Shutt End Colliery Railway steam locomotive 'Agenoria'

Steam locomotive ‘Agenoria’ 0-4-0, built by Foster Rastrick & Co, Stourbridge for the Earl of Dudley's Shutt End Colliery Railway at Kingswinford, Staffordshire in 1829; withdrawn c1864, length over buffers, 13' 3"; width 6' 1"; height 24"; weight 11 tons with tender; area 7.19m square. Driving wheel diameter 4 feet, 0 3/4 inches; weigh 11 tons with tender

Agenoria is one of the world’s oldest locomotives. Built in 1829 by Foster, Raistrick and Company, the locomotive was supplied to pull coal wagons at Staffordshire’s Shutt End Colliery.

Agenoria is a close relative of the first locomotive to run in the USA, the Stourbridge Lion of 1828. Foster, Raistrick and Company built only four locomotives, and three went to the Delaware and Hudson Canal Company.

The locomotive takes its name from a little-known Roman goddess, who is the goddess of industry or activity, with the Latin “ago” meaning to do, to drive, to go.

Agenoria was withdrawn from service by 1864. After a period of neglect, the locomotive was discovered in a state of disassembly by E B Marten. Marten obtained the permission of Agenoria’s owner William Orme Foster to put it back together and display it at an exhibition in 1884. Foster subsequently presented the locomotive to the Science Museum. Agenoria featured as an exhibit at the 1951 Festival of Britain.