Category:Jenny Lind (locomotive)

1975: Jenny Lind image cropped from the cover of the 1975 Hornby catalogue [image info]

The "Classic" Jenny Lind configuration with polished Mahogany claddding, as originally designed [image info]

Bill Hinchley's steam-powered model of the "Jenny". This is the later configuration, with the wooden cladding and dome fluting replaced. [image info]

The tenth, slightly larger loco in the original batch of "Jenny Lind"s, No. 69 "Lewes" [image info]

Jenny Lind Class No. 63, modified to become a 0-4-2 passenger tank locomotive [image info]

The Jenny Lind (named after a well-respected opera singer) was a famous 2-2-2 locomotive built by E. B. Wilson and Company of Leeds in 1847 as the first of a batch of ten for the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway, which had come into existence in 1846 as an amalgamation of the London and Brighton Railway (LBR) with the London and Croydon Railway and three other railway companies. The Jenny Lind design became an early standard with a fleet of over seventy "Jennies" eventually being built, usually with minimal variation from the original design.

In some ways, the Jenny Lind can be considered the locomotive builders' equivalent of the Model T Ford: in a world where locomotive engineers loved to "tinker", and where every new loco was often seen as an opportunity for the designing engineer to try out some interesting new variation or idea, resulting in fleets of locos with random-looking (often unsuccessful) variations and a woeful lack of standardisation when it came to supplying spare parts, Joy and Gray, who knew locomotives but were not practicing locomotive designers, when tasked with inventing a new machine, seem to have tried to create a design that was very, very, very safe. And it worked: the suspension meant that the pipework wasn't as prone to damage or cracking when the loco hit a rough joint in the track, and combined with a safe, overengineered approach to the design of he boiler, the Linds could be run at higher pressure than most locos, and also ran more reliably. With a reputation for working well and working consistently, the locomotive Works, keen to maintain the Linds' superior reputation, went out of their way to discourage buyers from ordering anything other than the "standard" Lind: while the Works could build variations to their customers' specifications if they really had to, this involved paying a surcharge.

Origins

The original plan had been for Chief Draughtsman David Joy of EBW (who went on to design the Joy valve gear for ships and locomotives) to visit Brighton Locomotive Works to sketch an existing 2-2-2 locomotive produced by Locomotive Superintendent John Gray, so that it could be copied by EBW. However, Gray was succeeded in early 1847 by Thomas Kirtley, who disliked his predecessor's design, so Joy and the EBW Works manager James Fenton found themselves effectively having to design a new locomotive.

Joy and Fenton's work during the crisis apparently "hit the spot" – the new locomotive had a comparatively high-pressure boiler, was stable, had good suspension and was economical with fuel, and the basic design was then re-used by EBW to supply locomotives to other railway companies around the country who had seen the "Linds" running at the LBSCR, or on other railways.

Liveries and colour schemes

The Lind was built with a boiler with external insulation consisting of horizontal wooden (mahogany) strips running the length of the boiler. These were originally bare polished wood, but at some point someone decided to paint over the wood rather than re-polish or lacquer it, and chose to paint the strips in a sequence of alternating red and green. The museum model represents the subsequent visually-distinct boiler decoration, when it seems to have been decided that faffing about with painted wood was too much trouble, and the boiler was covered in simple curved sheet metal painted green.

We don't know the exact type of green used at this point, and don't know how accurate the shade of green used on the model might be ... however, this was a time before railway companies had become particular about liveries and logos, and strict corporate colours, and it's possible that here might not have been an official colour for the locomotive - it might simply have been overpainted using whatever green paint was to hand at the time.

F. Burtt, 1903:

We next come to the well-known "Jenny Lind" class, which, as stated above, were very similar to the 49 class in detail and appearance, excepting, of course, the valve motion. Messrs. E.B. Wilson & Co.., of Leeds, constructed ten of these engines for the Brighton Co., which were numbered from 60 to 69, but the number of the first of these had to be changed from 60 to 70, as the last of the Hackworth engines, delivered in the beginning of 1848, was through an oversight also numbered 60. The Jenny Lind type, which was adopted extensively on all the British railways, was designed specifically for the Brighton Railway by the late Mr. David Joy, of valve gear fame, to whom we are indebted for the particulars of these engines. The first engine, No.60., was named " Jenny Lind ". No 69 engine as slightly different in dimensions from the rest of the class, but practically similar in detail.
Fig.13 shows an engine of this class according to the original design. The boiler was lagged with polished mahogany, but afterwards the lagging was painted with alternate strips of red and green, and finally the boilers were clothed with sheet iron and painted the standard Brunswick green colour.
...
In order to obtain from the firebox sufficient heating surface and at the same time to keep its length to a minimum, , it was made as wide as possible, the inside frames finishing at the front or throat-plate of the firebox, the latter being flanged outside to overlap the framing. This arrangement was frequently adopted on Brighton engines. The slide valves were worked by Stephenson's link motion, suspended on one side only. In November, 1861, No. 61 was rebuilt. Nos. 62 and 63 were afterwards converted into four-coupled tank engines, which we will describe later on.
As previously mentioned, engine No. 69 was slightly different from the previous engines of this class. This engine was known as the "Jenny." The diameter of the driving wheels was increased to 6-ft. 3-in., or 3-in larger than the other nine engines. This engine also had a mid-feather or double firebox and was much bigger ... The pumps for feeding the boiler were placed inside or between the frames of the engine, and were worked by the ram being connected to the engine crosshead. They had previously been placed outside the frames, but in this position they were too much exposed to the atmosphere, and in the winter months they were frequently frozen up. Another difference in this engine was the polished brass chimney cap, whilst the other engines had a copper one.
Fig. 14 shows this engine after the mahogany cladding was taken off and sheet iron substituted, and may be taken to represent all this class after this alteration was made. , with the exception of the driving splasher. It will also be noticed that the fluted dome and safety valve casings had been dispensed with, and sheet brass casings put in their place. No.69 was named " Lewes " in Mr. Stroudely's term of office, and was afterwards renumbered 295, and then again altered to 365, these changes taking effect when new engines were constructed with the numbers 69 and 295 respectively.
As previously stated, engines Nos. 62 and 63 were altered by Mr. Craven into passenger tank engines, one of which, No.63, is shown in Fig. 15 ...

— , F. Burtt, , The locomotives of the London, Brighton & South Coast Railway 1839-1903, , 1903

The Railway Magazine, 1924:

PERTINENT PARAGRAPHS: The 'Jenny Lind' Mystery

MYTHS and legends have grown up around the evolution of the steam locomotive which refuse to be laid despite authentic evidence of their lack of reliability. Some 28 years ago long and furious discussions were carried on in the railway and engineering journals relative to the celebrated Jenny Lind locomotive. One would have thought that these articles and correspondence settled the Jenny Lind controversy once and for all, but apparently this is not so. A correspondent writing from the Surrey Sutton asks: "Which railway owned the original Jenny Lind? 'Railways of the World,' by E. Protheroe, states that the York and North Midland Railway owned it, but 'Locomotives of the L.B. & S.C. Railway, 1836-1903,' claim it for the Brighton line."
The facts appear to be that in the autumn of 1846, the L.B. & S.C. Railway was requiring a batch of ten express passenger engines, and John Gray, the Locomotive Superintendent, sent to the Railway Foundry, Leeds, for designs for the engines. David Joy, who was draughtsman at the Railway Foundry, went down to Brighton and spent three weeks at the Works, trying the various engines and discussing with Gray the new type. He returned to Leeds and prepared several designs, incorporating Gray's ideas and several of his own. Whilst Joy was so engaged, Gray left the L.B. & S.C. Railway, and Joy then incorporated several others of his own ideas in a design which included features which had not appealed to Gray. The result of Joy's scheming was a 2-2-2 locomotive, in which the long boiler type was abandoned. This design was accepted for the new express engines by the L.B. & S.C. Railway. The first of the batch of ten engines was named Jenny Lind,* and was No. 60 in the locomotive list of the L.B. & S.C. Railway. She was completed at the Railway Foundry, Leeds, in May, 1847, and ran her trial trips on the York and North Midland Railway. Her principal dimensions were:— Inside cylinders, 15 in. by 20 in.; driving wheels, 6 ft. diameter; heating-surface tubes, 720 sq. ft.; fire-box, 80 sq. ft.; weight, 24 tons 1 cwt.; steam pressure, 120 lb. per square inch. Although the Jenny Lind design contained several improvements, it was apparently her steam pressure of 120 lb that made her so great a success. Previously, 80 lb. to 90 lb. had been had been the general limit of steam pressure for locomotives. The adoption of the steam pressure of 120 lb. was at that time a revolution. Many interesting details of this Jenny Lind will be found in the RAILWAY MAGAZINE for June, 1908, under the caption "Some Links in the Evolution of the Locomotive."

— , -, , The Railway Magazine, , June 1924

Johanna Maria Lind, singer

Joanna (Jenny) Lind (1820-1887) ("the Swedish Nightingale") was an internationally acclaimed and much-admired opera singer who had been touring Europe in the 1840s, and had become an (unrequited) inspiration to fairy-tale writer Hans Christian Anderson after he'd met her in 1843. She was also close friends with the composer Felix Mendelssohn, who died in 1847 at the young age of 38. She later went on to tour the US, with the tour initially organised by showman P.T. Barnum, and then settled in England.