The first 19 locomotives ordered by Isambard Kingdom Brunel

Isambard Kingdom Brunel

Isambard Kingdom Brunel, FRS , was a British civil engineer who built bridges and dockyards including the construction of the first major British railway, the Great Western Railway; a series of steamships, including the first propeller-driven transatlantic steamship; and numerous important bridges...

 for the Great Western Railway

Great Western Railway

The Great Western Railway was a British railway company that linked London with the south-west and west of England and most of Wales. It was founded in 1833, received its enabling Act of Parliament in 1835 and ran its first trains in 1838...

 included two unusual Haigh Foundry locomotives.

Snake and Viper were built at the Haigh Foundry

Haigh Foundry

The Haigh Foundry was leased in 1835 by E.Evans and T.C.Ryley in Haigh, Lancashire. It had initially been established in the Douglas Valley, in Haigh, circa 1790 by Alexander Lindsay, 6th Earl of Balcarres and his brother Robert as an ironworks and foundry...

 in 1838 with 14¾in dia × 18in cylinders and the driving wheels geared 2:3 in order to keep the cylinder stroke speed low while allowing high track speed, in line with Brunel's specifications. Within a couple of years they had been rebuilt with 13in × 18in cylinders and conventional drive. They were later converted to 2-2-2

2-2-2

Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, 2-2-2 represents the wheel arrangement of two leading wheels on one axle two powered driving wheels on one axle, and two trailing wheels on one axle. The wheel arrangement both provided more stability and enabled a larger firebox...

T tank locomotives, possibly when they were sent to work the South Devon Railway

South Devon Railway Company

The South Devon Railway Company built and operated the railway from Exeter to Plymouth and Torquay in Devon, England. It was a broad gauge railway built by Isambard Kingdom Brunel-Chronology:* 1844 South Devon Railway Act passed by parliament...

, and at some time fitted with 6ft driving wheels and 15in × 18in cylinders.

Haigh Foundry

• Snake (1838 - 1869)

A snake

Snake

Snakes are elongate, legless, carnivorous reptiles of the suborder Serpentes that can be distinguished from legless lizards by their lack of eyelids and external ears. Like all squamates, snakes are ectothermic, amniote vertebrates covered in overlapping scales...

 is a legless reptile. In 1846 it carried a different name, Exe, while working on the South Devon Railway, after the River Exe

River Exe

The River Exe in England rises near the village of Simonsbath, on Exmoor in Somerset, near the Bristol Channel coast, but flows more or less directly due south, so that most of its length lies in Devon. It reaches the sea at a substantial ria, the Exe Estuary, on the south coast of Devon...

; it reverted to Snake when it returned to the Great Western Railway.

• Viper (1838 - 1868)

A viper

Viperidae

The Viperidae are a family of venomous snakes found all over the world, except in Antarctica, Australia, Ireland, Madagascar, Hawaii, various other isolated islands, and above the Arctic Circle. All have relatively long, hinged fangs that permit deep penetration and injection of venom. Four...

 is a kind of poisonous snake. In 1846 it carried a different name, Teign, while working on the South Devon Railway, after the River Teign

River Teign

The River Teign is a river in the county of Devon, England.Like many Devon rivers, the Teign rises on Dartmoor, near Cranmere Pool. Its course on the moor is crossed by a clapper bridge near Teigncombe, just below the prehistoric Kestor Settlement. It leaves the moor at its eastern side, flowing...

; it reverted to Viper when it returned to the Great Western Railway.