We were asked via Twitter a question relating to Pug engines by Dave Salter;
@chasing_steam, two shunting locos, Annabel & Rosabel at Courtaulds Wolverhampton, in use or scrapped!!!!! #locos
— Dave Salter (@PastieD) October 6, 2014
So we asked our team to look into these engines to see if we could unearth any information and its launched an interesting investigation.
We have looked up the info in Ned William’s book – “By Rail to Wombourn“.
With industrial locos, they are identified by the builder’s name and the locos’ “factory Lot No / Year Built”
The following three were purchased by Courtaulds and used at the Wolverhampton site.
“Rosabel” – 0‑4‑0ST built by Hawthorn & Leslie, No. 3699/1927
“Annabel” – 0‑4‑0ST built by Hawthorn & Leslie, No. 3876/1936
(“Dafydd”) – 0‑4‑0ST built by Pecket, No. 2087/1948
We believe that Rosabel and Annanbel were scrapped, but where we don’t yet know.
The best place to go for such info is Industrial Railway Society.
or perhaps joining the IRS Yahoo group and ask there.
https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/IndustrialRailwaySociety/
I know IRS published a book on Industrial Locos in South Staffs ISBN 9780901096784. Wolverhampton archives have a copy, which I used to obtain the info regarding the locos that built the Wolverhampton & Bridgnorth Railway. IRS also did a feature on Courtaulds Wolverhampton in their magazine, Industrial Railway Record – issue 191 – Dec 2007.
Click on the titles for links.
Was originally ordered for by Courtaulds’ for their Aber Works in Flint, North Wales. But was transferred to their plant in Wolverhampton, where the name was dropped. This loco is still alive and kicking down in Bucks.
We will continue to investigate, we have some links to follow up. However, if there’s anyone out there reading this article and would like to contribute to answer Dave Salter, please feel free to join our site and comment directly or drop us an email.
