These notes were written some years ago when I was a regular driver at Birmingham Railway Museum. I believe I was the last person to have the locomotive in steam before the firebox was finally condemned. I'm not aware that the locomotive has been returned to steam (but I may be wrong). At the time, there was a 'Henry Club', championed by Jo Howard, to interest children in steam railways.
Henry is a classical-design four-coupled industrial saddle tank locomotive produced in 1901 but very similar in design to locomotives produced half a century later.
Boiler: Parallel boiler with round-topped, flush firebox. Conventional dome with 2-port slide-valve regulator. Firebox provided with a single row of firebars. Ashpan provided with a single, trailing damper, operated by a lever moving vertically on the left side of the firebox. Round firehole with split firedoors sliding horizontally. Ramsbottom safety valve (twin branch with single coil spring and relieving lever extending into cab) on top of firebox outside cab together with steam manifold. An auxiliary steam manifold is provided inside the cab on top of the firebox. Built-up smokebox with hinged, dished smokebox door, secured by a dart and tightened by a wheel. Cast chimney. Feed water introduced on vertical centre line of boiler, midway along length, on both left and right sides at clack valves provided with integral shut-off cocks. The clacks are supplied from two injectors with integral water cocks, bolted onto the underside of the saddle towards the rear of the tank, one on each side of the boiler. The water cocks are operated from the cab by horizontal levers which pull to open, push to shut off. Steam to the injectors is supplied by two cocks on the manifold operated from handles inside the cab. The overflow from each injector is taken downwards through the footframing.
Coal and water: Two coal bunkers are provided, one on either side of the firebox. Water is provided in a saddle tank, extending from the front of the smokebox to the rear of the boiler, but not covering the firebox. The dome and chimney pierce the tank, which has a lift-off lid for filling at the firebox end.
Steam distribution: The main steam pipe runs from the regulator valve in the dome to the smokebox, where it branches into two steam pipes passing to the valve chests. The two valve chests are mounted vertically between the frames adjacent to the two cylinders mounted outside the frames. Steam distribution is by slide valves operated from Stephenson's Link motion. The driving axle is provided with four eccentrics, forward and reverse for each cylinder. The end of each forward eccentric rod is connected to the top of the associated curved, slotted expansion link, the reverse eccentric rod to the bottom of the link. Each valve rod is operated from a die block sliding in the curved slot of the associated expansion link. Each link is suspended from the transverse weigh shaft by two lifting links. The weigh shaft is operated from the reversing lever on the right hand side of the cab via the reversing rod. Notches in the reversing quadrant allow the reversing rod to be set to Full Forward, Expansive Forward, Mid-gear, Expansive Back, Full Back. Drain cocks are provided for the front and back of each cylinder and for each valve chest. All six cocks are operated via a mechanical linkage from a vertical lever alongside the reversing quadrant (lift for cocks open).
Each cylinder drives a crosshead guided by two slide bars. The slide bars are attached to the cylinder casting at the front and a plate motion bracket at the rear. The crosshead drives the crankpin on the driving axle via the gudgeon pin and connecting rod. Each big end is provided with two semi-circular bearing brasses, adjusted by a gib and cotter. Two coupling rods distribute power to the leading axle.
Braking: Henry is provided with a single steam brake cylinder with relief valve mounted under the rear left of the cab with the piston rod operting horizontally, fore and aft, onto the transverse brake shaft. Two sets of brake rigging connect the brake shaft to the bottom of four brake hangers provided with cast brake blocks. A coil spring is provided at the front of the locomotive on the centreline to pull off the brakes. The steam brake is controlled by a rotary brake valve on the auxiliary steam manifold (fountain) in the cab. When the valve is open, live steam is supplied to the brake cylinder, proportional to valve opening. Closing the valve vents the brake cylinder to atmosphere via a pipe passing upwards through the cab roof.
To allow the locomotive to work passenger trains, a vacuum ejector has been provided above the foot framing on the right hand side of the smokebox. This is controlled from a live steam cock on the right hand side of the cab. The steam cock should not be opened too far as, otherwise, turbulence within the ejector will render it less effective at creating vacuum. The ejector exhausts a system of 2" piping connected to standard flexible vacuum hoses on the front and rear buffer beams. A driver's application valve and vacuum relief valve is provided on the right-hand side of the
Lubrication: Each axlebox has an integral oil reservoir cast on top, accessed by lifting a sheet steel cover plate. Three tail trimmings feed oil from each reservoir to the two hornguides and the journal.
