This model is almost certainly based on a locomotive used on the Leicester and Swannington Railway in the 1830s.
The model was built by John Richardson of Leicester in 1845. John Richardson was described variously as a brazier, coppersmith or tinsmith. He regularly visited the West Bridge railway yards in Leicester after work to measure up one of the Leicester and Swannington locomotives by eye.
The locomotive is named Lily of the Valley and comprises locomotive and tender and was originally a coal powered working model. The model is beautifully crafted and detailed and gives a vivid impression of the early steam locomotives used on the Leicester and Swannington and many of the early public railways of the 1830s.
