My name's John Hawley, I've come here today with Jan Ford.
We are both members of the Old Locomotive Committee,
which is a group of people who are particularly
interested in the Lion locomotive.
Lion was the first locomotive I had the
opportunity to drive but it certainly became a bit of a bug because
subsequently I've driven well over a hundred locomotives.
I've been an engineer for all my life.
This is where I get my interest in steam locomotives in particular
and for many, many years I wanted to build a model of a steam engine
and a long time ago I thought Lion would be the job.
Although it's only a machine, it has far more of a personality than diesel locomotives.
You put a fire in it, you boil water,
locomotives make funny little fizzy noises,
and dribble hot water over you.
I think when Lion was built, they obviously had a very good idea of what was required
but they didn't have very much experience on how to build locomotives
so a great deal of it, I suspect was, 'Let's bash it a bit and see if it fits.
If not, take it bash it a bit more.'
Lion was built in 1838 by the short-lived partnership with Todd, Kitson and Laird.
She lasted for about 21 years in service on the Liverpool and Manchester,
which was a long time then.
But she was a good engine so she was sold to Mersey Docks & Harbour Board.
And they used her as a pump for pumping out a dry dock,
which is a radically different use for a steam locomotive to be doing a job like this.
When her duty came to an end, because electric pumps were installed in the dock,
there was no further use for Lion, and the doors of the engine house were locked
and it's possibly only by chance that a member of the Liverpool Engineering Society said, 'What's in there?'
and discovered this incredibly old locomotive just quietly rusting away.
In 1927 the Liverpool Engineering Society
decided that they would like to rescue Lion from this duty
as being a pumping engine and perhaps put her back into service as a railway engine
in time for the centenary celebrations for the Liverpool and Manchester railway.
A large exhibition was held in Liverpool in Wavertree Park
and locomotives were on display from all the then big four railways
but I think the pride of place went to Lion which had been restored back to working order by
the London, Midland and Scottish railway at Crewe.
After the centenary celebrations, Lion went into a more sedentary phase.
She was displayed on a plinth at Liverpool Lime Street station
and still caused quite a stir for the commuters swarming past her.
The film 'Titfield Thunderbolt' was quite a feature of my life.
It was great to see the engine going through the fields and
under the bridges and so on of rural Somerset.
That's what makes this film such a very interesting thing for people to see
and then to see the actual engine in the museum and realise that she actually took part in his film.
1980 was the 150th anniversary of the opening of the Liverpool and Manchester.
The actual public display this time was a cavalcade of locomotives past stands at Rainhill
and again many, many people attended this.
There are many who feel that Lion should be steamed again.
The museum, I know, do not agree with this opinion
and I tend to favour the fact that she should not steam again
because she's a historical object.
There are many people who've never seen a steam locomotive
and so the display of Lion in this gallery
gives an opportunity for people to wonder at how railways started
and eventually transformed the world, flying around at speeds
that even George Stephenson would find incredible.