and Hudson Railway, the 1820s-built Delaware and Hudson Canal Company Gravity Railroad('D&H Gravity Railroad') was a historic gravity railroad incorporated and chartered in 1826 with land grant rights in the US state of Pennsylvania as a humble subsidiary of the Delaware and Hudson Canal and it proved to contain the first trackage of the later organized Delaware and Hudson Railroad. It began as the second long U.S. gravity railroad built initially to haul coal to canal boats, was the second railway chartered in the United States after the Mohawk and Hudson Rail Road before even, the Baltimore and Ohio. As a long gravity railway, only the Summit Hill and Mauch Chunk Railroad pre-dated its beginning of operations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stourbridge Extension Canal</span>

The Stourbridge Extension Canal was a short canal built to serve a number of mines in the Kingswinford area of Staffordshire in England. Although connected to the Stourbridge Canal, it was independent from it. It opened in 1840, and was abandoned in 1935. A short section of it is still used as moorings for boats using the Stourbridge Canal.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Kennedy (manufacturer)</span> Scottish textile industrialist

John Kennedy was a Scottish textile industrialist in Manchester.

<i>Agenoria</i> (locomotive) Early steam locomotive built by the Foster, Rastrick and Co partnership of Stourbridge

The Agenoria was an early steam locomotive built by the Foster, Rastrick and Co partnership of Stourbridge, England. It first ran on 2 June 1829 along the Kingswinsford Railway which was a 3-mile long (4.8 km) line linking mines in the Shut End area of the Black Country with a canal basin at Ashwood on the Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal. It was withdrawn from service around 1864 and was donated to the Science Museum (London) in December 1884. It is now on display at the National Railway Museum in York.

This article lists events relating to rail transport that occurred during the 1780s.

Hazledine and Company was an ironworks in Bridgnorth, Shropshire, England. It was set up about 1792 by three brothers: John Hazledine (1760–1810), Robert Hazledine (1768–1837) and Thomas Hazledine (1771–1842). Sources differ about the partnership - Discover Shropshire claims that the partners were John Hazledine, William Hallen and John Wheeler.

John Bradley & Co was a company established in 1800 by John Bradley at Stourbridge in the West Midlands area of England. The company developed into a large industrial concern with furnaces, ironworks and mines. Under James Foster, John Bradley's half brother, it was instrumental in bringing the first commercial steam locomotive into the Midlands area in 1829. The firm stayed under family control until the early years of the 20th century when first the mining (1913) and then the ironworks (1919) were sold off. Part of the business continued to trade under the name John Bradley & Co. (Stourbridge) Ltd until after the Second World War.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Earl of Dudley's Railway</span> Railway line in the UK

The Earl of Dudley’s Railway or Pensnett Railway, was a 4 ft 8+12 instandard gauge railway that developed from a single 3-mile (4.8 km) line opened in 1829 to, at its maximum extent, a 40-mile (64 km) long network around the Earl of Dudley’s Iron Works at Round Oak near Brierley Hill.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William Orme Foster</span>

William Orme Foster DL was an English ironmaster, coalmaster and owner of the large industrial firm John Bradley & Co, which he inherited from his uncle, James Foster in 1853. He served as a Liberal MP for South Staffordshire from 1857 until 1868.

John Bradley (1769–1816) was an English industrialist from the town of Stourbridge who founded the family firm John Bradley & Co in the year 1800. The company was originally based on the side of the canal at Stourbridge and included the Stourbridge Ironworks. John Bradley died in 1816 but the firm that he founded expanded greatly under the control of James Foster, who was Bradley's half brother.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Cockeram, Tom (1989). Paul Collins (ed.). Stourbridge and its Historic Locomotives. Dudley, UK: Dudley Leisure Services. pp. 8–18. ISBN   0900911255.
  2. 1 2 Fort, David (1989). Paul Collins (ed.). Stourbridge and its Historic Locomotives. Dudley, UK: Dudley Leisure Services. pp. 30–40. ISBN   0900911255.
  3. "Agenoria and the Stourbridge Lion". Dudley Mall website. Retrieved 3 August 2011.
  4. Paul Collins, ed. (1989). Stourbridge and its Historic Locomotives. Dudley, UK: Dudley Leisure Services. ISBN   0900911255.
  5. Collins, Paul (1989). Paul Collins (ed.). Stourbridge and its Historic Locomotives. Dudley, UK: Dudley Leisure Services. pp. 52–53. ISBN   0900911255.
  6. "The Agenoria". Locomotives collection. National Railway Museum, York.
  7. 1 2 "John Bradley & Co. (Stourbridge) Ltd". Black Country History website. Retrieved 3 August 2011.
  8. Stourbridge News 25 October 2012.

Sources