Joseph Hamilton Beattie (1808-1871) was a locomotive engineer with the London and South Western Railway. Joseph Beattie was born in Ireland on 12 May 1808. He was educated in Belfast and initially apprenticed to his father, a Derry architect. He moved to England in 1835 to serve as an assistant to Joseph Locke on the Grand Junction Railway and from 1837 on the London and Southampton Railway. After the line opened he became the carriage and wagon superintendent at Nine Elms and succeeded John Viret Gooch as locomotive engineer on 1 July 1850.
Locomotives Initially he designed a series of singles, but the weight of the Southampton and Salisbury expresses led to the development of 2-4-0s. He continued to develop the design over the next 20 years. In addition he developed a series of 2-2-2 and 2-4-0 well tanks and three classes of 0-6-0s. His locomotives were amongst the most efficient of the time. Three of his most famous locomotive design, the 0298 Class 2-4-0 well tanks, were in service for 88 years, until 1962. 2 have been preserved - see the Swanage Railway, Bodmin & Wenford Railway and the National Railway Museum, York.
Locomotive classes + Locomotive classes designed by J.H. BeattieClass Wheel arrangement Driving wheels Years built Builders Quantity Purpose NotesHercules 2-4-0 1851–55 Nine Elms 15 Goods Tartar 2-2-2WT 1852 Sharp Brothers 6 Suburban passenger Sussex 2-2-2WT 1852 Nine Elms 8 Suburban passenger Saxon 2-4-0 1855–57 Nine Elms 12 Goods Canute 2-2-2 1855–59 Nine Elms 12 Passenger Chaplin 2-2-2WT 1856 Nine Elms 3 Suburban passenger Minerva 2-4-0WT 1856 Nine Elms 3 Suburban passenger Nelson 2-4-0WT 1858 Nine Elms 3 Suburban passenger Tweed 2-4-0 1858–59 Nine Elms 6 Passenger Clyde 2-4-0 1859–68 Nine Elms 13 Express passenger Nile 2-4-0WT 1859 Nine Elms 3 Suburban passenger Undine 2-4-0 1859–60 Nine Elms 12 Passenger Eagle 2-4-0 1862 Nine Elms 3 Passenger Gem 2-4-0 1862–63 Nine Elms 6 Goods 298 2-4-0WT 1863–71 Beyer, Peacock 70 Suburban passenger 15 more ordered by W.G. BeattieFalcon 2-4-0 1863–67 Nine Elms 17 Passenger Lion 0-6-0 1863–71 Nine Elms 32 Goods Six more ordered by W.G. Beattie221 0-6-0 1866–72 Beyer, Peacock 18 Goods Six more ordered by W.G. Beattie231 2-4-0 1866 Beyer, Peacock 6 Passenger Volcano 2-4-0 1866–69 Nine Elms 12 Passenger Six more ordered by W.G. BeattieVesuvius 2-4-0 1869–71 Nine Elms 14 Passenger 18 more ordered by W.G. Beattie
Innovations Beattie was a highly innovative engineer, introducing the country's first successful 2-4-0 locomotive, pioneering feedwater heating, balanced slide valves and coal-burning fireboxes. Since the Rainhill Trials in 1829, it had been accepted that the smoke emitted by burning coal was a nuisance. Railway companies accepted the need to burn coke (a smokeless fuel) in their locomotives, but this was much more expensive than coal, and several locomotive engineers sought a method by which coal could be burned smokelessly. One such engineer was Beattie, who designed a boiler suitable for coal in 1853. However, James Livesey (1831-1925), while demonstrating in Antwerp Beattie's smoke-consuming locomotives for the Belgian Government Railway, finds that this engine does not let enough air in and does not consume as much smoke as it could.
Death On 18 October 1871, Beattie died of diphtheria and was succeeded as locomotive engineer by his son William George Beattie.
References
Bradley, D.L., (1989), LSWR Locomotives The Early Engines 1838-53 and the Beattie Classes, Wild Swan
External links South Western Circle