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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. [2]
John G. Robinson served as Chief Mechanical Engineer of the Great Central Railway (GCR) from 1900 to 1922. Towards the end of his period of office, he introduced two classes of 4-6-0 locomotive with four cylinders and large-diameter boilers. [3] They differed primarily in the diameter of their driving wheels: the first design, Class 9P (LNER Class B3 from September 1923 [4] ), had 6-foot-9-inch (2.06 m) diameter wheels, for express passenger service; [5] and the second, Class 9Q (LNER Class B7), had 5-foot-8-inch (1.73 m) wheels, for mixed-traffic work. [6]
The first locomotive of Class 9P to be built was costed at £5,871. [2] The four cylinders had a bore of 16 inches (410 mm) and a stroke of 26 inches (660 mm). They were set in line (like the LNWR Claughton Class), with the inside cylinders driving the front coupled axle, and the outside cylinders driving the middle coupled axle (like the GWR Star Class). The 8 inches (200 mm) piston valves were actuated by two sets of Stephenson valve gear, mounted inside the frames and operating the valves of the outside cylinders through rocking shafts placed behind the cylinders. These rocking shafts caused the two valves on each side to move forwards and backwards together, and since the inside and outside cylinders on each side were out of phase by 180°, the valves of the outside cylinders were arranged for outside admission, instead of the normal inside admission layout. [7] [8] The boiler was the Gorton "No. 7 Standard", which was already used on two other GCR 4-6-0 classes: Class 1 (LNER Class B2) and Class 1A (LNER Class B8); it would later be used on Class 9Q as well. In July 1928, this boiler was assigned to LNER Diagram 13. [9]
The complicated cylinder castings, which involved tortuous narrow steam passages to provide inside admission for the inside cylinders and outside admission for the outside cylinders, resulted in poor steam flow; this, together with leakages around the piston valves, led to a high coal consumption which became particularly apparent once the locomotives were being used on trains out of King's Cross. Nigel Gresley, the Chief Mechanical Engineer of the LNER, decided to fit poppet valves, but instead of operating these by Lentz valve gear, as he had done with some of his other poppet valve fitments (such as Class B12), Gresley chose to use Caprotti valve gear. This was driven from the driving axle by a longitudinal shaft along the centre of the locomotive to a transverse shaft above the cylinders. No. 6168 Lord Stuart of Wortley was modified in September 1929, followed by no. 6166 in December. [10] [11] [12] In December 1929, class B3 was subdivided into two parts, and the locomotives modified with Caprotti valve gear were given the classification B3/2, and the unmodified locomotives became B3/1. [13] On test, they showed a 16% reduction in coal consumption, and as a result, a further two more were modified to B3/2 – no. 6167 in June 1938, and no. 6164 Earl Beatty in June 1939. These used steam to close the valves, instead of the springs fitted to nos. 6166/8. It was intended to convert the remaining two Class B3/1 locomotives, but the outbreak of war meant that they were never modified, and retained Stephenson valve gear until withdrawal. [14] [12]
In 1943, no. 6166 Earl Haig of Class B3/2 was found to have cracked cylinders, and was selected by Edward Thompson for rebuilding with two outside cylinders, ten-inch piston valves actuated by Walschaerts valve gear and a round-top boiler of the same design (known as Diagram 100A) as was used on his Class B1 4-6-0. [15] The wheels, bogie and rear part of the main frames were retained, as was the tender, but all the other components were new. [16] It was reclassified B3/3, and returned to service in October 1943, retaining its number but losing its name, since there was no suitable place to affix the nameplates. [17] No further rebuilds followed; the reconstruction weakened the frames, and although this locomotive was the sole member of the class to be inherited by British Railways, it survived only until 1949. [18]
| Number | Built | Name | Rebuilt | Final LNER number | Withdrawn |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1169 | November 1917 | Lord Faringdon | 1494 | December 1947 | |
| 1164 | June 1920 | Earl Beatty | June 1939 (B3/2) | 1495 | September 1947 |
| 1165 | July 1920 | Valour | 1496 | December 1947 | |
| 1166 | August 1920 | Earl Haig | December 1929 (B3/2); October 1943 (B3/3) | 1497 | April 1949 |
| 1167 | September 1920 | Lloyd George | June 1938 (B3/2) | 1498 | December 1947 |
| 1168 | October 1920 | Lord Stuart of Wortley | September 1929 (B3/2) | 1499 (not carried) | September 1946 |
No. 1169 was named after the GCR Chairman (Class 11E locomotive no. 429 giving up its name Sir Alexander Henderson at this time – he had been raised to the peerage the previous year), and no. 1168 after another GCR Director. Nos. 1164, 1166 and 1167 were named after significant British leaders of the First World War: Beatty was an Admiral in the Royal Navy; Haig was a Field-Marshal in the Army; and Lloyd George was Prime Minister. The remaining engine, no. 1165, was designated as the war memorial locomotive: it carried an inscription below the name reading "In memory of G.C.R. employees who gave their lives for their country 1914–1918"; and on Armistice Day each year until the outbreak of the Second World War, it was decorated with poppies and hauled a train from Manchester London Road to Sheffield Victoria, carrying a party of railwaymen to a memorial service. [19] The name was removed from no. 1167 on 30 August 1923, on the instructions of Sir Frederick Banbury; and from LNER no. 6166 (formerly no. 1166) in October 1943. [20] [19] One nameplate of LNER no. 1496 (formerly GCR no. 1165) has been preserved at the National Railway Museum. [19] After withdrawal, the name from LNER no. 1494 (formerly GCR no. 1169) was transferred in March 1948 to LNER Class A4 4-6-2 no. 34, which was given its British Railways number 60034 at the same time. [21]
After the Grouping, the LNER increased the GCR numbers by 5000, this occurring in 1924–25. Under the 1946 renumbering, they were allotted 1480–5 in order of construction, but these were not applied, being amended later that year to 1494–9. No. 6168 was withdrawn before the number 1499 could be applied, but the others were renumbered in September and October 1946. No. 1497, the sole Class B3/3 rebuild, was the only one to survive nationalisation; it was duly allotted no. 61497, which was applied in April 1948. [22]
John George Robinson CBE, was an English railway engineer, and was chief mechanical engineer of the Great Central Railway from 1900 to 1922.
The London and North Eastern Railway LNER Gresley Classes A1 and A3 locomotives represented two distinct stages in the history of the British 4-6-2 "Pacific" steam locomotives designed by Nigel Gresley. They were designed for main line passenger services and later express passenger services, initially on the Great Northern Railway (GNR), a constituent company of the London and North Eastern Railway after the amalgamation of 1923, for which they became a standard design. The change in class designation to A3 reflected the fitting to the same chassis of a higher pressure boiler with a greater superheating surface and a small reduction in cylinder diameter, leading to an increase in locomotive weight. Eventually all of the A1 locomotives were rebuilt, most to A3 specifications, but no. 4470 was completely rebuilt as Class A1/1.
Edward Thompson was an English railway engineer, and was Chief Mechanical Engineer of the London and North Eastern Railway between 1941 and 1946. Edward Thompson was born at Marlborough, Wiltshire on 25 June 1881. He was the son of Francis Thompson, assistant master at Marlborough College. He was educated at Marlborough before taking the Mechanical Science Tripos at Pembroke College, Cambridge, earning a third class degree. Thompson entered the railway scene after education, contrasting that of his predecessor Nigel Gresley, who had also attended Marlborough after gaining practical experience as a pupil at Horwich Works.
The London and North Eastern Railway (LNER) Thompson Class Q1 was a class of 0-8-0T steam locomotives. They were rebuilds of the GCR Class 8A 0-8-0s. Thirteen were rebuilt between 1942 and 1945 at Gorton Works. All passed to British Railways in 1948, numbered 69925–69937.
Alexander Henderson, 1st Baron Faringdon, known as Sir Alexander Henderson, 1st Baronet, from 1902 to 1916, was a British financier and Liberal Unionist Member of Parliament.
The GCR Class 1 was a class of steam locomotives designed by John G. Robinson for the Great Central Railway, and introduced to service between December 1912 and 1913. In the 1923 grouping, they all passed to the London and North Eastern Railway which placed them in class B2. Their classification was changed to B19 in 1945, and all had been retired by the end of 1947.
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.
The GCR Class 1B was a class of 2-6-4T (tank) locomotives on the Great Central Railway. They were notable as the first locomotives of the 2-6-4T wheel arrangement to be used by a British standard-gauge railway; there had been two narrow-gauge examples on the Leek & Manifold Valley Light Railway since 1904.
Although overshadowed by the later and more famous steam locomotives that John G. Robinson would go on to design, the Great Central Railway Class 11B 4-4-0 Express Passenger engines were a successful class which totalled 40. Built from 1901 to 1903, in later rebuilt form as 11D, some 11Bs would last in service until 1950. Railwaymen continued to refer to the class as "11B" even after all were rebuilt to 11D. Being contemporary with and to some extent the 4-4-0 version of Robinson's much more numerous 0-6-0 goods class 9J, which were known as "Pom-Poms", the 11Bs acquired the nickname "Pom-Pom Bogies". The London & North Eastern Railway classified the 11Bs, along with their 11C and 11D rebuilds, as Class D9.
The LD&ECR Class D was a class of nine 0-6-4T steam locomotives supplied to the Lancashire, Derbyshire and East Coast Railway in 1904 and 1906 by Kitson & Co. of Leeds. They later became the property of the Great Central Railway and finally the London and North Eastern Railway, upon which they were known as Class M1.
GCR Classes 8D and 8E were two pairs of three-cylinder compound steam locomotives of the 4-4-2 wheel arrangement built in 1905 and 1906 for the Great Central Railway.
The GCR Class 11E was a type of 4-4-0 steam locomotive used by the Great Central Railway for express passenger services. Ten were built in the railway's own workshops at Gorton, Manchester during 1913; they remained in service until the mid-1950s.
The NBR 224 and 420 Classes consisted of six steam locomotives of the 4-4-0 wheel arrangement built by the North British Railway (NBR) in 1871 and 1873. No. 224 had three claims to fame: it was the first inside-cylinder 4-4-0 engine to run in Great Britain; it was the locomotive involved in the Tay Bridge disaster; and after rebuilding in 1885, it was the only compound-expansion locomotive on the NBR, and one of just three tandem compounds in Britain.
The GCR Class 9Q, classified B7 by the LNER, was a class of 4-6-0 mixed traffic locomotives designed by John G. Robinson for fast goods, relief passenger and excursion services on the Great Central Railway. They were a smaller wheeled version of Robinson's earlier Class 9P "Lord Faringdon" express passenger class.
The GCR Class 8C was a class of a pair of 4-6-0 locomotives built for the Great Central Railway in 1903–1904 by Beyer, Peacock and Company. They passed to the London and North Eastern Railway at the 1923 grouping and received the classification B1 They were reclassified B18 in 1943 and both were retired in 1947.
GCR Class 8G was a class of 10 two-cylinder steam locomotives of the 4-6-0 wheel arrangement built in 1906 for the Great Central Railway.
The NBR 141 Class consisted of two steam 2-4-0 locomotives built by the North British Railway (NBR) in 1869. They were the direct antecedents of the NBR 224 Class 4-4-0.
The GCR Class 8F was a class of ten 4-6-0 locomotives built for the Great Central Railway in 1906 by Beyer, Peacock and Company to the design of John G. Robinson for working fast goods and fish trains. They passed to the London and North Eastern Railway at the 1923 grouping and received the classification 'B4'.
The Great Central Railway Class 8N - London North Eastern Railway Class B6 - was a class of three 4-6-0 steam locomotives, designed by John G. Robinson in 1918. They were a mixed traffic class. All three examples were withdrawn in November and December 1947.
The NER Class Z was an Atlantic class of locomotives designed by Vincent Raven. It was introduced in 1911.