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Auction: 13050 - Postal History and Historical documents
Lot: 2090

Historical Documents
1852 (21 Dec.) illustrated letter signed "Robt Hawthorne" to William Johnstone, Engineer of Glasgow & South Western Railway, arranging a meeting and includes, "... I have to leave by the mail train at 4.15p.m. for Newcastle". The letter bearing 1841 1d. tied by numeral and showing Newcastle-on-Tyne, Edinburgh and Glasgow c.d.s. Central filing crease, nevertheless, a delightful locomotive letterhead. Photo

Robert Hawthorne first began business at Forth Bank Works in 1817, building marine and stationary steam engines. In 1820, his brother joined him and the firm became R and W Hawthorn. After attending the Rainhill Trials in 1829, they became interested in locomotives, and sold their first engine, a 2-2-2 named Modling, to a railway in Vienna.

There followed a number of orders for the Stockton and Darlington Railway. They continued to build engines, possibly under sub-contract, among them, three for the Birmingham and Derby Junction Railway. In 1846 they bought the Leith Engine Works, in Leith, Scotland, for the assembly of locomotives prepared in Newcastle. These works were sold to another company also called Hawthorns and Company, which produced some four hundred locomotives on its own account until 1872.

In 1850 the company built their first tank locomotive which was supplied to the York, Newcastle and Berwick Railway. In the 1850s, they also built six locomotives for the East Kent Railway. In 1859 they built an engine for the Cape Town Wellington Railway in South Africa. Later nicknamed 'Blackie', this engine is still on show at Cape Town station

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Sold for
£110