 | This article relies largely or entirely on a single source .(February 2015) |
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The Great Central Railway (GCR) Class 8K 2-8-0 is a class of steam locomotive designed for heavy freight. Introduced in 1911, and designed by John G. Robinson, 126 were built for the GCR prior to the First World War. Including wartime construction for the British Army ROD and the post-war GCR Class 8M, the class and its derivatives totalled 666 locomotives.
The first of the 8K class was outshopped from the GCR's Gorton workshops in 1911. It was essentially a superheated version of an earlier 0-8-0, the 8A class, with the addition of a pony truck. This both supported the greater front end weight and gave a steadier ride. The 8K was introduced to anticipate the increased traffic from the GCR's vast new docks complex at Immingham in North East Lincolnshire and 126 were in traffic by June 1914. During the First World War there were experiments with oil burning 8Ks with larger bogie tenders.
Post-war, a further 19 locomotives were built in 1918–21 to a modified design with a larger boiler (GCR class 8M). In 1922 the GCR rebuilt two Class 8M to Class 8K.
Robust and straightforward, the Class 8K 2-8-0 steamed well and proved outstandingly reliable, qualities that commended the design to the Ministry of Munitions. Sir Sam Fay ensured that it became the standard locomotive during the First World War as the ROD 2-8-0, used by the Railway Operating Division of the Royal Engineers. 521 ROD locomotives were built in 1917–19 to essentially the same design as the GCR's 8K locomotives, differing only in minor details, such as the fitting of Westinghouse Air Brakes and the use of steel for the boiler tubes and inner firebox. After the war, the surviving ROD locomotives were sold to various railway companies, with the GCR itself purchasing 3 in 1919, which were added to its indigenous 8K fleet.
Other surplus ROD locomotives were sold to the London and North Western Railway (30 locomotives), its successor the London, Midland and Scottish Railway (75 locomotives, see LMS ex-ROD 2-8-0), the Great Western Railway (100 locomotives, see GWR 3000 Class), and to various purchasers in Australia and China. Many of these had short lives with their new owners – the LMS locomotives were all scrapped or sold by the 1930s, and half of the GWR fleet was gone by 1930. However, other GWR engines survived well into the 1950s. The last of 13 locomotives sold to J & A Brown for use on the Richmond Vale railway line, in Australia, was retired in 1973, and 3 locomotives in China were only retired in 1990.
Upon its formation in 1923 the London and North Eastern Railway inherited a total of 131 class 8K and 17 class 8M locomotives from the Great Central Railway. Under the LNER's ownership the 8Ks became known as Class O4 , and the 8Ms as Class O5, although all of the O5s were converted to Class O4s by 1946. They were joined by a further 273 former ROD locomotives purchased in 1923–27, bringing the total LNER O4 fleet to 421 locomotives. Some 92 of these were requisitioned by the War Department in 1941 for use in support of Commonwealth forces in the Middle East, none of which would return to Britain.
The O4 locos served widely throughout the LNER system, many being modified to help extend their useful working life on heavy freight trains. Fifty-eight of the class were rebuilt into LNER Thompson Class O1s in 1944–49. 329 LNER O4 locomotives passed to British Railways ownership in 1948. Five locomotives were sold to the Government in 1952 for use in Egypt, and routine withdrawals of BR's class O4s commenced in December 1958. The last examples of the class were withdrawn from operations in the Doncaster area in April 1966, not long before the abandonment of steam altogether.
One of the GCR-built 8Ks, BR number 63601 (originally GCR No. 102 built at Gorton in 1911 [1] ), is preserved in Great Britain where it runs on the preserved Great Central Railway at Loughborough. There are also three ROD 2-8-0s (not used by the GCR or LNER) in New South Wales, Australia. Two are stored at the Dorrigo Steam Railway and Museum and one is being restored on the Richmond Vale Railway.
In 2009 Bachmann Branchline announced a ready-to-run '00' scale model of the Class 8K, marketing it under the LNER class name of O4. The models were of preserved 63601, and models of two scrapped examples (BR 63635 and LNER 6190) have since been released. [2]
In October 2012, RailSimulator.com released a payware add-on of the GCR 8K, again marketed under its LNER O4 classification, for Train Simulator 2013 . It was released as a companion to the Woodhead Line add-on, released earlier in the year, and features sounds from the preserved O4 63601 before its boiler ticket ran out, and includes four scenarios for the Woodhead Line and Quickdrive compatibility.
The steam locomotives of British Railways were used by British Railways over the period 1948–1968. The vast majority of these were inherited from its four constituent companies, the "Big Four".
The London and North Eastern Railway (LNER) produced several classes of locomotive, mostly to the designs of Nigel Gresley, characterised by a three-cylinder layout with a parallel boiler and round-topped firebox. It produced the most famous locomotive of its day, 4468 'Mallard', the holder of the world steam locomotive speed record. It also built the world-famous 4472 'Flying Scotsman'. However, its locomotive inheritance was much greater than just the 'A4 Class', it also produced highly successful mixed-traffic and freight designs.
The London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMS) Stanier Class 8F is a class of steam locomotives designed for hauling heavy freight. 852 were built between 1935 and 1946, as a freight version of William Stanier's successful Black Five, and the class saw extensive service overseas during and after the Second World War.
The London and North Eastern Railway (LNER) Class O4 initially consisted of the 131 ex-Great Central Railway (GCR) Class 8K 2-8-0 steam locomotives acquired on grouping in 1923. The engines were designed by John G. Robinson and built at the GCR's Gorton Locomotive Works, Manchester.
The Hunslet Austerity 0-6-0ST is a class of steam locomotive designed by Hunslet Engine Company for shunting. The class became the standard British shunting locomotive during the Second World War, and production continued until 1964 at various locomotive manufacturers.
The London and North Eastern Railway (LNER) Thompson Class O1 was a class of 2-8-0 steam locomotive designed by Edward Thompson for freight work. None have survived to preservation.
The Great Central Railway Class 9N, classified A5 by the LNER, was a class of 4-6-2 tank locomotives designed by John G. Robinson for suburban passenger services. They were fitted with superheaters, piston valves and Stephenson valve gear.
The London and North Eastern Railway Class U1 was a solitary 2-8-0+0-8-2 Garratt locomotive designed for banking coal trains over the Worsborough Bank, a steeply graded line in South Yorkshire and part of the Woodhead Route. It was both the longest and the most powerful steam locomotive ever to run in Britain. It was built in 1925 with the motion at each end being based on an existing 2-8-0 design. The original number was 2395, and it was renumbered 9999 in March 1946, and then 69999 after nationalisation in 1948, although it retained its cab-side plate bearing its original number throughout its life. The locomotive ran for some time as an oil burner, and was tried out on the Lickey Incline in 1949–1950 and again, after the electrification of its home line, in 1955. These trials were unsuccessful, and so the locomotive was withdrawn in 1955 and scrapped.
The Great Western Railway (GWR) 3000 Class was a class of 2-8-0 steam locomotive consisting of the ex-Railway Operating Division ROD 2-8-0. These were built by North British Locomotive Co. between 1917 and 1918. No examples have been preserved.
The Railway Operating Division (ROD) ROD 2-8-0 is a type of 2-8-0 steam locomotive which was the standard heavy freight locomotive operated in Europe by the ROD during the First World War.
The London and North Eastern Railway (LNER) Class O6 was a class of 2-8-0 steam locomotives of the Stanier Class 8F type.
Gorton Locomotive Works, known locally as Gorton Tank, was in West Gorton in Manchester, England and was completed in 1848 by the Sheffield, Ashton-under-Lyne and Manchester Railway.
The Great Central Railway (GCR) Class 8A was a class of 0-8-0 steam locomotive built between 1902 and 1911 for handling heavy coal trains over the Pennines. They all passed to the LNER in 1923, who redesignated them Class Q4. They were withdrawn from service between 1934 and 1951.
Lillian "Curly" Lawrence, known as LBSC, was one of Britain's most prolific and well known model or scale-steam-locomotive designers. LBSC were the initials of Britain's London, Brighton and South Coast Railway, where he was once employed as a fireman.
The GCR Class 9J was a class of 174 0-6-0 steam locomotives designed by John G. Robinson for freight work on the Great Central Railway (GCR) in 1901. They were a part of the Railway Operating Division during World War 1.
The GCR Classes 9D, 9H and 9M were a class of 124 0-6-0 Steam locomotives designed by Harry Pollitt for freight work on the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway (MS&LR) later renamed Great Central Railway (GCR).
Despite the advent of electric and diesel locomotives in the mid-20th century, steam locomotives continued to be used and constructed into the 21st century. The use of steam locomotives in regular non-tourist revenue service concluded in 2022.
The Great Central Railway (Nottingham) (formerly known as the Nottingham Heritage Railway) is a heritage railway located at the Nottingham Transport Heritage Centre (NTHC), on the south side of the village of Ruddington, in Nottinghamshire. The route consists of almost 10 miles (16 km) of the former Great Central Main Line from Loughborough South Junction (with the Midland Main Line) to Fifty Steps Bridge and the site of Ruddington's former GCR station, plus a branch line from Fifty Steps Bridge to Ruddington Fields station which is located on a former Ministry of Defence site next to Rushcliffe Country Park.
GCR Class 9P was a design of four-cylinder steam locomotive of the 4-6-0 wheel arrangement built for hauling express passenger trains on the Great Central Railway in England. A total of six were built: one in 1917, and five in 1920. They were sometimes known as the Lord Faringdon class, from the name of the first one built.
