Steam Locomotives of a More Leisurely Era
1903 – Robinson ‘Atlantics’
Great Central Railway
One of the compounds, No. 5259 ‘King Edward V11’, in 1930, at which time it was carrying the temporary ‘flower pot’ type of chimney of the period, later replaced by a more handsome tapered chimney similar to, but not quite identical with the original GCR pattern.
Concurrently with the two 4-6-0 engines of Class B1, Mr. Robinson commenced building a series of very handsome ‘Atlantics’ for express working on the main line. The first two were Nos. 192 and 194, turned out in 1903, and they were followed between 1904 and 1906 by Nos. 260-7, 358, 360-3 and 1083-94, 27 in all. In addition another four engines, Nos. 258-9 and 364-5 were built in 1905-6 as 3-cylinder compounds on the Smith system, similar to, but not quite identical with the much better known Midland and LMS type. These four were given names.
All had 5000 added to their numbers at the grouping, and all were eventually superheated. No. 1090 was converted to 3-cylinder simple propulsion in 1909, but reverted to two cylinders in 1923. This engine was scrapped in 1939, and was subsequently not included in the 1946 renumbering scheme whereby the simple engines became 2900-25 and the compounds 2895-8. All were scrapped between 1947 and 1950, and none actually carried a 60000 number although a few lasted until early Nationalisation days.
Simple – Driving wheels – 6’ 9”, Cylinders (2) 21”x 26” (originally 19”x 26”), Pressure – 180 lb., Tractive effort – 21658 lb., Weight – 71 tons 18 cwt, GCR classification – 8B and 8J, LNER classification – C4
Compound – Driving wheels – 6’ 9”, Cylinders (1) 19”x 26” (2) 21”x 26”, Pressure – 180 lb., Tractive effort – 21658 lb., Weight – 73 tons 6 cwt, GCR classification – 8D and 8E, LNER classification – C5
