Steam Locos of a Leisurely Era
1881 Adams 0-6-0
London & South Western Railway
Illustration: No.0101 (later 3101 and finally BR 30566) in 1930.
William Adams’ standard freight engine for the LSWR. Seventy were built between 1881 and 1886, numbered 395-406, 433-44, 496-515, and some scattered earlier numbers.
Fifty of them were requisitioned by the ROD in 1917, and sent to the Middle East, but some never arrived there, having been sunk in transit. After the war the others remained in the service of the Palestine and Egyptian State Railways, and several survived until the 1940s.
All of the twenty that remained on the LSWR came into the SR at the grouping in 1923. They had been placed on the duplicate list as 0397, etc., for many years, and the SR eventually gave them numbers in the 3000s, as 3397, and so on. The only changes undergone by the class were in the boilers, a number of them having at some time carried the Drummond pattern with pop safety valve on the dome, whilst some others acquired after the grouping some boilers from scrapped 4-4-0s which were originally London Chatham & Dover engines. These boilers were interchanged from time to time amongst different engines.
Eighteen of the class survived Nationalisation and became BR Nos. 30564-81, and the last was not taken out of service until 1959.
Driving wheels – 5’ 1”, Cylinders – 17½”x 26”, Pressure140 lb., Tractive effort – 15535 lb., Weight – 37 tons 12 cwt.
These dimensions varied in later years with individual engines. Some had 150 lb. pressure with 16645 lb. tractive effort, whilst those built after 1885 had a longer front overhang and weighed 38 tons 14 cwt.
Old Adams 0-6-0 at Feltham Locomotive Depot
No. 3167 was an ex-LSW Adams ‘0395’ class 0-6-0, built in 5/1883 but lasting until 12/56 – latterly on light duties. Of a large class, it was one of the few not sent abroad during World War I. © Copyright Ben Brooksbank and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence.
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