FIRST LOCOMOTIVE MODEL.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 26 June 1924, Page 10

FIRST LOCOMOTIVE MODEL.

NO BIDDERS FOR RELIC AT AUCTION. There were no bidders for the model of the first locomotive in England, constructed in 1781 by William Murdoch, the co-inventor with Watt of the steam engine, when it was offered for sale at auction recently. When bids were invited, someone offered £1 ; then someone raised the bid to £5. The reserve price nut upon it was £IOOO, and the auctioneer’s invitation to start the bidding at £SOO not being responded to, the model was withdrawn. The reason why a reserve price had been placed on the model, the auctioneer said, was that since Sir Lincoln Tangye had instructed him to offer it for sale, protests had been received against this interetsing relic leaving the country. It would be a pity, he said, if this germ of a great idea, which anticipated Stephenson’s locomotive bv 30 years, were allowed to pass into the hands of a collector in some other country. The model is only 19in. long and Min. high. When William Murdoch, the inventor ran it round his room in Cross Street. Redruth, Cornwall, in 1784, it carried as freight the shovel, the tongs and the poker. The late Sir Richard Tangye purchased it 30 years ago for £SOO from Murdoch's great-grandson.