20
Sep
2013

Wooler Bridge Showmans Engine Accident

Photograph showing accident involving Wilson Bros Fowler 10328 "Dawn of the Century" and Switchback load on Wooler Bridge, Northumberland 18 June 1908. The engine is very precariously positioned, another 6 inches further forward and the whole train would have toppled over and ended up in the River Till with much more serious consequences.

Fowler Showmans Road Locomotive 10328, Dawn on the Century

Fowler 10328 was a B6 class showmans engine built in 1905 for John & William Wilson who were a Scottish amusement caterer. The engine was later rebuilt and sold on to another Scottish showman, Henry Irvin, gaining the name "One of the Best". Whilst with Irvin the engine traveled with his Whale Scenic ride alongside an ex War Department Fowler 14114, "The Tiger".

10328 was one of very few Fowlers to carry an exciter dynamo on the offside belly tank. Later the engine travelled their Skid ride and was scrapped whilst in Henry Irvin's ownership.

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lowesnet
12/06/2018 - 08:17 #

10328 was one of very few Fowlers to carry an exciter dynamo on the offside belly tank. Later the engine travelled their Skid ride and was scrapped whilst in Henry Irvin's ownership.
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Robert Walton
08/08/2018 - 10:48 #

I have a follow-up regarding the ultimate fate of the Fowler company.In 1997 I handled the electrical installation of an electrode steam boiler at a sulphuric acid plant at Likasi in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). It was manufactured by Marshall Fowler of Randfontein, South Africa where I was resident at that time. The company informed me that they had bought up the original UK business and transferred it kit and caboodle to SA. I was presented with a company tie, which I still have. The boiler in the Congo was supposed to be replenished with treated water, but the users, Gecamines, tended to use raw river water when the dosing chemicals ran out. The boiler electrodes then arced and eroded, and wouldn't have lasted very long.

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Author David Collidge

I started Steam Scenes back in 2000 as a way to share some of the engine photographs that I had just started to take with my first digital camera. I have been involved with road steam all of my life and take an active interest in all areas of the hobby.