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The London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMS) Garratt was a class of Garratt 2-6-0+0-6-2 steam locomotive designed for heavy freight. A total of 33 were built from 1927, making them the most numerous class of Garratt in Britain.
After Grouping, the LMS initially continued the Midland Railway's "small engine policy" of hauling trains using two or three locomotives of moderate power coupled together. This led to most of the Toton (Nottinghamshire)-Brent (London) coal trains being double-headed by 0-6-0 locomotives. It was realised that double heading was uneconomical so a Garratt locomotive, designed by Fowler, was ordered from Beyer, Peacock and Company to haul 1,450 long tons at 25 mph. However, the LMS Derby design office insisted on, amongst other changes, the fitting of their standard axleboxes to the design. These axleboxes were barely adequate for the LMS Fowler Class 4F locomotives, on which they frequently overheated, and as the Garratts were much larger, they were a major weakness on the LMS Garratts. They were also always heavy on coal and maintenance. Tester's work shows that this may have been due to poor selection of oil and whitemetal rather than intrinsic design issues.[ citation needed ] Sixsmith reports that the boiler was a design for a Somerset and Dorset 2-8-0, further reducing coal efficiency, and that the steam injectors were also much shorter than recommended.[ citation needed ]
Three locomotives were built in April 1927 and were fitted with vacuum braking attachments, and the remaining 30 were built in the period August to November 1930. All were built with straight sided bunkers but from 1931 all except the first two of the 1927 trio were fitted with revolving coal bunkers. These were conical in shape and were revolved and oscillated by means of a small 2-cylinder steam engine. The revolving bunkers reduced coal dust from entering the cab and the oscillation facility made them self-trimming, but Sixsmith reports they were still unpopular to drive bunker-first due to dust, and that covers were unsuccessful.[ citation needed ]
The 1927 trio were numbered 4997–4999, and the 1930 batch from 4967 to 4996. They were later renumbered 7967–7999 in the same order to make way for the new Black 5’s . British Railways added 40000 to their numbers.
The roundhouses at Toton MPD had to have extra length Garratt roads to accommodate them. Mostly used for heavy coal trains, they later found other uses as well, and Sixsmith includes photographs of them at York, Gloucester, and Birmingham. Others were allocated to Wellingborough (depot code 45A where 15 locomotives were located in the 1950s) and Hasland near Chesterfield. Trains for Manchester were generally routed along the Hope Valley Line and the Garratts normally came off their trains at the Gowhole freight sidings just south of Chinley. A few would work the Ambergate to Pye Bridge Line using the north curve at Ambergate, but only as far as Rowsley, where the train would be split. This was normal for goods trains because of the danger of couplings breaking on the climb to Peak Forest. In addition, although they had ample tractive effort to climb the gradient, in the days before goods wagon trains had continuous brakes there were problems on the way down into Chinley. On an early attempt, the loco was inspected at Heaton Mersey and it was found that all of its brake blocks had melted. [1]
The single photograph recording a rake of 20 passenger coaches pulled by an LMS Garratt (No. 4999 - photo from the Frank Carrier archive) came from an unsuccessful trial of a Derby-St. Pancras run that had to be terminated at Leicester due to a hot axlebox. There is no evidence that they were used on the very similar Notts-Stonebridge Park coal run that used LMS's new-in-1929 40-ton braked coal waggons (58 tons gross).[ citation needed ]
The summary of Sixsmith's review of them is that they were very successful in the 1927/8 trial, and the class then lasted 25 years, averaging 25,000 miles/year. However, the design did not age well, especially under wartime lack of maintenance, causing generally poor later opinions. This implies they were too good to scrap, but not good enough to replicate. They were replaced by BR Standard 9F locomotives, which were designed to haul 900 long tons at 35 mph.[ citation needed ]
The class was withdrawn between June 1955 and April 1958. None survived into preservation.
| Year | Quantity in service at start of year | Quantity withdrawn | Locomotive numbers |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1955 | 33 | 7 | 47970/75/85/89–91/93. |
| 1956 | 26 | 13 | 47971/74/76–77/81/83–84/88/92/96–99. |
| 1957 | 13 | 12 | 47967–69/72–73/78–80/82/86–87/95. |
| 1958 | 1 | 1 | 47994. |
The Rosebud Kitmaster company produced an unpowered polystyrene injection moulded 00 scale model, which went on sale in March 1961. In late 1962, the Kitmaster brand was sold by its parent company (Rosebud Dolls) to Airfix, who transferred the moulding tools to their own factory; they re-introduced some of the former Kitmaster range, but the Garratt model was not among them. The moulding tools for this locomotive were scrapped in 1982. [2] Heljan was commissioned by Hattons of Liverpool to produce a model in OO gauge which became the manufacturer's first UK outline OO gauge steam locomotive model. [3]
A tender or coal-car is a special rail vehicle hauled by a steam locomotive containing its fuel and water. Steam locomotives consume large quantities of water compared to the quantity of fuel, so their tenders are necessary to keep them running over long distances. A locomotive that pulls a tender is called a tender locomotive. Locomotives that do not have tenders and carry all their fuel and water on board the locomotive itself are called tank locomotives.
The London, Midland and Scottish Railway had the largest stock of steam locomotives of any of the 'Big Four' Grouping, i.e. pre-Nationalisation railway companies in the UK. Despite early troubles arising from factions within the new company, the LMS went on to build some very successful designs; many lasted until the end of steam traction on British Railways in 1968. For an explanation of numbering and classification, see British Rail locomotive and multiple unit numbering and classification.
Sir Henry Fowler, was an English railway engineer, and was chief mechanical engineer of the Midland Railway and subsequently the London, Midland and Scottish Railway.
The BR Standard Class 4 2-6-0 is a class of steam locomotive designed by Robert Riddles for British Railways (BR). 115 locomotives were built to this standard.
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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 and North Eastern Railway (LNER) J94 Class is a class of steam locomotive that was formed when 75 former "Austerity" 0-6-0STs were purchased by the LNER in 1946 from the War Department.
The London Midland and Scottish Railway (LMS) Fowler Class 4F is a class of 0-6-0 steam locomotive designed for medium freight work. They represent the ultimate development of Midland Railway's six coupled tender engines. Many trainspotters knew them as "Duck Sixes", a nickname derived from their wheel arrangement.
The NCC Class WT is a class of 2-6-4T steam locomotives built by the Northern Counties Committee's parent company, the London, Midland and Scottish Railway for service in Northern Ireland.
The NZR G class was a type of Garratt steam locomotive used in New Zealand, later rebuilt as Pacific type locomotives. They were the only Garratt type steam locomotives ever used by the New Zealand Railways (NZR). They were ordered to deal with traffic growth over the heavy gradients of the North Island Main Trunk (NIMT) and to do away with the use of banking engines on steep grades. They were one of the few Garratt designs to employ six cylinders. A mechanical stoker was used to feed coal into the locomotive.
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Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives by wheel arrangement, a 4-8-2+2-8-4 is a Garratt articulated locomotive consisting of a pair of 4-8-2 engine units back to back, with the boiler and cab suspended between them. The 4-8-2 wheel arrangement has four leading wheels on two axles, usually in a leading bogie, eight powered and coupled driving wheels on four axles and two trailing wheels on one axle, usually in a trailing truck. Since the 4-8-2 type is generally known as a Mountain, the corresponding Garratt type is usually known as a Double Mountain.
Rosebud Kitmaster is the brand name of a short-lived but critically acclaimed range of plastic assembly kits, manufactured in the United Kingdom by Rosebud Dolls Ltd of Raunds, Northamptonshire. Introduced from May 1959, the range rapidly expanded to include 34 models of railway locomotives and coaches in OO, HO and TT scales, and eventually, one motorcycle in 1:16 scale.
Brent sidings was an important marshalling yard and freight facility on the Midland Railway extension to London.
The South African Railways Class HF 2-8-2+2-8-2 of 1927 was an articulated steam locomotive.
The South African Railways Class U 2-6-2+2-6-2 of 1927 was an articulated steam locomotive.
The South African Railways Class GEA 4-8-2+2-8-4 of 1946 was an articulated steam locomotive.
The South African Railways Class GG 2-6-2+2-6-2 of 1925 was an articulated steam locomotive.
The Caledonian Railway 721 Class was a class of 4-4-0 steam locomotives designed by John F. McIntosh for the Caledonian Railway (CR) and introduced in 1896. All survived to be absorbed by the London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMS) in 1923 and a few survived into British Railways (BR) ownership in 1948.
The Glasgow and South Western Railway (G&SWR) 131 Class and 137 Class were two closely related classes of 4-4-0 steam locomotive designed by Peter Drummond, of which a total of 12 were built in 1913-15 by the North British Locomotive Company (NBL) at its Queens Park works and by the G&SWR at its own Kilmarnock works. Originally built as the 131 and 137 classes, as a result of renumbering they became known as the 331 and 325 classes in 1919, before passing to the London Midland and Scottish Railway (LMS) on its formation in 1923, where they were given power classification 3P.
