GCR Class 11B
Although overshadowed by the 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 1901–1903, in rebuilt form as 11D, some 11Bs would last in service until 1950. Railwaymen continued to refer to the class as "11B" 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. When John G. Robinson took up the reins at Gorton there was a serious and immediate shortage of suitable locomotives. Part of the requirement was for express passenger engines for the newly completed London Extension. Pollitt's locomotives of class 11 were performing satisfactorily but the piston-valved 11A 4-4-0s, intended for use on Marylebone expresses had been problematic.
There were some ordered 4-2-2'singles' being delivered, but Robinson decided that more powerful locomotives were required. The 11Bs therefore emerged as a robust and enlarged evolution of GCR Class 11, with the then-conventional slide valves. Gorton was busy at the time and the engines were needed urgently, so outside builders were used. Delivery was rapid and 25 were in service by May 1902, 30 by March 1903 and all 40 by June 1904; as intended the 11Bs displaced Pollitt's 11As on the London Extension services, with engines shedded at Leicester and Neasden. The 11Bs were displaced in their turn by the arrival of Robinson's "Atlantics", a process completed by the arrival of the "Director" 4-4-0s. 11Bs found uses on the older parts of the Great Central Railway network, based in Sheffield and Annesley, with others scattered elsewhere. By the Grouping, increasing numbers of the engines had been rebuilt with larger superheated boilers and piston valves becoming GCR Class 11D; the last conversion was completed in 1927.
On 23 December 1904, locomotive No. 1040 was hauling an express passenger train, derailed at Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire due to excessive speed on a curve. Four people were killed; the performance of these engines was much overshadowed by Robinson engines such as classes 8B, 11E, 11F. They must have been at least reasonably satisfactory from the start to merit the additional order of 10 in 1904. Hancox records them capable of working nine bogie coaches. London Extension schedules from 1905, at which time the 11Bs were still working some of the best trains, needed average speeds of nearly 60 mph and to keep these times much faster running must have been required. With light loads this implies at the least a free-running locomotive, their long lives suggest trouble-free construction. However effective they were, Robinson identified a need for larger express passenger locomotives, with the 8B "Jersey Lilies" appearing in 1903 soon after the 11Bs were delivered. There were three distinct attempts to improve the 11Bs through rebuilding, creating GCR Class 11C and 11D.
Four of the class were given names, although speaking only one - 1014 - carried a name when still class 11B: The nature of these titles demonstrates the high status that the engines enjoyed at the time they were named. As built, all 40 had cylinders incorporating slide valves; these locomotives formed GCR Class 11B. The 11Bs were little changed from introduction until rebuilding as the superheated 11D starting with No. 1021 in 1913, except for two prior attempts to upgrade the class. The first was fitting of larger saturated boilers and modified pistons to Nos. 104 and 110 creating GCR Class 11C in 1907 without significant success. Two locomotives, nos. 104 and 110, were rebuilt in 1907 with larger boilers: these were 5 feet 0 inches diameter, with fireboxes 8 feet 6 inches long. No. 110 lost its large boiler in August 1918. The large boiler, removed was fitted to no. 113 in October 1918, given piston valves at the same time. Nos. 104 & 113 were rebuilt to class 11D in 1923. In 1909, no. 1026 was given a boiler of the same diameter as the 11C rebuilds, but with the same firebox length as the 11B class.
It received new cylinders, incorporating piston valves. This boiler was saturated, but from 1913 further boilers of this size, which incorporated superheaters, were fitted to the 11B class, each of, reclassified 11D. No. 1026 was so rebuilt in 1914, its previous boiler being transferred to no. 105. All the rebuilds were given piston valves at the same time as the large boilers, apart from five locomotives, which had received piston valves anything from two to six years beforehand. 105, which retained slide valves when first given a large boiler, receiving piston valves when fitted with a superheated boiler in 1923. The process of rebuilding to class 11D was completed in January 1927, by which time the GCR had become part of the LNER, which placed all 40 in class D9; the first D9 was withdrawn by the LNER in 1939 and 26 remained in service on nationalization of the railways in 194
GCR Class 1A
The Great Central Railway Class 1A, classified B8 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, they were known as the ‘Glenalmond Class’ and were a smaller wheeled version of Robinson’s earlier Sir Sam Fay express passenger class, which they resembled. The prototype was built at Gorton locomotive works, during 1913 and the remaining ten, one year later, they had the same design problems associated with the Sir Sam Fay class and were used on secondary passenger and freight services. None have been preserved. Boddy, M. G.. Fry, E. V. ed. Locomotives of the L. N. E. R. Part 2B: Tender Engines—Classes B1 to B19. Lincoln: RCTS. ISBN 0-901115-73-8
0-8-0
Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, 0-8-0 represents the wheel arrangement of no leading wheels, eight powered and coupled driving wheels on four axles and no trailing wheels. Locomotives of this type are referred to as eight coupled. Examples of the 0-8-0 wheel arrangement were constructed both as tank locomotives; the earliest locomotives were built for mainline haulage for freight, but the configuration was also used for large switcher types. The wheel arrangement provided a powerful layout with all engine weight as adhesive weight, which maximised the tractive effort and factor of adhesion; the layout was too large for smaller and lighter railways, where the more popular 0-6-0 wheel arrangement would be found performing similar duties. Two 0-8-0 locomotives were delivered from Andre Koechlin & Cie in Mulhouse to the Austrian Southern Railway in 1862, they were sent to Italy and worked over the Apennines between Bologna and Pistoja. In 1952, the Chrzanów works in Poland supplied 81 750mm gauge locomotives, which were versions of the Russian P24 class.
By 1958, China was building their own copies resulting in such classes as the C2, YJ, ZM-4, ZG and ZM16-4. Peckett and Sons of Bristol built a 0-8-0 tender locomotive for the Christmas Island Phosphate Company in 1931. Freight engines with an 0-8-0 wheel arrangement were once popular in Germany; the Prussian state railways had several types of 0-8-0s that were all classified as G7, G8 and G9. The latest of these, the Prussian G 8.1, was the most numerous German state railway locomotive with over five thousand examples being built between 1913 and 1921. They remained in service with the Deutsche Bundesbahn until 1972; the narrow gauge Heeresfeldbahn class HF 160 D were developed for wartime service during the Second World War. The engines were classified as Kriegsdampflokomotive 11. After the war, the locomotives were put to use for civilian purposes. In Russia, the 0-8-0 type locomotives were represented by the various O-class freight locomotives, they were built from the end of the 19th century until the 1920s.
They were called the Ovechka and were the most common freight locomotives in Tsarist Russia. Some are still preserved in working order. One-thousand of the 750mm gauge standard design known as class 159, were built between 1930 and 1941, they were poor performers, so the Kolomna works built an improved version of these locomotives, known as the P24 class. Nine were built before the USSR was invaded in June 1941. On the South African Railways, shunting was traditionally performed by downgraded mainline locomotives; when purpose-built 3 ft 6 in Cape gauge shunting locomotives were introduced in 1929, the SAR preferred to adhere to the American practice of using tender locomotives for shunting, rather than the European practice of using tank locomotives. Three classes of 0-8-0 shunting steam locomotives were introduced between 1929 and 1952. In 1929, fourteen Class S locomotives were placed in service, they were built by Son in Germany, designed to SAR specifications. The top sides of the tender’s coal bunker were set inwards and the water tank top was rounded to improve the crew’s rearward vision.
The second type, the Class S1, was designed by Dr. M. M. Loubser, chief mechanical engineer of the SAR from 1939 to 1949. Twelve of these locomotives, a heavier version of the Class S, were built at the Salt River workshops in Cape Town with the first being delivered in October 1947. A further 25 Class S1 locomotives were ordered from the North British Locomotive Company in Glasgow in 1952 and delivered in 1953 and 1954; the Class S1 was noted for its efficiency and economy and could cope with block loads of up to 2,000 long tons. To meet the need for shunting locomotives with a light axle load for harbour work, these were followed in 1952 and 1953 by 100 Class S2 locomotives, built by Friedrich Krupp AG of Essen in Germany. To adhere to the specified weight limit, the Class S2 was built with a small boiler, with the result that it had the appearance of a Cape gauge locomotive with a narrow gauge boiler when viewed from the front. To reduce the axle load, it had Type MY1 torpedo tenders which rode on Buckeye three-axle bogies.
Two examples of 0-8-0T tank locomotives were built by Archibald Sturrock of the United Kingdom’s Great Northern Railway in 1866, but the design was not perpetuated. A tender locomotive version was introduced on the Barry Railway Company in 1889 to haul coal trains. Francis Webb of the London and North Western Railway built 282 examples of a compound 0-8-0 locomotive between 1892 and 1904. A further 290 examples of a simple expansion version were built by his successor between 1910 and 1922. In 1929, R. E. L. Maunsell of the Southern Railway built eight Z class side tank engines. In 1902, John G. Robinson of the Great Central Railway introduced his Class 8A tender engines, which were designated the Q4 class under the London and North Eastern Railway. From 1934, the class was replaced by the Robinson 2-8-0's and their withdrawal and scrapping began, but between 1942 and 1945 Edward Thompson converted thirteen into side-tanks, designated LNER Class Q1. Under the grouping of 1923, the LNWR became part of the London and Scottish Railway.
Henry Fowler designed an inside cylinder engine in 1929 to replace the LNWR examples, but they proved to be unsatisfactory and ended up having shorter lives than the LNWR locomotives. In 1914, Manning Wardle of Leeds built a side-tank engine called Katharine for the Bridge Water Collieries system. On the Kent & East Sussex railway, the Hecate was built for Colonel Stephens by Ha
GCR Class 5A
The GCR Class 5A was a class of seven 0-6-0 steam tank locomotives designed by John G. Robinson for work in docks operated by the Great Central Railway, they passed to the London and North Eastern Railway at the grouping in 1923 and received the LNER classification J63. The class was introduced in 1906 as a replacement for the GCR Class 4 dock shunters, based on his predecessor’s GCR Class 5 but with side tanks rather than saddle tanks. A seventh locomotive was built in 1914. All seven examples survived into British Railways ownership in 1948, at least one being at Immingham in 1952, at least one at Connah's Quay in 1954, they were all withdrawn between 1953 and 1957. Allen, D. W.. Fry, E. V. ed. Locomotives of the L. N. E. R. Part 8A: Tank Engines - Classes J50 to J70, Kenilworth: RCTS, ISBN 0-901115-05-3 Goode, C. Tony. Railways of North Lincolnshire. Anlaby, Hull: C. T. Goode. ISBN 0-9508239-7-X. Green, C. C.. North Wales Branch Line Album. Shepperton: Ian Allan Publishing. ISBN 0 7110 1252 0. Hancox, A. C.
The Harmonious Blacksmith Robinson, The Stephenson Locomotive Society, ISBN 0-903881-03-9 Ludlam, A. J.. Immingham - A Lincolnshire Railway Centre. Ludborough, Lincolnshire: Lincolnshire Wolds Railway Society. ISBN 0995461007; the Robinson J63 0-6-0ST Locomotives.
GER Classes S46, D56 and H88
The GER Classes S46, D56 and H88 were three classes of similar 4-4-0 steam locomotive designed by James Holden and A. J. Hill for the Great Eastern Railway, they were given the nickname Claud Hamilton after the first engine of the class, named after Lord Claud Hamilton the chairman of the Great Eastern Railway. None of these locomotives survived to preservation. Allen noted that Of all the locomotive designs that emerged from Stratford Works during the reign of James Holden, the one destined to achieve the greatest fame, beyond question, was his Claud Hamilton type 4-4-0, of which the pioneer example, No. 1900 Claud Hamilton, took the rails in 1900. He devotes a whole chapter to it, it is considered one of the classic locomotive designs, three Great Eastern Railway classes and three LNER classes were descended from it. F. V. Russell is accepted as the Claud Hamiltons' actual designer. Ellis notes: Mr Holden, by a valetudinarian was making a long recuperative stay in Egypt; this was related to Ellis by Russell.
The Railway Magazine of November 1923 includes the log of a run from Liverpool Street to Ipswich with 4-4-0 number 1780, so this loco at least must have carried a GER number. On 1 January 1915, locomotive No. 1813 was hauling an express passenger train that overran signals and collided with a local passenger train at Ilford, Essex. Ten people were killed and more than 500 were injured. On 12 February 1927, locomotive No. 8808 was hauling an express passenger train, in collision with a lorry on a level crossing at Tottenham, London. Due to foggy conditions, the train was not travelling at a high speed. On 17 January 1931, locomotive No. 8781 was running light engine at Great Holland, Essex when it was in a head-on collision with a newspaper train. Two people were killed and two were injured; the newspaper train had departed from Thorpe-le-Soken station against signals. In November 1934, a Class D16/2 8783 locomotive was derailed at Wormley, Hertfordshire when it collided with a lorry on a level crossing.
Both engine crew were killed. On 1 June 1939, locomotive No. 8783 was hauling a passenger train that collided with a lorry on an occupation crossing at Hilgay and was derailed. The classification of the Claud Hamiltons is complex but is summarised here: GER Class S46, 4 ft 9 in diameter boiler, round-top firebox GER Class D56, 4 ft 9 in diameter boiler, Belpaire fireboxLNER Class D15/1, D15 as built with short smokebox, some with superheater LNER Class D15/2, D15 with superheater and long smokebox GER Class H88, "Super Claud" with superheater, larger boiler and Belpaire fireboxLNER Class D16/1, D16 as built LNER Class D16/2, as D16/1 but with extended smokebox LNER Class D16/3, Gresley rebuild of D15 and D16 with round-top firebox, some with piston valves The S46 boiler had 1,630 sq ft of heating surface, with a 21.3 sq ft grate. The cylinders were 19 x 26 in. with flat valves placed below, operated by Stephenson's motion. The coupled wheels were 7 ft in diameter. Reports Claud Hamiltons in their original state were capable of taking around 350 tons from Liverpool Street to North Walsham in under the booked time.
No. 1882 with round-top boiler ran. Heavier trains were managed in the up direction: No. 1809 took 400 tons up in 157 min 24 sec. The royal blue of the Great Eastern livery, with its scarlet lining, was embellished with a copper chimney cap, brass beadings round the rim of the safety valve casing, the front and side cab windows, the top and bottom of both cylinders of the Westinghouse brake compressor, the coupled wheel splashers, the four openings, cut in subsidiary coupling rod splashers – in London and North Western Railway style – to give access to the coupling rod pins when the rods were up. In contrast with the blue livery was the vermilion in which the buffer beam and coupling rods were painted. Another feature of great distinction, begun by James Holden with the Claud Hamiltons, was the broad steel ring, polished bright, that encircled the smokebox door, made it possible to dispense with the usual straps across the door. Before long, the painted representation of the GER coat-of-arms on the driving splashers was replaced by a replica cast in relief and picked out in colour.
The tenders were replaced with standard GER ones. The cab windows were round. In LNER days the locos were painted apple green with LNER on the tender and cab-side numbers. Side rods were polished steel; the appearance was altered when a larger boiler and Belpaire firebox was fitted, meaning a change in the cab window shape as well. 8783 and 8787 were kept in immaculate condition as dedicated Royal locos for hauling the Royal train from King's Cross to Wolferton. 8783 was fitted with a copper-capped chimney. Some locos carried numbers and London & North Eastern Railway on the tender. During the Second World War most were repainted into unlined black livery with the letters "N E" on the tender. "Royal Claud" 8783 retained its LNER apple green livery into British Railways days, but with BRITISH RAILWAYS on the tender initially. Others were painted black with BRITISH RAILWAYS on the tender. On they carried both lined and unlined black with the early BR crest and those which survived after 1956 lined and unlined black with the crest.
Many of the class retained steel smokebox door rings until withdrawal, except those rebuilt by Gresley with a larger boiler which required a ne
John G. Robinson
John George Robinson CBE, was an English railway engineer, was chief mechanical engineer of the Great Central Railway from 1900 to 1922. Born at Newcastle upon Tyne, the second son of Matthew Robinson, a locomotive engineer, his wife Jane, Robinson was educated at the Chester Grammar School, in 1872 commenced an engineering apprenticeship with the Great Western Railway at Swindon Works, as a pupil of Joseph Armstrong. In 1878 he became assistant to his father Matthew Robinson at Bristol, in 1884 joined the Waterford and Limerick Railway as their locomotive and wagon assistant superintendent, he was promoted to superintendent the following year. In 1900 Robinson joined the Great Central Railway as locomotive and marine superintendent and in 1902 was appointed chief mechanical engineer, he remained in that post until 1922, when prior to the Great Central's grouping into the London and North Eastern Railway he declined the post of chief mechanical engineer of the LNER, choosing instead to step aside for the younger Nigel Gresley.
Robinson was awarded a CBE in 1920. Robinson's first passenger locomotive design for the GCR was Class 11B 4-4-0, of which 40 were built between 1901 and 1904, the last being withdrawn by British Railways in 1950. Robinson followed in 1913 with the larger Class 11E "Director" Class 4-4-0 locomotive, used on GCR express trains from London Marylebone to Sheffield Victoria and Manchester London Road. Ten were built, followed by eleven "Improved Director" locomotives during 1920-1924. Robinson's famous GCR Class 8K 2-8-0 heavy freight locomotive was introduced in 1911 and many more were built for the Railway Operating Division of the Royal Engineers in 1917; some of these reliable locomotives, of which over 400 were built, remained in service with the LNER and British Railways until 1966. Two Robinson-designed locomotives are preserved in the UK: 4-4-0 Improved Director GCR Class 11F No. 506 Butler–Henderson, preserved at the National Railway Museum, on display at Barrow Hill Roundhouse, near Chesterfield, Derbyshire 2-8-0 GCR Class 8K No.
102 owned by the National Railway Museum is on loan to the Great Central Railway at Loughborough. It is operational and used on demonstration goods trains. Three Robinson-designed locomotives are preserved in Australia 2-8-0 ROD ROD 1984 preserved by the Dorrigo Steam Railway and Museum 2-8-0 ROD ROD 2003 this loco was built by the GCR at Gorton Works and is preserved by the Dorrigo Steam Railway and Museum 2-8-0 ROD ROD 2004 this loco was built by the GCR at Gorton Works and is preserved by the Richmond Vale Railway Museum Notes Bibliography Robinson 2-8-0 John G. Robinson at www.lner.info http://www.steamindex.com/people/robinson.htm
GCR Class 5
The GCR Class 5 was a class of twelve 0-6-0 steam tank locomotives designed by Harry Pollitt for work in docks operated by the Manchester and Lincolnshire Railway renamed Great Central Railway. These locomotives were designed by Pollitt for working at other dock locations, they passed to the London and North Eastern Railway at the grouping in 1923 and received the LNER classification J62. Withdrawals began in 1935, but there were three examples surviving in 1948 which passed to British Railways ownership; the last example was withdrawn in 1951. One example was rebuilt in 1903 as an 0-6-2ST crane tank but reverted to its original form in 1918 after a collision. Allen, D. W.. Fry, E. V. ed. Locomotives of the L. N. E. R. Part 8A: Tank Engines - Classes J50 to J70. Kenilworth: RCTS. ISBN 0-901115-05-3; the Pollitt J62 0-6-0ST Locomotives— LNER Encyclopedia
