It’s taken some time to manufacture BUT we are really proud of our achievements and the end result.
Many months ago we received an email asking if we would consider restoring a radiator from a Howard Locomotive. I said ” Well considering my name is Howard we really have to try and see what we can do, so fate was now set for the future to see what we could produce.
The original top and bottom tanks of the radiator were porus and not useable so we manufactured new tanks as per sample in stainless steel for longevity, utilised what we could salvage from the side members and repaired them ready for assembly to a newly manufactured cooling element, a lot of hard work and graft, but what an outcome!!
We are so proud and we hope our client enjoys our work for many years to come.
Thank you Stewart for the history below and for allowing us to complete the work for you.
The loco was built by James & Frederick Howard of Bedford in 1930, works number 965, for the Ford Paper Works in Sunderland. It remained at the Paper works, which became part of the Wiggins Teape Ltd, until it was preserved in 1972 by what was then the Lytham Motive Power Museum, part of the Helical Spring factory at Lytham St Annes. It was then purchased privately to become part of the Fleetwood Railway Museum collection, which eventually moved to the Ribble Railway around 2009. During preservation the loco was named ‘Hotto’ but there is no record of it being named while at the paper works.
J &F Howard were primarily agricultural Engineers manufacturing all forms of mechanised farming equipment, but it also produced railway equipment, mostly narrow gauge but a few standard gauge locos were also produced. The company went into liquidation in the early 1930’s and in 1934 the company was bought out by F Hibbard Ltd, who continued to produce shunting locomotives of a very similar design under the ‘Planet’ trade name until the early 1960’s. Indeed the replacement loco at the Ford Paper works for the Howard was a Planet loco in 1961 named Hylton.
This Howard loco was of the largest design the company made. It is four wheeled, 12 tons in weight and powered by a Dorman 6 cylinder 6JUL side valve petrol engine. It has a three speed bespoke Howard’ gearbox with a conical clutch and chain drive to the wheels. It was also around the late 1930’s that Dorman ceased producing petrol engines and concentrated on diesel engines, which are still found in a lot of modern industrial plant – indeed the later Hibbard ‘Planet’ locos were fitted with Dorman Diesel engines.
There are three Howard petrol locos preserved. The other two are both in working order, a 7 ton standard gauge loco at the Bluebell Railway (which was the works shunter at Howards works in Bedford) and a narrow gauge (2′ gauge) owned by the Mossely loco Trust, based at the Appedale narrow gauge railway.