Steam Locomotives of a Leisurely Era – 1954 – Class 9 2-10-0 – British Railways

No.92220

This was the last of the twelve BR standard designs to appear, the first example of which came out in 1954. A large 2-10-0 engine intended in the main for heavy freight traffic, these locomotives have on occasions been used with considerable success on passenger trains, although not as a regular thing. A speed of 90 mph has been recorded on at least one occasion, an extraordinary figure for a ten-coupled engine with wheels of only 5’ 0” diameter.
In all 251 engines of this class have been turned out, Nos.92000 – 92250. The final one actually built was No.92220, which appeared from Swindon in March 1960, and was appropriately named ‘Evening Star’. This was the last new steam locomotive constructed for British Railways.
Nos.92020-9 were built experimentally with Franco-Crosti type double boilers, a peculiarity of these engines being that the chimney is only used when the locomotive is being lighted up from cold, the normal exhaust coming from a separate outlet midway along the left hand side of the boiler. No.92250 was fitted with an experimental type of chimney embodying a device known as the Giesel ejector. This has been used extensively in Austria, and is said to give remarkable results in economy of coal consumption.

No.92028, one of the Crosti boiler engines

Unfortunately this invention appeared too late on the scene to result in any appreciable prolongation of the life of the steam locomotive in this country. That it is by no means due for an early extinction, however, is shown by the fact that even when the present modernisation plan is complete there will still be at work a total of about 7000 steam engines on British Railways (1959).
Driving wheels – 5’ 0”, Cylinders (2) – 20”x 28”, Pressure – 250 lb., Tractive effort – 39760 lb., Weight – 86 tons 14 cwt (The Crosti boiler engines weigh 90 tons 4 cwt), Classification – 9F

No.92212 at Bridgnorth.  Photo by David Jackson

Steam Locomotives of a Leisurely Era – 1951 –Pacifics – British Railways

No.70024 Vulcan when new in 1951

No.70000, ‘Britannia’ which appeared early in 1951, was the first of the twelve new standard designs which British Railways planned to produce on a large scale to replace the older types inherited from the four constituent lines at Nationalisation.

No.70000 ‘Britannia’ at Purley Oaks
No.70000 ‘Britannia’; seen approaching Purley Oaks station, with ‘The Cathedrals Express’. This locomotive has just returned to mainline duties, after an absence of 14 years. Routing: Lewes-Haywards Heath-Kensington Olympia Broxbourne-Ely and return. © Copyright Peter Trimming and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence.

It was a 2-cylinder ‘Pacific’ and intended for all but the heaviest main line duties. In all, 55 of them were built between 1951 and 1954, Nos.70000-54.

No. 72005 ‘Clan Macgregor’ at Chester General, 29 August 1964
Chester General, unusual locomotive by Chester 3A Box, near to Hoole, Cheshire, Great Britain. View NE, with a Down freight headed by BR Clan class 6 4-6-2s, No. 72005 ‘Clan Macgregor’, one of a small class which normally worked in Scotland. License details: Creative Commons Attribution Share-alike license
In 1952 a somewhat lighter version, the ‘Clans’, consisting of ten locomotives, Nos.72000-9, were built for use in Scotland, whilst in 1954 a much more powerful 3-cylinder engine with Caprotti valve gear appeared, No.71000 ‘Duke of Gloucester’.

71000 Duke of Gloucester at Severn Valley Railway 2009 CWS

This was intended as a prototype for top link express duties, but before any more could be built the decision had been taken to concentrate on diesel and electric propulsion for the future, and it was destined to remain the only one of its class. It worked from Crewe on the LM main line, and the ‘Britannias’ were scattered over most of the six regions. These engines have done particularly well on the former Great Eastern main lines, and have enabled considerable accelerations to be made to the faster expresses, but they are gradually in 1959 being replaced by diesels.
70000 class – Driving wheels – 6’ 2”, Cylinders (2) 20”x 28”, Pressure – 250 lb., Tractive effort – 32150 lb., Weight – 94 tons, Classification – 7P6F
71000 class – Driving wheels – 6’ 2”, Cylinders (3) 18”x 28”, Pressure – 250 lb., Tractive effort – 39080 lb., Weight – 101¼ tons, Classification – 8P

72000 class – Driving wheels – 6’ 2”, Cylinders (2) 19½”x 28”, Pressure – 225 lb., Tractive effort – 27520 lb., Weight – 87 tons, Classification – 6P5F

70013 Oliver Cromwell at the Severn Valley Railway, 2009 CWS

My personal favourite – I wonder why??!!

Pic by oakparkrunner

Steam Locomotives of a Leisurely Era – 1949 – Bulleid ‘Leader’ – Southern Railway

No.36001 in 1950

Although designed by O.V.Bulleid under the SR regime this remarkable locomotive did not actually appear until after Nationalisation. Nothing so revolutionary in steam locomotive design had been seen since the Midland Paget engine of 1908. It incorporated many novel features, amongst which may be mentioned the sleeve type valves, and the coupling of the six wheels comprising each bogie by means of a chain transmission instead of coupling rods.
The engine may be briefly described as an 0-6-6-0 single boiler articulated unit completely enclosed by an overall casing. There was a cab at either end with duplicated controls, and the fireman had to work amidships alongside the boiler, the longitudinal axis of which is offset to one side of the centre line of the engine. Herein lay one of the principal defects of the design, in that the poor fireman was expected to work under almost impossible conditions such as few would be prepared to tolerate in these days. In this connection it would probably been far more satisfactory if the engine had been constructed as an oil burner. Each bogie had a 3-cylinder engine driving the middle wheels of each 3-axle bogie.

Bulleid Leader Drawing

Bulleid Leader Drawing

Diagram of the Leader locomotive. Drawn 1949 by British Railways, a nationalised (UK government) concern. Date 24 May 2006 (original upload date)  Source Transferred from en.wikipedia; transferred to Commons by User:Oxyman using CommonsHelper.  Author Original uploader was Hellbus at en.wikipedia Permission  (Reusing this file)  PD-BRITISHGOV.
Licensing  This artistic work created by the United Kingdom Government is in the public domain.

It was planned initially to build five of these engines, but only three, Nos.36001-3, were actually constructed and only the first one ever steamed. After a few desultory trials the authorities seemed to lose interest and all three engines were quietly broken up after a very brief existence. The initial faults were many, as would be expected with such an unorthodox machine, but none was such as could not have been rectified with perseverance. Had the matter been pursued the engines might have proved a revolution in railway motive power and even done something to stem the tide of dieselisation which has since taken place.
It may now be regarded as a last, and as it turned out, abortive effort to prolong the use of steam propulsion as a factor of major importance in railway haulage.

Driving wheels – 5’ 1”, Cylinders (6) – 12¼”x 15”, Pressure – 280 lb., Tractive effort – 26350 lb., Weight – 100 tons (approx).

Uploaded from http://www.semgonline.com/steam/leader_05.html (Southern Email Group) on 19 September 2006.  Official photograph of the Leader locomotive taken at Oxted. Taken on 22 November 1949 by British Railways, a nationalised (UK government) concern.(Source: Robertson, Kevin: The Leader Project (Hinckley: Ian Allan, 2007), 90) Date 19 September 2006 (original upload date) Source Transferred from en.wikipedia; transferred to Commons by User:Oxyman using CommonsHelper. Author Original uploader was Old Moonraker at en.wikipedia Permission (Reusing this file) PD-BRITISHGOV.
Licensing: This artistic work created by the United Kingdom Government is in the public domain.

 

Steam Locomotives of a Leisurely Era 1945 – Bulleid ‘West Country’ Pacifics – Southern Railway

No.21C105, later Barnstaple, when new in 1945

A slightly smaller edition of the ‘Merchant Navy’ class, embodying all the same features. 110 of these came out between 1945 and 1949, Nos.21C101-70, and 34071-34110 and 34091-34108 bore names associated with the West Country; most of the others had war-time commemorative names, chiefly air squadrons which took part in the Battle of Britain, which title is sometimes applies as a class name to these particular locomotives. Rebuilding of this class on the same lines as the ‘Merchant Navy’ commenced in 1957 and by 1959 thirty of them had been so treated.
Driving wheels – 6’ 2”, Cylinders (3) 16⅜”x 24”, Pressure – 250 lb., Tractive effort – 27715 lb., Weight 86 tons (as built), 90 tons (as rebuilt), BR classification – 7P5F.

Steam Locomotives of a Leisurely Era 1941 – Bulleid ‘Merchant Navy’ Pacifics – Southern Railway

35026 as rebuilt

The first engine of the 4-6-2 type to run on Southern Railway metals appeared under conditions of some secrecy owing to war conditions during 1941. It was a 3-cylinder engine incorporating many novel features, including a thermic siphon, only once before used in this country, and a patent valve gear of O.V.Bulleid’s own design in which the primary drive is by means of chains enclosed in an oil bath. The novel design of wheels, reminiscent of Hackworth’s engines of early days may also be noted. It was fully streamlined, or air-smoothed, as it was referred to at the time. A new and somewhat peculiar numbering scheme was also introduced, in which the prefix 21C indicated the wheel arrangement – two pairs of bogie wheels, a trailing axle, with the C designating the three pairs of coupled wheels. The first engine, No.21C1 was named ‘Channel Packet’ and they were known as the ‘Merchant Navy’ class. Nos.21C2-10 all appeared in 1941-2, followed by Nos. 21C11-20 in 1944-5. Ten more came out after Nationalisation in 1948 with rational numbers, 35021-30, when the original batches were altered to 35001-20.

These engines have done a great deal of heavy main line service on the SR, but the valve gear was not entirely satisfactory, and commencing with No.35013 in 1956 this was replaced by the Walschaert type and at the same time the streamlined casing was removed, with considerable improvement to the looks of the locomotives. Their original boxed-in appearance gave rise to their being somewhat irreverently described as ‘spam-cans’.
All of the class were rebuilt by 1959 and seemed likely to see a good many more years’ service.
Driving wheels – 6’ 2”, Cylinders (3) 18”x 24”, Pressure – 250 lb., Tractive effort – 33495 lb., Weight – 94 tons 15 cwt (as built), 97 tons 18 cwt (as rebuilt), BR classification – 8P.

Steam Locomotives of a Leisurely Era 1941 – Gresley Lightweight 2-6-2 – London & North Eastern Railway

No.61701 as running in 1950

This was Sir Nigel Gresley’s last design, and consisted of two engines only, No.3401 ‘Bantam Cock’ and No.3402, unofficially known as ‘Bantam Hen’, although it never actually bore the name.
They were intended to become the prototypes of a new standard class of lighter general purpose engine to replace the aging ‘Atlantics’ and other types from the former GNR, GCR and the rest of the various LNER constituent companies, but owing to Sir Nigel’s untimely death no more were built. E.Thompson, who succeeded him, had different ideas on the subject, and introduced his B1 4-6-0 mixed traffic class for the same purpose. The two Gresley engines spent most of their time in Scotland, mainly on the West Highland lines, but as a non-standard class both were withdrawn in 1957. In 1946 they had become Nos.1700 and 1701, and later BR Nos. 61700-1.
Driving wheels – 5’ 8”, Cylinders (3) – 15”x 26”, Pressure – 250 lb., Tractive effort – 27420 lb., Weight – 70 tons 8 cwt., LNER classification – V4, BR classification – 4MT

Steam Locomotives of a Leisurely Era – 1939 3-Cylinder 4-6-0 – Great Southern Railway

No.801 as running in 1948.

Three engines built in 1939 for working the heaviest expresses over the main line between Dublin and Cork. They were named after the Queens of Ireland, No.800 ‘Maeve’, 801 ‘Mocha’ and 802 ‘Tailte’, and were destined to be the last new conventional steam locomotives constructed for the GSR or Coras Iompair Eireann, as it later became. They were the most powerful express locomotives ever built for an Irish railway, and their remarkable similarity to the English rebuilt ‘Royal Scots’ will be noted.
Since dieselisation there has been little suitable work for them, and No.802 was broken up in 1957. As a matter of interest the dimensions of the LMS rebuilt ‘Royal Scots’ are shown for comparison.
GSR 800 class – Driving wheels – 6’ 7”, Cylinders (3) – 18½”x 28”, Pressure – 225 lb., Tractive effort – 33000 lb., Weight 84 tons
LMS rebuilt ‘Royal Scots’ – Driving wheels – 6’ 9”, Cylinders (3) – 18”x 28”, Pressure – 250 lb., Tractive effort – 33150 lb., Weight 83 tons

http://spellerweb.net

 

 

Steam Locomotives of a Leisurely Era – 1937 ‘Coronation’ Pacifics – London Midland & Scottish Railway

6229 Duchess of Hamilton as first built

Following the success of the ‘Princess’ class Pacifics an improved design was put in hand, and five engines appeared in 1937 for working the newly inaugurated high-speed service between London and Glasgow. The heating surface, cylinders and piston valves were enlarged, and the driving wheel diameter increased to 6’ 9”, but the most striking change was the fully streamlined casing, which while impressive was also aesthetically extremely ugly. The engines were also painted a bright shade of blue with horizontal white bands to match the new train, which was similarly adorned. Nos.6225-9 which followed, were, however, painted in standard LMS maroon. The next batch, Nos.6230-4, were non-streamlined and presented a handsome appearance. Further additions to the class were Nos. 6235-48, all streamlined, and finally, between 1944 and 1948 there came Nos. 6249-57, without streamlining. No.6256 was named after its designer, Sir William Á. Stanier, F.R.S. This, and No.6257 had roller bearings. The outer casing was removed from all the streamlined engines, as it was found to be of little value at speeds below 90 mph or so, and was a nuisance to the maintenance staff as it rendered parts of the engine somewhat inaccessible. To combat the trouble of drifting steam over the cab, all the class was fitted with smoke deflectors, but strangely this was never found necessary with the earlier ‘Princess’ class.

6251 as first built

Prior to the introduction of the ‘Coronation’ flier in July, 1937, No.6220 was tried out with a special train and attained 114 mph just south of |Crewe, thus beating the record of 113 mph at that time held by the LNER.
The ‘Coronation’ class have since shown themselves to be magnificent engines, not only in the realms of speed, but in their ability to handle very heavy expresses over the West Coast route. On test in 1939, No.6234, then newly fitted with a double chimney, worked a train of twenty coaches, 610 tons behind the tender, between Crewe and Carlisle, 102 miles in 118 minutes. This included of course the ascents of Shap and Beattock. All were still in service in 1959, as BR Nos. 46220-57, although beginning to be displaced by diesels on many of the top link workings.

‘Duchess of Hamilton’ dressed up as ‘Coronation’

http://www.worldsfaircommunity.org

In January, 1939, No.6229 ‘Duchess of Hamilton’ was sent on exhibition to New York, and later made an extended tour over the USA railways. It was still there when the Second World War broke out, and was not returned to this country until 1943. During this time it had exchanged numbers and nameplates with No.6220 ‘Coronation’, but these were altered back on the engine’s return. This was a great mistake, as many American servicemen in this country, seeing the real 6220, were naturally under the erroneous impression that it was the same locomotive which had toured their own native land.

Driving wheels – 6’ 9”, Cylinders (4) – 16½”x 28”, Pressure – 250 lb., Tractive effort – 40000 lb., Weight – 105 tons 5 cwt., Nos. 46256-7 weighed 106 tons 8 cwt., LMS classification – 7P, BR classification – 8P

Duchess of Hamilton in the NRM 2014

Railroad Glory Days – Glen Brewer G+

Railroad Glory Days – Glen Brewer

The lovely little Sonoma at the California State Railroad Museum is one of three locomotives built in 1876 by Baldwin Locomotive Works for the narrow gauge North Pacific Coast Railroad.

The NPC operated in the northern California counties of Marin and Sonoma that carried redwood lumber, local dairy and agricultural products, express and passengers. The NPC operated almost 93 mi (150 km) of track that extended from a pier at Sausalito (which connected the line via ferry to San Francisco) and operated northwest to Duncans Mills and Cazadero (also known as Ingrams).

The NPC became the North Shore Railroad (California) (NSR) on March 7, 1902. In 1907 the North Shore Railroad became part of the Northwestern Pacific Railroad (NWP). Southern portions of the line were standard gauged and electrified by the North Shore for suburban passenger service, though tracks north of Point Reyes Station remained 3 ft (914 mm) narrow gauge until abandonment in the late 1930s.(Wikipedia)

Via G+

Steam Locomotives of a Leisurely Era – 1935 A4 Pacifics London & North Eastern Railway

 

‘Mallard’ as originally built

When the question of providing a high-speed service between London and Newcastle in the early 1930s was being mooted, the question of utilising a diesel-electric train was at one time seriously considered, but as this would have given neither the desired standard of comfort nor the required speed, the idea was dropped. It was decided to use conventional type of rolling stock with steam propulsion and a certain amount of streamlining to reduce wind pressure at the high speeds contemplated, as Sir Nigel Gresley assured the directors that he could produce an engine and train which would amply cover the requirements. His ‘Silver Link’, which appeared in 1935, was in effect an improved version of his already successful ‘Pacific’ design, but greatly altered in appearance. The now familiar wedge-shaped streamline casing was certainly startling at the time.
The first four engines, Nos.2509-12, soon showed themselves fully capable of doing all that was required, and in 1937 further examples were built for working the even more ambitious high speed non-stop ’Coronation’ between London and Edinburgh. Eventually the class consisted of 35 engines, Nos.2509-12, 4462-9, 4482-4500 and 4900-3. No.4498 was named ‘Sir Nigel Gresley’ after its designer.

Sir Nigel Gresley at Bridgnorth

The exploits of these remarkable engines is comparatively recent history and needs no repetition here, but the 126 mph speed attained by No.4468 ‘Mallard’ in July 1938 remains to this day a world record for steam which can be substantiated. A claim of 127 mph by a Pennsylvania ‘Atlantic’ in 1905 seems to have been based upon somewhat flimsy evidence and can hardly be accepted.

Union of South Africa – Shildon 2014

No.4469 was destroyed at York in 1842 in an air raid, but the remainder were renumbered 1-34 in 1946 although not in chronological order. They duly became BR 60001-34 and were still in service in 1959. In recent years the valances over the driving wheels have been cut away to give easier access to the motion, and most of them have now Kylchap blast pipes and double chimneys, which were originally fitted to Nos.4468 and 4901-3.

Sir Nigel Gresley leaving Highley

Driving wheels – 6’ 8”, Cylinders (3) – 18½”x 26”, Pressure – 250 lb., Tractive effort – 35455 lb., Weight – 103 tons, LNER classification – A4, BR classification – 8P6F

Mallard at Shildon – 2014