Tom Pudding

Tom Pudding was the name given to the tub boats on the Aire and Calder Navigation, introduced in 1863 and used until 1985, which were a very efficient means of transferring and transporting coal from the open cast collieries of the South Yorkshire Coalfield near Stanley Ferry to the Port of Goole, competing with rail.

They were pointed at both ends, as they could not be turned below ground, and were made up into trains of six to ten for transfer along the canal to Manchester.

Thomas Hamond Bartholomew, the canal company's engineer, was also experimenting with a steam-powered fly boat in 1852, but died later that year.

[5] On 20 May 1861, Bartholomew met with Mr. Wilson and Mr. Warde-Aldam, the company chairman, and they discussed the possibility of using iron compartments, which would be filled with coal, and emptied by a hoist at Goole.

By September 1863, the Aire and Calder had taken delivery of six compartments and a stern tug, but the bow section was missing, and construction of the hoist had not begun.

[7] Warde-Aldam's fears were unfounded, as by the end of the year trials with the complete boat were sufficiently successful that an order was placed for more units.

Steering of the boat was controlled by the chains running down both sides of the assembly, which were connected to two steam-operated pistons on the tug.

It took between eight and twelve hours to travel from the colliery at Stanley Ferry to Goole, a distance of around 30 miles (48 km), and three and a half hours to unload the compartments, but the trains were often delayed at Goole for two or three days before they could be unloaded, and at the colliery, trains could be delayed for up to 13 days before they were loaded.

In order to operate a train, a crew of four men were needed, consisting of a captain, a mate, an engineer and a stoker.

Spring buffers had been added between the compartments, to assist the straightening of the boat after it had negotiated a bend in the canal.

[13] After the first world war, the length of the locks between Goole and Castleford was increased to over 450 feet (140 m), which allowed trains of 19 compartments with a leader and tug to work through them without being split.

A leader, known as a "Jebus", was still used as the pointed bow ensured that the water from the tug's propeller was directed downwards and under the train, rather than hitting the vertical end of the first compartment.

In the docks at Goole, the large boat hoists could lift the Puddings and discharge them directly into seagoing ships which exported the coal to all parts of the world.

In 1891, an inclined plane was installed at Stanley Ferry[16] to connect the colliery directly to the canal.

The 15-foot (4.6 m) wide compartments carrying 35 tons of coal were balanced on standard gauge railway wagons.