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The London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMS) No. 6399 Fury was an unsuccessful British experimental express passenger locomotive. The intention was to save fuel by using high-pressure steam, which is thermodynamically more efficient than low-pressure steam.
Built in Glasgow in 1929 by the North British Locomotive Company (NBL), [1] it was one of a number of steam locomotives built around the world in the search for "Superpower steam". The locomotive was a joint venture between the LMS, with Henry Fowler as chief mechanical engineer (C.M.E.), and The Superheater Company, [2] with the latter having responsibility for constructing the complex, three-stage Schmidt-based boiler. [3] The LMS provided a Royal Scot frame and running gear. [4] However, Carney [3] shows that the frames for Fury were not standard Royal Scot frames, but longer. For the complex boiler, John Brown & Company of Sheffield forged the special nickel-steel alloy high pressure drum and many boiler fittings were imported from Germany [5] but otherwise all manufacture was carried out by NBL. [3]
A 3-cylindered semi-compound locomotive, it had one high-pressure cylinder between the frames (11.5 inch bore) and two larger low-pressure outside cylinders (18 inch bore). The Schmidt steam-raising boiler was a 3-stage unit. The primary generator was a fully sealed ultra-high-pressure circuit working between 1,400–1,800 psi (9.65–12.41 MPa), filled with distilled water that transferred heat from the firebox to the high-pressure drum. This raised high-pressure steam at 900 psi (6.21 MPa) which was taken to power the cylinders and also recirculate pure water. The third steam raising unit was a relatively conventional locomotive fire tube boiler operating at 250 psi (1.72 MPa) heated by combustion gases from the coal fire. [3] The engine was technically an "ultra-high pressure, semi-compound steam locomotive". It was given the LMS number 6399 and then inherited the name Fury from LMS 6138, which had itself been renamed in October 1929. [6]
After short runs during January 1930, a longer test run from Glasgow to Carstairs was scheduled for 10 February 1930. Approaching Carstairs station at slow speed, one of the ultra-high-pressure tubes burst and the escaping steam ejected the coal fire through the fire-hole door, killing Lewis Schofield of the Superheater Company. [7] Subsequently, the burst tube was thoroughly investigated at Sheffield University but no definitive conclusion reached. [8] The boiler was eventually repaired and Fury moved to Derby where a number of running trials were carried out until early 1934, mostly revealing significant shortcomings in performance. [9] Fury's rods and linkages were then removed together with the indicator shelter and test gear when in 1935 it was rebuilt by William Stanier at Crewe Works with a more conventional type 2 boiler becoming 6170 British Legion, the first of the LMS 2 and 2A boilered 4-6-0 locomotives.
Despite the accident, Fury was primarily an economic rather than a technological failure. Although tolerating the trials from Derby, Stanier didn't devote much effort to rectifying the faults Fury displayed, no doubt because of his many other work pressures and development of the LMS Turbomotive. [3] Nevertheless, Fury never earned revenue for the LMS and in fact "Fury must have travelled more miles under tow than under its own steam". [10] As many other experimental locomotives showed, the theoretical benefits of ultra high steam pressure locomotives were hard to realise in practice. Fuel is only one part of the operating costs of a steam locomotive—maintenance is very significant, and introducing extra complications always increased this disproportionally.
In France, the Chemins de fer de Paris à Lyon et à la Méditerranée had bought a Schmidt system 4-8-2 locomotive (no. 241.B.1), and in 1933 this too burst an ultra high pressure tube. The failure was investigated, and it was concluded from both incidents that inadequate water circulation in the ultra high pressure circuit was responsible. [3]
The London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMS) Princess Royal Class is a class of express passenger 4-6-2 steam locomotive designed by William Stanier. Twelve examples were built at Crewe Works, between 1933 and 1935, for use on the West Coast Main Line. Two are preserved.
The LMS Turbomotive was a modified LMS Princess Royal Class steam turbine locomotive designed by William Stanier and built by the London, Midland and Scottish Railway in 1935. It was inspired by the Swedish Ljungström locomotives first introduced in 1922. It used turbines instead of cylinders. It was later rebuilt as a conventional locomotive No. 46202 Princess Anne.
A high pressure watertube boiler is a type of boiler in which water circulates in tubes heated externally by fire. Fuel is burned inside the furnace, creating hot gas which boils water in the steam-generating tubes. In smaller boilers, additional generating tubes are separate in the furnace, while larger utility boilers rely on the water-filled tubes that make up the walls of the furnace to generate steam.
A superheater is a device used to convert saturated steam or wet steam into superheated steam or dry steam. Superheated steam is used in steam turbines for electricity generation, in some steam engines, and in processes such as steam reforming. There are three types of superheaters: radiant, convection, and separately fired. A superheater can vary in size from a few tens of feet to several hundred feet.
The Great Western Railway 2900 Class or Saint Class, which was built by the Great Western Railway's Swindon Works, incorporated several series of 2-cylinder passenger steam locomotives designed by George Jackson Churchward and built between 1902 and 1913 with differences in the dimensions. The majority of these were built as 4-6-0 locomotives; but thirteen examples were built as 4-4-2. They proved to be a highly successful class which established the design principles for GWR 2-cylinder classes over the next fifty years, and influenced similar classes on other British railways.
The London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMS) Royal Scot Class is a class of 4-6-0 express passenger locomotive introduced in 1927. Originally having parallel boilers, all members were later rebuilt with tapered type 2A boilers, and were in effect two classes.
The London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMS) 6170British Legion was a British steam locomotive. It was the prototype for, and is sometimes considered a member of, the Rebuilt Royal Scot Class but differed from those later rebuilds principally in having a unique type 2 boiler, rather than a type 2A boiler, the two not being interchangeable.
The Caledonian Railway 72 Class was a class of 4-4-0 steam locomotives introduced by William Pickersgill for the Caledonian Railway (CR) in 1920. Thirty-two locomotives were built and all survived to be taken over by the London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMS) in 1923 and by British Railways (BR) in 1948. The earlier 113 Class, of which 16 were produced, were similar but slightly smaller. These were the Caledonian's last express passenger locomotives, and technically, the last of the Dunalastair series, and were unofficially dubbed, Dunalastair V.
The Northern Counties Committee (NCC) Class U2 4-4-0 passenger steam locomotives consisted of 18 locomotives built for service in north-east Ireland. Ten of the engines were new builds supplied by the North British Locomotive Company (NBL) or constructed at the NCC's York Road works. The remainder were rebuilds of existing locomotives.
The LNER W1 No. 10000 was an experimental steam locomotive fitted with a high pressure water-tube boiler. Nigel Gresley was impressed by the results of using high-pressure steam in marine applications and so in 1924 he approached Harold Yarrow of shipyard and boilermakers Yarrow & Company of Glasgow to design a suitable boiler for a railway locomotive, based on Yarrow's design.
A boiler or steam generator is a device used to create steam by applying heat energy to water. Although the definitions are somewhat flexible, it can be said that older steam generators were commonly termed boilers and worked at low to medium pressure but, at pressures above this, it is more usual to speak of a steam generator.
The London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMS) 2 and 2A boilered 4-6-0 locomotives were express passenger 4-6-0 steam locomotives. In 1935, William Stanier, Chief Mechanical Engineer of the LMS, ordered the rebuilding of the unique experimental high pressure compound locomotive 6399 Fury. The Schmidt-Henschel boiler was replaced with a tapered boiler, with a drumhead smokebox, designated type 2. The type 2 boiler had a tube surface of 1,669 square feet, formed by tubes 2+1⁄8 inches (54 mm) in diameter and 14 ft 3 in (4.34 m) long. It was fitted with a 28-row superheater with 360 square feet (33 m2) of heating surface. The superheater elements, 1+1⁄8 inches (29 mm) in diameter, were fitted into flue tubes 5+1⁄8 inches (130 mm) diameter.
Three-drum boilers are a class of water-tube boiler used to generate steam, typically to power ships. They are compact and of high evaporative power, factors that encourage this use. Other boiler designs may be more efficient, although bulkier, and so the three-drum pattern was rare as a land-based stationary boiler.
The Rhaetian Railway G 4/5 was a class of metre gauge 2-8-0 steam locomotives operated by the Rhaetian Railway (RhB), which is the main railway network in the Canton of Graubünden, Switzerland.
A high-pressure steam locomotive is a steam locomotive with a boiler that operates at pressures well above what would be considered normal for other locomotives. Most locomotives operate with a steam pressure of 200 to 300 psi. In the later years of steam, boiler pressures were typically 200 to 250 psi. High-pressure locomotives can be considered to start at 350 psi (2.41 MPa), when special construction techniques become necessary, but some had boilers that operated at over 1,500 psi (10.34 MPa).
The South African Railways Class 6L 4-6-0 of 1904 was a steam locomotive from the pre-Union era in the Cape of Good Hope.
The South African Railways Class ME 2-6-6-2 of 1912 was a steam locomotive.
The L&YR Class 3 was a class of 4-4-0 steam locomotives of the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway introduced in 1891 with forty being built. George Hughes rebuilt six locomotives with superheaters between 1908 and 1909, they were later designated L&YR Class 4. All passed to the London, Midland and Scottish Railway at the grouping in 1923 but were withdrawn by 1930.
The NER Class R1 was a class of 4-4-0 steam locomotives of the North Eastern Railway. The class was designed by Wilson Worsdell and built from 1908 to 1909.
SNCF 232.P.1 was an experimental prototype high-pressure steam locomotive ordered by the Chemins de fer du Nord, but delivered to the Société nationale des chemins de fer français (SNCF) in 1939. It was the first and only member of SNCF's first class of 4-6-4 or Hudson type of locomotives.
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