The Steam Elephant

Steam Elephant was a six-wheeled locomotive of approximately standard gauge with a centre-flue boiler having two vertical cylinders of about 9 inches (229 mm) x 24 inches (610 mm) set into its top centreline. The cylinders drove slide bar mounted beams which turned crankshafts driving the axles through 2:1 reduction gears between the frames. It had a tall, tapering chimney, the lower part being surrounded by a feedwater heater. It would have weighed about 7.5 tons and had a top speed of around 4.5 miles per hour (7 km/h) and a load capacity of about 90 tons over a short distance. It is now considered[2] to have been designed by John Buddle and William Chapman for Wallsend Colliery on the north bank of the River Tyne in 1815 using metal components supplied by Hawks of Gateshead. It appears originally not to have been very successful at Wallsend, probably due to lack of adhesion on the wooden rails there, nor on trial at Washington. Following the introduction of iron rails at Wallsend, it had a working life th