Foster, Rastrick and Company was one of the pioneering steam locomotive manufacturing companies of England. It was based in Stourbridge, Worcestershire, now West Midlands. James Foster, an ironmaster, and John Urpeth Rastrick, an engineer, became partners in 1816, forming the company in 1819. Rastrick was one of the judges at the Rainhill Trials in 1829. The company was dissolved on 20 June 1831.

Origins

thumb|left|250px|Foster, Rastrick & Company were based at the purpose-built New Foundry, Stourbridge, constructed in 1821 and here shown in a derelict state before conversion into a health centreJames Foster was the half-brother of John Bradley who founded the company John Bradley & Co, taking a lease on land near the canal at Stourbridge in 1800 with the aim of developing an ironworks. The deed of partnership for the company was drawn up in 1802 which granted a share in the company to Bradley's six half-brothers and sisters. By 1813 only John Bradley and James Foster had shares in the company and on Bradley's death in 1816, James Foster took control of the enterprise, which included the Stourbridge Iron Works.

John Urpeth Rastrick was an engineer born in 1780 at Morpeth in Northumberland. After finishing an apprenticeship with his father, which included work on steam engines, he worked first at the Ketley Ironworks and subsequently worked in partnership with John Hazledine of Bridgnorth. The Foster, Rastrick and Company built only four steam locomotives (each one having vertical cylinders, placed at the back and each side of the furnace, with grasshopper beams and connecting-rods from them to the crankpins in the four coupled wheels). Three were sent to America and one to the Kingswinford Railway in the Black Country.

For America

thumb|left|250px|The first run of the Stourbridge Lion as depicted by the artist Clyde Osmer DeLand

The Delaware and Hudson Canal Company built a canal of total length 108 miles from Rondout on the Hudson River to Honesdale near a coal-bearing region named Carbondale. The canal was finished in 1828 but in order to connect the mines to the canal, the Chief Engineer of the project, John Jervis, planned to construct a railway of around 16 miles in length. Jervis entrusted an assistant, Horatio Allen, who was already planning to visit England, to purchase rail and a locomotive. In the end, Allen bought four locomotives, three from Foster, Rastrick and Company and one from Robert Stevenson & Co.

thumb|right|250px|Horatio Allen arranged for the purchase of three locomotives from the company for the use of the Delaware and Hudson Canal Company

Of the Foster, Rastrick and Company engines, the Stourbridge Lion built in 1828, was the first locomotive to run on rails in America. It was shipped from Liverpool in April 1829. Two others, named Delaware and Hudson were supplied later that year. The Stourbridge Lion was tested on blocks on May 28, 1829. In July of that year it was sent to Honesdale by boat. Its first test on the railway took place on 8 August 1829 when it ran on 3 miles of track. It quickly became apparent that the track was not stable enough to bear the weight of the locomotive and after a second on September 8, 1829, it was decided not to use the locomotives. Agenoria was probably the first locomotive to use mechanical lubrication for its axles. The boiler was 10 feet in length and four feet in diameter. The locomotive featured an extremely tall chimney of height 14 feet and 4 inches - this being the most immediately obvious difference between Agenoria and The Stourbridge Lion, which had a shorter chimney. The railway opened on 2 June 1829, the opening being described in Aris's Birmingham Gazette. The track, of standard gauge, was around three miles in length but featured two inclined planes that were too steep for the Agenoria to climb so the locomotive worked about two miles of near-level track. On the opening day, which according to Aris's Gazette, took place "amidst an immense concourse of spectators from the surrounding country", the locomotive first pulled eight carriages filled with 360 passengers along the level section at a rate of 7.5 miles an hour. For its next demonstration it was attached to twenty carriages, twelve of which carried coal whilst eight carried passengers. For this test it travelled at 3.5 miles an hour.

Unlike the company's first three steam locomotives it had a long life, being withdrawn from service in . After a period of neglect, the locomotive was rediscovered disassembled and covered with rubbish. The person who rediscovered it, Mr. E.B. Marten, obtained the permission of the owner William Orme Foster to reassemble the engine and display it at an exhibition in Wolverhampton in 1884. After the exhibition, Foster presented the locomotive to the Science Museum (London) in December 1884 and it is now on permanent display at the National Railway Museum in York.

Dissolution

Although pioneering, the company's locomotive designs were almost immediately outdated upon the arrival in 1829 of Robert Stephenson's Rocket, the locomotive which virtually set the pattern for the rest of the steam age. Ceasing locomotive work, the company was officially dissolved on 20 June 1831, its assets being absorbed into the Stourbridge Iron Works of John Bradley & Co. (iron manufacturer and owner of several coal mines), Lion Medical Practice opened during April 2014.

References

Sources

  • Foster Rastrick & Co. Stourbridge – company overview
  • Senate House Library, University of London, John Bradley & Co (Stourbridge) Ltd., Ironfounders . Retrieved 22 April 2005 – verifies Foster family connections and company dates.
  • Lowe, J.W., (1989) British Steam Locomotive Builders, Guild Publishing
  • Brief history by the Malvern Industrial Archaeology Circle