A well-engineered contemporary 19th century 6in gauge live s...

Hammer

£2,000

A well-engineered contemporary 19th century 6in gauge live steam model locomotive of the London and South Western Railway Company 2-4-0WT 0298 Class or Beattie Well Tank engine, No.209, 1866, built by Percy Gore Hepworth, c1875, finished in L & S W R black-lined green livery, 82cm over buffers, on a length of show track in the original glazed display case (later painted), stand, travelling box, various wooden patterns for casting the wheels and other items, three single seat passenger carriages (chassis only), a length of track and P G Hepworth's ink written display label, including "Length over Buffers 2ft 8⅝ inches, Width over Cylinders 9¾ inches, Distance between Cylinders 7¼ inches, Bore 1¾ inches, Stroke 2 inches"

Provenance: The locomotive builder P G Hepworth, by descent to his daughter in 1940; from whom purchased in 1960 by the father of the present vendor

Built to the rarely employed 6in gauge by Percy G Hepworth (1854-1940) to mark the completion of his apprenticeship at the London and South Western Railway Company's Nine Elms Locomotive Works. The model conforms to the original but for being fitted with 'dummy' water tanks.
He was born in Chelsea and spent his entire working life practising as an engineer and draughtsman, living in retirement in Wolverhampton where he died in 1940. According to Hepworth's daughter, her father was employed as a bridging engineer and was involved in the Aber Swing Bridge, Caernarfon, opened in 1900.
The vendor's children recall the locomotive being occasionally steamed in the early 1960s, their father giving them rides on the family's garden railway. 
The locomotive remained in original condition as built until being re-boilered when it developed some pressure problems, the new silver soldered boiler and meticulous restoration undertaken by the distinguished boiler maker and model engineer John M Ellis, of Brierley Hill, West Midlands. The folder of documents sold with the lot include Boiler Certificate No.ST 714, dated 2006, since when the locomotive has not been in steam.
In all eighty five 0298 Class or Beattie Well Tank locomotives were built for the London and South Western Railway Company between 1863 and 1875. Of these, two have been preserved.