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Bauxite No 2: Saved by the Scrap Man
In 1947 Bauxite No 2 came to the end of its working life, and should have been cut up for scrap. Luckily, the scrap merchant decided to preserve this locomotive by donating it to the North Eastern Engineering and Historical Society.
Bauxite No 2 had worked in an aluminium smelting plant, pushing wagons of Bauxite rock into the smelters. Its large buffers allowed Bauxite No2 to shunt wagons with different buffer heights over badly laid track.
The locomotive now stands as one example of thousands of similar locomotives that were used to move goods around nineteenth century industrial docks, factories, quarries and building sites. Bauxite No 2 was the Victorian equivalent of a forklift truck.
Since entering the National Collection, the locomotive has been cared for, but not repainted.
Fact File
- Object: 0-4-0 Industrial Saddle Tank
- Built: 1874
- Built by: Black Hawthorn & Co Ltd of Gateshead
- Built for : International Aluminium Co Ltd
- Function: Factory Shunter
- Note: Aluminium is extracted from Bauxite rock
Locomotive inventory number 1953-354