Cauliflowers

Rodney Weaver

Webb  was seen at his best when designing something small and cheap to be mass-produced to meet a particular but vital traffic need. It would be beautifully designed, quickly assume a character of its own, and if it happened to have a characteristic feature its crews would not take long to devise the nick-name by which it was forever known.

When he designed his principal mixed-traffic engine, the 18in 0-6-0, he had recently been bombarded with publicity for David Joy’s new valve gear  (typically routed through the Company Chairman) and rather against his better judgement decided to try it. It appeared to give better valve events than Stephenson gear  but might prove rather fragile at high speed, and it would enable him to fit a better cylinder layout into his proposed locomotive.

A trial batch was built, which for trial purposes were fitted with 5ft 2in cast iron wheels. He seems to have got this far before deciding to use Joy gear and started off intending to use enlarged cylinders in a traditional chassis, but the new gear greatly improved the chassis design and by raising the boiler he achieved what is now recognised as a classic.

The cast wheels, while perfectly satisfactory, looked too heavy and were replaced by the newly developed spun cast steel type as used on express locomotives.

A little later the livery was altered to passenger style and the locomotives received the Company crest, becoming known as the ‘Crested Goods’ . From a distance the new crest could be mistaken for a large vegetable and the men soon came up with the nickname ‘Cauliflower’ .

The Cauliflowers were an immediate and outstanding success, able to haul similar loads to the Coal Engines  but at much higher speeds, and before long they were being used as express engines! Only a small number were built while Joy’s patent was still in force (to avoid paying royalties) but once that obstacle was out of the way quantity production could begin, just as the need for them became urgent to meet the demand for higher speeds and heavier trains.

Moving forward into the 1890s, Webb was facing ever increasing demands for improved motive power and a study of his department’s performance in the mid-1890s leaves one astonished at the effort put into his improvement programme and the results achieved.