Steam Locos of a Leisurely Era 1889 – Webb 2-2-2-0 3-Cylinder Compounds London & North Western Railway

Steam Locos of a Leisurely Era

1889 – Webb 2-2-2-0  3-Cylinder Compounds

London & North Western Railway

Illustration:  No.1301 Teutonic

The first engine, No. 66 Experiment, appeared in 1882, and like many of the subsequent varieties was a 2-2-2-0 engine with two pairs of independent driving wheels, two high pressure cylinders driving the rear wheels, and the single larger low pressure cylinder, into which the live steam from the high pressure was exhausted through an intermediate receiving chamber, drove the front pair of wheels.  The absence of coupling rods meant that one pair of wheels could slip without the other, resulting in the receiver becoming choked if the rear wheels were slipping, or denuded of steam when the front pair ran away with themselves.  It was not unknown even for the respective driving wheels to be revolving in opposite directions when the engine was attempting to start.  In spite of these handicaps the later engines were capable of quite good work when they really got going, and undoubtedly the best of them all was a class of ten, built between 1889 and 1890, known as the ‘Teutonics’.   These also were 2-2-2-0s, but larger than their predecessors, with 7’ 0” driving wheels.  No.1301 Teutonic was the first engine, and was followed by nine others bearing the numbers 1302-7, 1309, and 1311-12.  The most famous of these was No.1304 Jeanie Deans, which worked the 2.00pm ‘Corridor’ from Euston to Crewe, returning with the up 7.32pm express almost continuously from 1891 to 1899.  No.1309 Adriatic took part in the 1895 Race to Scotland, its finest effort being to cover the 133½ miles to Stafford, where a stop had to be made for water, in 127 minutes, and notwithstanding a delay there of 3½ minutes, to reach Crewe, 158 miles in 156½ minutes, this with a load of four bogie coaches, about 95 tons.

Despite the comparative success of the ‘Teutonics’,  they were all swept away along with their brethren when Webb retired in `1903, and his place taken by George Whale.

Driving wheels – 7’ 0”,  Cylinders – (2) 14”x 24”, (1) 30”x 24”,  Weight 45 tons

3105 Jeanie Deans – library.manchester.ac.uk