Tom Pudding facts for kids

Tom Pudding was the special name given to unique boats used on the Aire and Calder Navigation canal system in England. These boats were introduced in 1863 and were used for a very long time, until 1985. Their main job was to efficiently move coal from the large open-pit coal mines in South Yorkshire Coalfield, near Stanley Ferry Aqueduct, all the way to the port of Goole. They were so good at their job that they even competed with trains for carrying coal! People called them "Tom Puddings" because they looked like a string of black puddings or perhaps Yorkshire puddings when linked together. The name also came from the first name of the person who designed them.

The Idea Behind the Boats

Moving large amounts of goods using linked boats has been done for a long time. For example, in the 1760s, a duke named Bridgwater created underground waterways at Worsley. These tunnels served coal mines, and special boats carried coal both underground and on the canal. These boats were pointed at both ends because they couldn't turn around in the narrow tunnels. They were often linked together in groups of six to ten to travel to Manchester.

Another similar idea was used on the Shropshire Canal. These boats were rectangular and carried about 5 to 8 tons of coal. Locks on the Shrewsbury Canal were even built to fit four of these boats at once.

The Aire and Calder Canal Company was always looking for better ways to move things. They opened a wide canal from Knottingley to Goole in 1826 to avoid difficult parts of the River Aire. They had been trying out steam-powered boats since 1813 and introduced steam tugs in 1831.

William Hamond Bartholomew became the chief engineer for the canal company. He was very innovative. He introduced new types of tugs that used propellers instead of paddles. The bigger tugs could pull ten "keels" (another type of boat), carrying a total of 700 tons of cargo. However, there was a problem at the locks, where boats had to go through one by one. So, in 1859, Bartholomew decided to make the locks longer. Pollington lock was extended to about 206 feet in 1860, and other locks followed. This prepared the way for Bartholomew's next big invention: the Tom Puddings.

How Tom Puddings Worked

Diagram of Bartholomew's sectional boat, showing its design

The original plan was for each train of Tom Puddings to have six sections, but they soon found that seven sections could fit through the locks, so they made the trains longer. After the first 19 boats were built, the sections were made deeper. This meant each section could carry 30 tons of coal instead of 25 tons. The new design was also more stable. A full train could now carry 210 tons of coal!

It took about eight to twelve hours to travel from the coal mine at Stanley Ferry to Goole, which was about 30 miles away. Unloading the coal took about three and a half hours. However, sometimes the trains had to wait at Goole for two or three days before they could be unloaded. At the coal mine, trains could be delayed for up to 13 days before they were loaded. Each train needed a crew of four people: a captain, a mate, an engineer, and a stoker.

It was discovered that a train of seven sections was the longest that could be easily controlled. While it was possible to push ten or eleven sections, they became hard to steer when empty, especially if it was windy. In the 1870s, the number of sections per tug increased. The idea of a fixed train changed, and individual sections could be put together as needed. The tugs had a water tank at the front that could be filled or emptied. This changed the tug's angle depending on whether it was pushing full or empty sections.

By 1883, trains often had more than 11 sections. Sometimes, trains of 22 sections were common, and even 30 had been tried! Spring buffers were added between the sections. These helped the boat straighten out after going around a bend in the canal. The company hoped to make the locks even longer, but this didn't happen. In 1904, a normal train still had 10 or 11 sections.

After the system had been running for six years, Bartholomew told the directors that his new system was a complete success. He hadn't wasted any money on changes that didn't work. All improvements were made based on real experience. The directors were very impressed. They gave him a bonus of £1,000 and £220 for the models he had made. Because of this, he allowed the canal company to use his design freely. Bartholomew later became the General Manager of the Canal Company in 1875, as well as the Chief Engineer.

After the First World War, the locks between Goole and Castleford were made even longer, to over 450 feet. This meant that trains of 19 sections, with a special "leader" boat and a tug, could pass through without being split up. This leader boat, called a "Jebus," had a pointed front. This design helped direct the water from the tug's propeller downwards, under the train, instead of hitting the flat front of the first section. Above Castleford, these long trains still had to be split. They even tried much longer trains below Castleford, with as many as 38 sections linked together!

Loading and Unloading Coal

The main reason the Tom Pudding system was so successful was how easily coal could be moved from the boats to ships. At the docks in Goole, there were huge boat hoists. These machines could lift the Tom Pudding sections and dump the coal directly into large ships. These ships then carried the coal to different parts of the world. One of these five hoists has been saved and can still be seen today.

At the coal mines, the Tom Pudding sections were placed onto special wagons. This allowed them to be taken right into the mine area. Coal could then be loaded directly from the pit head (the top of the mine shaft) into the sections. In 1891, a special ramp, called an inclined plane, was built at Stanley Ferry. This connected the coal mine directly to the canal. The 15-foot-wide sections, carrying 35 tons of coal, were carefully balanced on standard railway wagons as they moved up and down the ramp. Even though this sounds risky, no accidents were ever reported!

Because the system worked so well, by 1913 there were over 1,000 Tom Puddings in use. They were transporting 1.5 million tons of coal every year! This was much more than the original estimate of 45,000 tons per year.

A similar system was later developed when the Kellingley Colliery coal mine opened. This system, called the Hargreave barge system, moved coal to the power station at Ferrybridge. It used three coal pans, each about 56 feet long and 9.5 feet deep, capable of carrying 170 tons of coal. With a tug pushing from the back, the whole train was about 195 feet long. However, unlike Bartholomew's flexible Tom Pudding sections, these pans were rigidly connected to each other.

Images for kids

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  Tom Puddings at Castleford Gauging Station

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  Diagram of Bartholomew's sectional boat, based on 1862 patent and revised steering mechanism of 1866