| Northern Counties Committee Class WT | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 No. 6 at Belfast York Road in August 1960 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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.
18 Class WT locomotives were built at Derby Works in England to the design of George Ivatt between 1946 and 1950, numbered 1–10 and 50–57. [1] They were a tank engine version of the NCC Class W moguls. [1] A tank engine did not require turning at termini and the LMS had produced a series of successful 2-6-4Ts. Like the LMS Fairburn 2-6-4T built at the same time, they had a hopper bunker and absence of plating ahead of the cylinders. They were based on the LMS Fowler 2-6-4T by Sir Henry Fowler. [lower-alpha 1]
Their original duties included commuter services on the branch to Larne, operations to Portrush, and some services on the Belfast–Derry line via Coleraine. [1] Following the transfer of lines from Great Northern Railway of Ireland to the Ulster Transport Authority they also seen use over those lines, particularly from Belfast to Dundalk and suburban services to Portadown. [1] There was at least one example of use of an adapted tender to achieve an extended range between water refills. [1]
In December 1962, locomotive No. 50 received a boiler from one of the ex-NCC 2-6-0 tender locomotives, the boiler and firebox being overhauled and repaired at Derby.
In early 1966 and towards the end of their careers, the Class WT locomotives were involved in working notable traffic. This was on spoil trains that transported fill for motorway construction from the Blue Circle cement works at Magheramorne to Greencastle near Belfast. Three trains of twenty hopper wagons each were made up, with a Class WT locomotive at each end. Each train when filled carried 600 long tons (610 t; 670 short tons) of rock and in all, some 7,600 trains had carried 4,250,000 long tons (4,320,000 t; 4,760,000 short tons) of material by the time the contract ended in May 1970.
The last of the Class WT locomotives were officially withdrawn in 1971, [1] the last time one was in traffic being 22 October 1970. [3] This made them the last steam locomotives in mainline operation in the British Isles; [1] Córas Iompair Éireann steam in the Republic of Ireland having ended in 1962 and British Railways steam in Great Britain having finished in 1968.
One of these locomotives, No. 4, has been preserved by the Railway Preservation Society of Ireland (RPSI) following its withdrawal. [4] The RPSI operates it on special mainline trains. It is currently operational after an overhaul was completed in June 2015.
No. 4 was one of seven that were converted to have an extended coal bunker in the mid-1960s to extend the range before needing refilling with coal. [1]
The RPSI was considering the possibility of building a new member of the class (No.58) to give them a second mainline tank locomotive considering the low availability of turntables on modern day lines. However, a NCC Class W Mogul is being built instead, due to the longer range between coaling and watering allowed by a tender engine. [5]
The locomotives were built with many LMS standard features such as a self-cleaning smokebox, rocking firegrate, self-emptying ashpan, side window cab and a simplified footplate together with others which followed NCC practice, such as a water top-feed on a parallel boiler (as opposed to the taper boilers being used by the LMS at the time), Dreadnought type vacuum brake gear, Detroit sight feed cylinder lubricator and a cast number plate.
The locomotives were capable of over 70 miles per hour (110 km/h) and could be expected to use one ton of coal for every 40 miles (64 km). [4]
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.
The Northern Counties Committee (NCC) was a railway that served the north-east of Ireland. It was built to Irish gauge but later acquired a number of 914 mm narrow gauge lines. It had its origins in the Belfast and Ballymena Railway which opened to traffic on 11 April 1848.
The Great Northern Railway V class steam locomotives were 4-4-0 three-cylinder compound locomotives built in 1932 by Beyer, Peacock & Company for the Great Northern Railway (Ireland).
Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, a 2-6-4 locomotive has two leading wheels, six coupled driving wheels and four trailing wheels.
The London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMS) Fowler 2-6-4T was a class of steam locomotive passenger tank engine designed by Henry Fowler.
The Railway Preservation Society of Ireland (RPSI) is a railway preservation group founded in 1964 and operating throughout Ireland. Mainline steam train railtours are operated from Dublin, while short train rides are operated up and down the platform at Whitehead, County Antrim, and as of 2023, the group sometimes operates mainline trains in Northern Ireland using hired-in NIR diesel trains from Belfast. The RPSI has bases in Dublin and Whitehead, with the latter having a museum. The society owns heritage wagons, carriages, steam engines, diesel locomotives and metal-bodied carriages suitable for mainline use.
The LMS Northern Counties Committee (NCC) Class Y was a class of 0-6-0T steam locomotives formed when two LMS Fowler Class 3F engines were regauged from 4 ft 8+1⁄2 instandard gauge to the 5 ft 3 in Irish broad gauge in 1944 becoming NCC Nos.18 and 19.
The Belfast and Northern Counties Railway (BNCR) Class A was a class of 13 two-cylinder compound steam locomotives built for service in north-east Ireland. The first two members of the class would be the last locomotives to be built for the independent BNCR, being completed before its purchase by the Midland Railway in 1903. The members of the class were rebuilt by the LMS (NCC) becoming either Class A1 or Class U2 depending on how they had been modified.
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 SLNCR Lough Class was a class of 0-6-4T steam tank locomotives of the Sligo, Leitrim and Northern Counties Railway (SLNCR).
The Belfast and Northern Counties Railway (BNCR) Class S was a class of 2-4-2T two-cylinder compound steam locomotives that was introduced for service on the 3 ft narrow gauge railways of County Antrim in north-east Ireland.
The Northern Counties Committee (NCC) Class S1 was a class of two-cylinder compound 2-4-2T steam locomotives that was introduced for service on the 3 ft (914 mm) narrow gauge railways of County Antrim in north-east Ireland. The members of the class were rebuilds of the BNCR Class S.
The Northern Counties Committee (NCC) Class S2 was a solitary two-cylinder compound 2-4-4T steam locomotive that was introduced for service on the 3 ft narrow gauge railways of County Antrim in north-east Ireland. It was heavily rebuilt from a BNCR Class S locomotive by the addition of a standard gauge boiler.
The LMS (Northern Counties Committee)Class A1 4-4-0 passenger steam locomotives were rebuilds of Belfast and Northern Counties Railway Class A two-cylinder compound locomotives. They operated services throughout the NCC’s 5 ft 3 in (1,600 mm) broad gauge system in the north-east of Ireland.
The Belfast and Northern Counties Railway Class B was a class of 4-4-0 two-cylinder compound steam locomotives that was introduced for passenger service in the north-east of Ireland during the late 1890s.
The Belfast and Northern Counties Railway (BNCR) Class N was a class of 0-4-0ST dock engines that worked on the Belfast Harbour Commissioners' lines in north-east Ireland. No.42 was the first of the class and was built by Sharp, Stewart and Company in 1874. A second, similar engine, No.16, was built by the MR (NCC) in 1914.
The Northern Counties Committee (NCC) Class W was a class of locomotives introduced in 1933 and allocated to express passenger duties from York Road, Belfast.
The Londonderry & Coleraine Railway is a railway line between the cities of Derry and Coleraine in County Londonderry, built by the Londonderry & Coleraine Railway Company (L&CR). The company operated the line independently for seven years before being absorbed into the Belfast & Northern Counties Railway. The line is still in use today by NI Railways and forms part of the Belfast to Derry-Londonderry rail line.
The Belfast and County Down (BCDR) 4-6-4 T were a class of four 6-coupled tank locomotives build by Beyer, Peacock & Company in 1920. Generally reliable and well-liked but with mediocre performance, they spent their lives on the Queen's Quay, Belfast to Bangor until withdrawal in the early 1950s. These were the only class of 4-6-4T wheel arrangement to work in Ireland.
1947 No. 4 engine of the London Midland Scottish Northern Counties Committee. Built in Derby, the engine was withdrawn by Northern Ireland railways in 1979 and was purchased by the Railway Preservation Society of Ireland. The engine weights 87 tons, consumes a ton of coal every forty miles and is capable of travelling at over seventy miles per hour
