Steam Locomotives of a More Leisurely Era 1903 – 4-6-0 ‘Cardean’ Class Caledonian Railway

Steam Locomotives of a More Leisurely Era

1903 – 4-6-0 ‘Cardean’ Class

Caledonian Railway

No. 14750 as running in 1932

The first two engines of this celebrated class were Nos.49 and 50, turned out in 1903.  At the time of their appearance they were the most powerful engines in the country.  Five more of them came out in 1906 to slightly modified dimensions, Nos. 903-7, No. 903 being the well-known ‘Cardean’.  No. 50 was ‘Sir James Thompson’, but both of these lost their names at the grouping, when they became LMS Nos. 14750 and 14751 (49 and 50), and 14752-55 (Nos. 903-6).  All were superheated in 1911 and 1912, but otherwise remained practically unaltered except for the removal of the smokebox wingplates on the first two engines.  Nos. 14752-5 were scrapped between 1927 and 1930, but the original pair lasted until 1933.

Dimensions as superheated:

Nos. 49 and 50

Driving wheels – 6’ 6”,  Bogie wheels – 3’ 6”,  Cylinders – 20¾”x 26” (orig. 21”),  Pressure – 175 lb.  (orig. 200 lb),  Tractive effort – 21348 lb. (orig. 24990 lb),  Weight – 71½ tons,  LMS classification – 4P

Nos. 903-7

Driving wheels – 6’ 6”,  Bogie wheels – 3’ 6”,  Cylinders – 20¾”x 26” (orig. 20”),  Pressure – 175 lb.  (orig. 200 lb),  Tractive effort – 21348 lb. (orig. 22667 lb),  Weight – 74¼ tons,  LMS classification – 4P

McIntosh ‘49’ class 4P No. 14750 leaves Perth with the 5.30pm Aberdeen-Glasgow, the one-time ‘Grampian Express’, in July 1926.  As can be seen from the Caledonian route indicator the train is routed via Coatbridge into Glasgow Central in order to provide good connections with the night trains to the south.  There were only two engines built to this design, forerunners of the ‘Cardean’ class and when built at Saint Rollox in 1903 they were the most powerful express engines in the country.  Withdrawal of both took place in 1933.  The first coach is one of the well-known CR ‘Grampian’ twelve-wheelers first introduced in 1905 and is a brake third whilst the second coach is a CR eight-wheel composite.  The third is a Pullman dining car, one of an eventual total of sixteen Pullman cars which ran on CR routes from 1914 onwards.  All were sold to the LMS in 1933 and the author observed one still in use in 1959 on an Inverness-Kyle of Lochalsh train.  (Locomotive Publishing Co.

No. 907, here shown on a southbound West Coast express near Elvanfoot, had a sad end in the Quintinshill disaster of 1915, when she was struck head-on by a 4-4-0 No.121.  (H. Gordon Tidey.

John F. McIntosh’s Caledonian Railway ‘Cardean’ class No. 904.  (C. Hamilton Ellis