Lancashire Witch (locomotive)

Lancashire Witch was an early steam locomotive built by Robert Stephenson and Company at Newcastle upon Tyne in 1828, a development of the firm's Locomotion built for the Stockton and Darlington Railway. It was an 0-4-0 with rear-mounted cylinders inclined at 45 degrees driving the front wheels, the rear wheels being turned through coupling rods. Its boiler had two flue tubes and it burned coke, with bellows on the tender to aid the draught. It is recorded as the first locomotive fitted with steel springs, and as the first locomotive built by the Stephenson company. The Liverpool and Manchester Railway board ordered it in January 1828 but transferred it four months later to the Bolton and Leigh Railway, which opened in June 1828. There it was first used to construct the line, and it was shown hauling 58 long tons up a gradient of 1 in 432 at 8.8 miles per hour. It was also used on the Liverpool and Manchester line.