Steam Locomotives of a More Leisurely Era 1900 – Wainwright 0-6-0 South Eastern & Chatham Railway

Steam Locomotives of a More Leisurely Era

1900 – Wainwright 0-6-0

South Eastern & Chatham Railway

No. 486 in 1926 in the later plain grey SECR livery.

H.S.Wainwright’s first design for the newly formed SECR.  A plain straightforward type of 0-6-0 mainly intended for freight duties but which has nevertheless been used extensively on passenger work also, and given many years of useful service.

109 engines in all were constructed between 1900 and 1908, mostly with scattered numbers throughout the range 4-725, renumbered by the addition of 1000 by the SR and again increased by 30000 since Nationalisation.

No.685 was in 1917 converted to a saddle tank, but otherwise the class has changed little except for the substitution of shorter chimneys.  No. 1499 was withdrawn in 1947 and one or two others followed in the next few years, but scrapping on a general scale did not commence until the late 1950s, and in 1959 well over half of them were still in service.

Driving wheels – 5’ 2”,  Cylinders – 18½”x 26”,  Pressure – 160 lb.,  Tractive effort – 19520 lb.,  Weight – 43¾ tons,  SECR and SR classification – C,  BR classification – 2F.