Talk:Foster, Rastrick and Company

Only built four locomotives - but yes, a pioneering company!

I've expanded the article so that the important part played by the company during 1828-1829 can be better understood. The article already had the word "pioneering" in its first sentence, but then went on to give the impression that the company was only notable for building the first locomotive exported to the USA. Also the preservation of loco Agenoria was only given a passing reference, with no clue as to where "Shutt End Railway" was (turns out it was a colliery railway). So I've added further details in various parts, and given a brief description of the locos' type - vertical cylinders, grasshopper beams etc. - and, from reading just a little elsewhere about subesquent company John Bradley & Co, it seems to me that JB&Co (in which Foster was an equal partner with Bradley in 1813, long before this company started) was succeeding so well that Foster & Rastrick took one look at Stephenson's Rocket and immediately decided to quit designing and building locos. I can't state that for a fact (sorry, no time for full research), but I've included mention of the Rocket so that it's a reasonable conclusion to make (albeit unstated). I think the article is now more interesting and exact, and explains better why the company was indeed "pioneering". I hope others will agree - and I hope there'll be a separate page about the locomotive Agenoria one day. It seems there is one, but it just redirects to the company article. Why? How does one "free up" the Agenoria name so as create a proper page for it someday? Pete Hobbs (talk) 06:20, 3 August 2011 (UTC)

As you say, Agenoria currently redirects here (hence I have made it bold in the text) so that readers at least get some relevant information when they follow the link. The loco's own article may be written at the Agenoria page, in place of the current 'redirect' directive. However, I would suggest that expanding the existing paragraph into a subsection would be a good first step, moving to a separate article when the size justifies it. -- EdJogg (talk) 12:49, 16 August 2011 (UTC)

murphy's law dictates that Dudley Public Libraries - and probably their archives, -describes the railway from Shutt End as the "Pensnett Railway", and it's clear that this was also a regularly used description. The name Pensnett helps non-Black Country folk to pinpoint the location a bit more easily than "Shutt End" (really the name of the colliery the railway served), and might be usefully incorporated into the article, since the map needs blowing up to see properly and doesn't actually locate itself intuitively unless you know the area fairly well. I live about 10 miles away but i don't know this neck of the woods, and I had to locate it from the map in relation to Swindon!Culduthel (talk) 10:20, 8 July 2015 (UTC)

You might be interested to know that the name 'Shutt End' (also written as Shut End or Shuttend) existed long before the collieries. I've seen it marked on a county map dating from 1701. The original 3 mile line was known as the Kingswinford Railway or Shutt End (or Shut End) Railway although there were other titles as well. The Pensnett Railway really started in the mid 1840s although it eventually included the older Shutt End line.Nai1maker (talk) 13:47, 21 April 2016 (UTC)