The Great Eastern 2-4-2Ts: Part 2, the C32 Class.

In 1893 James Holden introduced a new 2-4-2T specifically designed for fast stopping trains on the increasingly heavy outer suburban services from Liverpool Street. Classified  C32 from the Stratford Works Letter Account of the first batch ordered, the new locos were a tank version of Holden’s earlier 5’8” ‘Intermediate’ (GER parlance for Mixed Traffic) 2-4-0s  which was in turn a lighter version of his 7’0” express T19 class, the ‘Standards’, which would also lead to the development of the D27 7’0” 2-2-2 ‘Singles’ in the late 1890s.

The C32 class was the epitome of Holden’s standardisation policy, sharing the boiler & firebox, and the arrangement of motion and cylinders with a number of other classes, the trailing and driving wheels with the T26, and of course incorporating the standard contemporary smokebox and Worsdell/Holden boiler fittings shared with all GE locos. As a passenger-rated class it was finished in the ultramarine, black and vermilion livery.

On 29^th March 1893, two weeks after the final member of the E22 class 0-6-0Ts (Order B32) rolled off the production line at Stratford Works, the first of the C32s, no.1090, was completed and began trials, after which it was painted in what appears to be ultramarine with white lining rather than the usual French Grey livery used for official photographs.

The official photograph of no.1090 confirms one particularly valuable piece of information in that it was fitted with Holden’s short-lived (in terms of production) side-valve blower, operated via a rod and crank at a break-point on the smokebox in an otherwise continuous handrail. The two-ring boiler, pressed to 140 lbs per square inch has the dome on the front ring in Holden’s usual style with the clack valves directly underneath, and encased two-column Ramsbottom safety valves with the whistle on the valve seat positioned over the firebox. The Westinghouse pump, exhausting into the smokebox , was located on the driver’s side tank front, and three coal rails were fitted from new. Photograph ©Public Domain.

The usual practice in locomotive design was to incorporate the maximum axle loading on the coupled wheelbase, however, in common with the 2-4-0s it was instead over the leading axle, and why Holden chose to do this is not entirely clear. The overall length of the frames was 31’ 9” which was the maximum practically possible for Great Eastern tanks due to the dimensions of the end of platform engine docks at Liverpool Street. This constraint led to the one slight design difference between the C32 and T26 classes, and as we shall see, almost certainly contributed to the tanks’ Achilles heel. To maximise the bunker length and incorporate a coal capacity of 3t 5cwt for their intended duties, the tanks had a 3” shorter leading wheelbase of 7’ 6” with the frames in front of the smokebox correspondingly reduced.

Dispensing with the radial axleboxes favoured by Worsdell for the leading and trailing wheels of his M15 class 2-4-2Ts, Holden copied the double-frame design of the leading axle of his 2-4-0s and installed a similar axle for the trailing wheels,  the outer frames forming the valance over the coupled wheels. This feature, along with the 1460 gallon tanks and capacious bunker, contributed to the massive and distinctively brutish appearance of the class.

The carrying axles at each end were double-bearing, incorporating axleboxes fitted to both the inner and outer frames. The inner journals lacked collars which allowed 1” of lateral, uncontrolled sideplay, and in common with the T19 and T26 classes, Holden ensured there was some inbuilt flexibility of the outside frames which allowed them to absorb all of the imparted side forces when the axles reached their limit of travel.

No.1099 is seen with a train of four-wheeled carriages at Romford Factory, the original Eastern Counties Railway Loco Works.The date is before its first rebuilding with a 160psi boiler in 1906. It may have been frowned upon as bad practice, but here’s proof that putting discs on both ends of the loco at the same time actually happened. The discs indicate the service runs between Liverpool Street and Romford, Brentwood, Shenfield or Chelmsford, running on the Through line into and out of Liverpool Street. Up Chelmsford, Shenfield or Chelmsford trains running on the Through line from any point between Romford Junction and Bow Junction inclusive were required to carry “No Distinguishing Discs by day and a white light only under the chimney at night”. Engines running on the Local line between Bethnal Green and Liverpool Street were to carry white-edged green discs or green lights over the buffers only between those two points. Photograph ©Public Domain

Numbers 1090 – 1092, ex Works between 29 March and 17^th April, were handed over to the running department between 20^th April and 8^th May, but within seven days of  no.1092 entering service all three were back in Works for what the Stratford Repair Register describes as ‘extra clearance’. Quite how this was achieved isn’t clear, but in practical terms an extra half-inch of sideplay was added to both carrying axles to allow the C32s to traverse the same minimum radius curves as the 2-4-0 classes because it was found that the limit of travel on the trailing axle in either direction was too restrictive.

Numbers 1093-98 were ex-Works 19^th April -11^th May but the Register notes they had the extra clearance added before they entered service between 15^th May and 17^th June.  Number 1099, ex-Works 16^th May had the extra clearance built in during construction and was released to traffic on the same day as no.1098.

A second batch of ten locos, numbers 1070-9 to Stratford Order 033 were built and handed over to the running department between 27^th November 1893 and 23^rd January 1894.  These and all subsequent locos had the 1½” sideplay built in from new.

No. 1085 taken between April 1894 and January 1905. The large condensing pipes fitted to this batch added to their powerful appearance. As with the M15 class, the condensing vent pipes are inside the cab and protrude through the roof. The outside frames haven’t yet suffered the ignominy of a fracture and are so far free of strengthening plates. The cupboard in the lower half of the bunker gives access to the trailing wheel springs. Yet again there’s quite a haze of traffic grime on the paintwork. Photograph ©Public Domain.

The ten locos to Order 033 were immediately followed by another ten to Order R33, numbered 1080-9, which entered traffic between 19^th February and 18^th April.  However this latest order was different from the previous twenty locos as they were fitted with condensing apparatus for running over the East London Railway to New Cross (though I’ve seen no evidence of them being used on this route) and the then new suburban lines out of Liverpool Street which burrowed under the Goods Station at Bishopsgate.  Although the condensing gear was deemed necessary in the Up direction on the suburban lines, due to trains often being held by signals in the tunnel for the roads into the terminus to clear – especially during peak hours – it wasn’t the easiest of locations to use the apparatus in the Down direction because the exhaust was directed into the side tanks at a time when it was imperative to have a roaring fire and full head of steam to haul several hundred tons of  fully-laden carriages out of the Bishopsgate Low level station up the 1:70 Bethnal Green Bank to the junction. Even with the blower turned on full, the lack of exhaust to aid combustion must have made that section of the journey especially difficult, and drivers suffered the additional problem that condensed steam routed into the side tanks raised the temperature of the water to the point where the injectors ceased to work – feed pumps not being a feature of GER suburban tank design. It’s interesting to note that any official instructions for the use of condensers in the suburban tunnel no longer exist and in later years, long after the LNER repealed the requirement in the 1930s, contemporary drivers later admitted they couldn’t actually remember ever using the equipment there in the GE period!

Number 1084 in the Stygian gloom at Liverpool Street prior to November 1904 when it entered Stratford Works for rebuilding with a 160psi boiler. The paintwork on the tank sides and boiler has been well looked after by the crew, but much of the paint on the smokebox and its door has been completely burnt off under heavy load. The loco displays the simple headcode for an ordinary passenger train. Photograph ©Public Domain

Between July and November 1894, the Repair Register notes that first batch of locos comprising nos.1070-9 were modified by having their frames recessed, but again what exactly is meant, or what it entailed is unclear. It has been suggested the Register implies the frames were somehow dished to clear the carrying wheels, and although it would be an easy modification around the trailing wheels, it’s a mystery as to how this was achieved at the front end due to the presence of the cylinder casting which lay directly behind the leading wheels. The Register is silent on the matter regarding the subsequent batches which suggests the modification had already been implemented during building, though why the first batch had to wait so long to be altered is another unknown.

In December 1894 no.1098 became the first of the class to have control springs fitted to the carrying axles and in January 1895 it was fitted with ‘stronger check springs’, though the Register is silent as to specifics.

Between 1^st and 25^th May 1895 a fourth batch to Order G35 and numbered 1060-9 were released to traffic. As with the first two batches, these ten locos were not fitted with condensing gear.

No.1060 on a Liverpool Street to Chelmsford fast train leaving Brentwood in May 1908. The first three carriages are fresh out of the carriage repair shops having lost their varnished teak finish and are now painted in the golden brown livery with yellow lining around the windows and upper beading. Photograph ©Public Domain.

During that month, nos.1071 1072 and 1077 were fitted with a ‘new controlling rubber spring arrangement’ although there is no official indication as to what form these control springs took,  it would seem the entire class was modified as photographic evidence shows the hornguides of the C32s were deeper than the General Arrangement drawings and the castings fitted to the T19, T26 and D27 classes.

After a gap of seven years a final batch of C32s to Letter Account D53 were ordered. These ten locomotives differed from the earlier forty members of the class by being fitted with a new type of boiler pressed to 160 lbs per square inch, and like the R33 batch, were given condensing apparatus. Numbers 1040-9 were released to traffic between 1st and 25^th May 1902.

No.1044 was released to traffic on 16th June 1902 and is seen here at Stratford circa 1912 (the year Harrison communication cords were superseded by ‘butterfly’ train alarm gear on the carriage ends) but before May 1914 when it entered Works to be rebuilt. No.1044 has done well to survive thus far without fracturing the outside frames. The destination board reads Loughton and the headcode indicates the service originated at Fenchurch Street. A haze of traffic grime covers the paintwork and the smokebox is in a poor condition. Photograph ©Public Domain.

Beginning with no.1078 in September 1903 and ending with no.1061 in June 1909, the rest of the class were all rebuilt with the 160psi boilers.

A further batch of ten locos were considered and speculatively numbered 1050-9, but with the introduction of the revised M15 class in 1903 was not followed through.

Some years after their introduction, problems arose with stress fractures appearing near the top inboard corner of the carrying hornguides and riveted (later welded) strengthening plates were fitted. This must have come as a bit of a surprise as at this time neither the longer-serving T19 nor the T26 classes suffered from this malady, and although several years later a solitary T19, no.743,  rebuilt with a heavier Belpaire boiler (and a consequently higher tractive effort) and several of the T26 class did suffer stress fractures and were correspondingly fitted with strengthening plates. By Grouping all except one of the fifty C32s were given strengthening plates either side of all four axleboxes.

No.1080 at Southend after rebuilding with the 160psi boiler with a strengthening plate riveted to the outside frame behind the front axlebox. The paintwork again has a haze of grime on it, and again the smokebox has been burnt away from being worked hard on the fast outer suburban trains. The loco is showing the headcode for Shenfield and Southend local passenger trains, and the coaching stock behind is a mix of widened and six-a-side suburban 4-wheelers. Photograph © Public Domain.

It may be pertinent to note that the original configuration T19 and D27 classes had a lower tractive effort than the T26 and C32 classes, but it’s likely that the heavy bunker and shorter overhang at the front of the C32s increased the lateral forces when starting away or pulling hard, leading to the high incidence of stress fractures. It’s also interesting to note that all of the photograph’s I’ve managed to locate of the class show the strengthening plates fitted only after the class had been rebuilt with the higher pressure 160lbs boiler, producing a higher tractive effort.

Services

On release to traffic the C32s were all put to work on the heavy outer-suburban fast stopping trains to destinations such as Bishop’s Stortford, Broxbourne, Hertford, Loughton, Southminster and Southend – services which some of the class remained on for many years.

One of my favourite railway photographs of all time! I love the imperfect, dreamy quality of this image taken on a rural stretch of the GE main line to Cambridge which I know so well. As a child I used to spend Thursday evenings after swimming watching trains from just about where those saplings were planted – what I’d give to have seen No.1048 leaving Broxbourne for Liverpool Street with a typically eclectic mix of Victorian 6-wheel stock during the mid-Edwardian period; the nearest carriages are a 32ft Dia.513 brake, a six compartment third to Dia.422, a five compartment first or second to either Dia.105 or 306 built specifically for the Hertford services, and another third after which it all gets a bit fuzzy! The covered footbridge linking the station platforms can be seen in the distance, a view which would be blocked from 1908 with the building of a new road overline bridge immediately south of the station. The headcode indicates the fast service from Hertford stops at Broxbourne, Cheshunt and then on to Liverpool Street via either Clapton to the suburban lines (for which the condensing-equipped loco is suited) or Stratford and the Through or Local lines (where it passes through Basilica Fields) to the terminus. Any loco hauling a Special service going via Stratford and taking the Through lines between Bethnal Green and Liverpool Street was required to show two more white-edged green discs on the middle and left-hand lamp irons between those stations. Photograph ©Public Domain.

Modelling the class

In 7mm no commercial kit exists or has ever existed, which is surprising considering the popularity of the T26.  However, that top man Colin Dowling has come to the rescue by making available highly accurate profile milled parts for the body and frames and I’ll be building one of the condensing series for Basilica Fields.

Sources

This entry would have been very poor indeed were it not for the following rich seams of information:

• Locomotive Mysteries: Side Control Springs – Lyn D. Brooks, Great Eastern Society Journal #52
• Side Control Springs: An addendum – Lyn D. Brooks, Great Eastern Society Journal #55
• Great Eastern Locomotive Mysteries: Condensing Gear – Lyn D. Brooks, Great Eastern Society Journal #62
• Locomotives of the LNER Part 7 – RCTS
• Yeadon’s Register of LNER Locomotives Vol.39
• Great Eastern Locomotives Past and Present – C Langley Aldrich
• GER Appendix to the Working Timetable 19,  January 1906

 

The Great Eastern 2-4-2Ts: Part 1, The M15 class ‘Gobblers’

By the time the curtain rises on Basilica Fields in 1890, the foundation for future outer-suburban passenger services is well in hand. Thomas Worsdell’s relatively short tenure at Stratford (January 1882 – July 1885) had brought much to the table in terms of both engineering and style, the best of which his successor, James Holden, was keen to retain or improve upon rather than discard, and the M15 class illustrates this policy well.

Flying in the face of a very long line of successful suburban and branch line 0-4-4T designs by Bromley, Adams and Johnson, in 1884 Worsdell designed the first Great Eastern 2-4-2Ts since Sinclair’s low-boilered ‘Scotchmen’ Well Tanks built in the early 1860s.  Stylistically the M15s set the standard for future tank engine design at Stratford,  incorporating many features which are now considered quintessentially Great Eastern, and between 30th June and 11th November 1884 ten locomotives to Letter Account M15, numbered 650-9, were released to traffic.

To specifics; the locos were 31’9″ long over the frames – the maximum length permissible due to the size of the loco docks at the platform ends of Liverpool Street, and to which all large tanks down to Grouping would conform – ten spoke radial wheels fore and aft, 5′ 8″ driving wheels, and 18″ cylinders with Joy’s radial motion. The boilers were in three-rings, butt-jointed and pressed to 140psi with Worsdell’s standard dome on the middle ring. The round-topped fireboxes were fitted with cased twin Ramsbottom safety valves and the whistle on the driver’s side of the valve seat. The smokebox was built up from angle iron, and faced with a wingplate, a dished smokebox door, and topped with Worsdell’s pattern of fabricated stovepipe chimney.

For many reasons this photo is an absolute gem. For a start it is the only one I’m aware of which shows one of the first ten M15s in Worsdell’s as-built condition;  the early-style lamp sockets on the bufferbeam and brackets on the smokebox date the photo to not later than c1886. The cylinder covers below the smokebox door are prominent and reminiscent of the NER A Class. The Roscoe displacement lubricator on the smokebox side and separate boiler handrails with the Westinghouse exhaust pipe running over the top of the tank from cab to smokebox are features of the period. Only four of the eight possible bolt holes on the parallel buffer housings have been utilised – hollow spindle buffers are fitted as are under-hung Westinghouse hoses. The destination boards at this time were assigned to specific locomotives, evidenced by the running number on them. Worsdell’s small 4″ GER lettering on the tank side is noticeable. Fascinating to see that even at this early date there is considerable loss of paint from the front and sides of the smokebox and door due to working the engine hard. Photo ©Public Domain

Other fittings included Roscoe lubricators on the smokebox sides, clack valves on the front ring with straight feed pipes, a brass spherical blower valve on the driver’s side of the smokebox operated by a rod inside the handrail, a Westinghouse pump inside the cab on the fireman’s side exhausting into the smokebox via a pipe running above the tank top, parallel buffer casings with hollow-spindle buffers, under-hung Westinghouse pipes, a capacious cab with a wooden roof and round spectacles in both front and rear weatherboards. All the locos were turned out in Worsdell’s ultramarine blue livery, lined vermilion with black borders,  4″ high lettering and brass numberplates painted vermilion.

For nearly a century historians were universally scathing of Worsdell’s decision to fit Joy’s valve gear to three of his five GER  locomotive designs, and the M15s quickly gained the unfortunate epithet ‘Gobblers’ from their rather voracious appetite for both coal and water.  David Joy had been a colleague and friend at Crewe, and his radial motion had been used successfully there by Worsdell’s mentor, Francis Webb.  Joy’s gear is considered superior to Stephenson’s Link motion as the valves open and shut more quickly – an advantage when ‘notched up’ and the maximum opening of the valves is relatively small. However, in 1964 the RCTS pulled no punches in a rather rambling statement  saying that the M15s were ‘poor machines’ before conceding their problems probably stemmed to the difficulty fitters had in setting the valves on the radial motion.

The fact of the matter is that the ten locos performed sufficiently well enough on the outer suburban services they were tasked with that the Directors of the historically cautious Board (they having successfully lifted the Company out of Chancery in the previous decade by expediency) can’t have been overly concerned as a second batch of twenty locomotives to Order E16,  numbered 660-79, was given the all-clear and gradually released to traffic between 22 December 1884 and 3rd March 1886.

No.663 circa 1886. One of a couple of photos I have of the E16 series in as-built condition. Virtually identical to the M15 series, these twenty locos had radial wheels with 12 spokes instead of 10 and tank fillers on the tank tops rather than in the bunkers. Lamps were hung from the unusual brackets on the smokebox. Photo ©Public Domain

In May 1885, an article in The Engineer explained Worsdell’s somewhat unusual explanation for experimenting with and building the compounding G16 4-4-0 class which also used Joy’s gear; for no greater reason than to try and force the crews to drive expansively by notching up the motion rather than driving full on the regulator. Most senior drivers in the early 1880s had started their careers on engines fitted with primitive Gab gear which had two positions – full forward or full reverse – and the old habit of driving on the regulator was not only proving hard to break, but was being passed to their firemen who would be the next generation of drivers.

The complexities are far too involved to describe in detail here, but tenacious research by Lyn Brooks of the GER Society and his comparison between the contemporary Y14 Stephenson Link and M15 Joy motion by computer simulation concluded that there was little difference between Joy’s and Stephenson’s motion when driven expansively, but driven in full gear on the regulator Joy’s motion caused a reduction of pressure in the main pipe and made the engine sluggish which encouraged the driver to open the regulator wide, consuming more coal.

However, before he could satisfactorily address the issue of the coal and water consumption Worsdell handed in his resignation and taking the opportunity of a substantial pay rise (essentially doubling his income with the addition of a house thrown in) by moving to Gateshead, home of the North Eastern Railway. Soon afterwards the M15 design with a slightly larger driving wheel diameter was introduced as Class A on the NER – a company for which, due to its location, large coal consumption was not an issue.

Holden came to Stratford from Swindon in July as Nos. 670 and 671 were being built and was happy enough with the specification to see the order completed. However, the Works was also in the middle of constructing Order P17 – which comprised of ten Worsdell’s Y14 0-6-0s with Stephenson’s Link motion – and the following month Holden ordered one of the Y14s should exchange cylinders and motion with an M15 for comparative trials. M15 number 674 was the chosen loco, and very little work was needed to accommodate the Y14 cylinders and motion, it being released to traffic on the 23rd October. For Y14 no.696 it was a very different story;  to clear the valve chests positioned above the cylinders on the M15 Joy motion, the boiler needed to be pitched 7½” higher than normal, and it wasn’t until 30th December 1885 that the loco was released to traffic.

The results of the trial was as expected; Holden hadn’t tackled the issue of the driving style and thus fuel consumption of the hybrid Y14 was higher than average for the class and that of the hybrid M15 was lower. Holden had already ordered ten new members of the M15 class, and it’s debatable whether the change to Stephenson’s motion was due to the test results or was in fact pre-emptive.

No 797 from Holden’s O18 series with Stephenson’s Link motion – the small cylinder lid cover differentiates these from the previous thirty locos. The three ring boiler with dome on the middle ring and 12 spoke radial wheels contradict RCTS pt.7. Spike lamp irons and swan-necked Westinghouse standpipes were Holden’s initial improvements as built, the Macallen blast pipe rod and crank on the smokebox is a recent addition and dates the photo to between c1894 and late 1896 when the loco entered Stratford Works for rebuilding. The location is St. Pancras which the GER had gained access via the Tottenham and Hampstead Joint from 1868, choosing to exercise perpetual running powers for eight passenger trains daily in 1870 for the sum of £2000 per year. By 1893 the figure had risen to £4000 and services extended beyond Tottenham to far-flung destinations including Cambridge, Ely, Norwich and even Royal trains to Wolferton for Sandringham. Photo © Public Domain.

Between 24th September 1886 and 17th January 1887 Order O18, numbered 790-9 were released to traffic with Y14-style 17½” cylinders and the valves set between them, Stephenson’s Link motion and, contrary to hitherto published information, with single-bar slidebars rather than the four-bar type fitted to the earlier batches. The RCTS Part 7 states that 140psi boilers with two butt-jointed rings and the dome in the forward position were fitted, but my photograph above clearly shows a three-ring boiler with the dome over the middle ring. For the first time spike lamp irons were fitted from new and Holden’s 6″ lettering was used on the tank sides, spaced a little wider than Worsdell’s lettering. Small cylinder cover lids were fitted at the base of the smokebox, and again 12-spoke radial wheels were used, but essentially the rest was as designed by Worsdell, and even the Westinghouse pumps remained inside the cabs.

For the next five years there is little to report: In July 1892 no 790 was renumbered 800 to clear a numerical block for an order of T19 2-4-0s and the following year, and with an increase in heavy passenger and outer suburban work Holden introduced a new design of 2-4-2T based on his T26 2-4-0s, the C32 class (the subject of the next entry).

Between August 1895 and January 1898 the thirty locomotives of the M15 and E16 batches were rebuilt with new 2-ring boilers and the dome seated on the front ring, The first twenty rebuilds down to August 1896 had boilers pressed to 140psi, but thereafter the new standard 160psi type was fitted. Holden took the opportunity to replace the Joy radial gear with Stephenson’s Link motion, single-bar slidebars and 17½” cylinders. To avoid the expense of a new crank axle the cylinders were spaced with 2’0″ centres and fitted with the T19 2-4-0 pattern of link motion with the valves beneath; their steep inclination resulted in a large, incongruous cylinder cover lid underneath the smokebox door.

No.652 again, but now after rebuilding in December 1896. The very many changes are obvious and detailed in the accompanying text. The steep inclination of the T19-type cylinders and motion is given away by the bolts on the frame under the smokebox and the mountainous cylinder cover lid. Note the 12 spoke radial wheels and the condensing vent pipes projecting from the top of the roof. No.652 was a Stratford loco for all but the last couple of years of its existence, and was the third to be withdrawn from service which was as early as October 1913. Photo © Public Domain

Other contemporary improvements were made; narrow-waisted smokeboxes to a new flanged pattern were fitted, tank filler lids on nos. 650-9 were moved from the bunker to the tank tops, the Westinghouse pumps were moved to the tank front on the driver’s side and coal rails were fitted to the bunkers.  All thirty received continuous handrails with Holden’s rotary-pattern blower actuated via rod and crank inside the handrail, sight-feed lubricators in the cab replaced the displacement type on the smokebox sides, the clack valves were moved back to the dome centreline with the feed pipe cranked forwards. Swan-necked Westinghouse standpipes replaced the under-hung type on the front and rear bufferbeam, and some locos were fitted with tapered buffer housings. There must have been a policy of ‘grab the nearest wheelset’ during rebuilding as several were photographed with a mixture of 10 and 12 spokes on the radial wheels. No.674 returned the Y14 type of Stephenson’s Link motion to number 696 in January 1897 and later fitted with the T19 type to fall in line with the rest of the rebuilds.

No. 663 again, but after rebuilding. Although I have dozens of photos of M15s it’s nice to be able to compare changes to specific machines during the course of their time in service. Taken from the driver’s side, this fills in the blanks left over from the photo of no.652’s rebuild and shows the new position of the Westinghouse pump. No.663, rebuilt with a 140psi boiler in August 1895 has picked up two pairs of 10 spoke radial wheels and some 8-bolt tapered buffer housings. It remained a normally-aspirated loco until withdrawal in September 1925. Photograph © Public Domain.

The main difference between the M15 and E16 rebuilds is that the original ten nos. 650-9 were all fitted with condensing apparatus during their rebuild, whereas the E16 series remained as normally aspirated engines.  The visual evidence of the condensing gear on these locomotives were two long pipes leading from the smokebox to tank tops and vent pipes inside(!) the front of the cab, the tops of which projected out from the roof.

During the rebuilding of the M15 and E16 batches, Holden’s O18 series also came up for reboilering, and between July 1896 and June 1899 all ten were fitted with two-ring boilers with a working pressure of 160psi. These locos retained their Y14 type Link motion and 17½” cylinders at 2′ 4″ centres with valves set between them and the correspondingly small cylinder cover lid.  As with the two earlier batches, all the contemporary improvements were made. None of the ten were fitted with condensing gear at this time.

No. 791 was rebuilt in February 1898 and is seen here in the Platform 6 engine dock at Liverpool Street in the Edwardian period after 1903, probably before its second rebuild with a 2-ring telescopic boiler in 1910. Fewer outward changes visible than the first thirty locos, but it has received 10 spoke radial wheels and despite the lack of condensing equipment, exhibits all the features future builds would be given from new. Photograph © Public Domain.

When the need for new outer-suburban engines came up in 1898 Holden turned back to the 0-4-4T type which had served the GER so well for many years and designed the S44 class based upon his ‘improved Y14’ 0-6-0, the N31 class. Unfortunately neither design turned out to be as successful as expected and for the first and only time Holden experienced the pitfalls of a standardisation too far. Therefore, in 1903 with the opening of the new suburban line between Woodford, Ilford and Seven Kings via Fairlop and Hainault, and with many of the early Bromley, Adams and Sinclair 0-4-4T classes becoming life-expired, Holden had the O18 drawings of 1886 dusted off, and down to 1909 a further 120 members of the 2-4-2T class were built in ten batches, somewhat incredibly retaining by-now archaic features such as outside brake rigging.

No.236 of series I60, built in 1906 – the 82nd M15 to be built. With new production in full flow, outwardly nothing has changed from the 1886 rebuilds. This was the second batch to have condensing equipment fitted from new, and only ten more locos would be built without the gear. Photo © Public Domain.

Telescopic two-ring boilers pressed to 160psi were fitted to new builds from 1907 onwards and fifteen earlier rebuilds gained this type from that year until a 180psi boiler came into service in 1911.

Eighty of the new builds were fitted with condensing apparatus from new, only the ten locos comprising series’ P55 of 1903 (nos.140-9), D58 of 1904 (nos. 781-90), R58 of 1905 (nos. 91-100) and  D63 of 1907 (nos. 582-91) were normally aspirated. Over time various engines either lost or were fitted with the gear, depending on whether they were transferred in to or out of the London District.

All the locos were Westinghouse braked, but nos. 216-20 from Order G63 built in 1907 were also fitted with a vacuum ejector from new for working the East London Railway, and many other members of the class were later dual-braked.

The exhaust from No. 577 of series A62 (released to traffic in 1907) diffuses the sunlight as it passes Bishopsgate Low Level station with the 1.45pm Liverpool Street to Albert Dock (via Basilica Fields!) on a warm 12th May 1912. The train is comprised of an eclectic selection of types and vintages, and the loco is the ‘wrong way around’; usual practice was chimney leading out of the terminus. No.577 had a short life, the LNER withdrawing it from service in January 1931. Photograph © Public Domain.

In Service

The first forty locos of the class were initially based in the London Division, working into and out of Liverpool Street and Fenchurch Street on outer suburban duties. Most were based at Stratford with some out-stationed to suburban and rural depots in the area. With the advent of the larger C32 2-4-2T and S44 0-4-4T classes there was some movement to the country districts, but in the main, during the period covered by Basilica Fields, the majority worked into and out of London, and it wasn’t until the end of the Edwardian era that there was a general migration to the more rustic pastures.

No.664 on a Liverpool Street to Woolwich train at Stratford Market on a changeable 6th September 1902. Exhibiting a considerable amount of traffic grime the loco is obviously on a shuttle service as the crew have retained the white-edged green headcode disc on both the chimney and at the top of the bunker. The carriage is a 4-wheel suburban brake third designed by Worsdell to Dia.507 in 1883, many of which Holden widened by 12″ between 1902 and 1904.  Photograph © Public Domain.

Modelling the Class

Fortunately the 7mm modeller is well served with kits from both Connoisseur Models and Laurie Griffin for the LNER versions of the class, and a range of detailing parts to backdate them to GER condition are available from Laurie Griffin, Ragstone Models and Alan Gibson Workshop.

It’s my intention to build at least four of the class; M15 no.652 as rebuilt in 1895 with condensing gear, E16 no.664 as rebuilt in the same year without condensing gear, O18 no.795 as built with a 3-ring boiler and one of the post-1903 batches with condensing apparatus. I’d also quite like one of the original thirty in pre-rebuilt condition, perhaps no.661 which wasn’t reboilered until November 1897, but we’ll see about that.

M15 under construction from a Connoisseur F5 kit. I had intended to use this one to portray no.652 as rebuilt, but may now end up as one of the O18 batch of 1886 in original condition or possibly one from the early 1900s such as no.781 from series D58 in 1904 which was the 1000th locomotive built at Stratford under Holden. Photograph © Adrian Marks.

This journal entry supersedes the earlier place-holder article titled ‘Gobblers’ published 10 March 2010, which has now been deleted.

Sources/Further Reading

• Great Eastern Locomotives Past & Present 1862-1945 – C Langley Aldrich
• GER Society Journal no.129 – Updating Buckle: The M15 Class ‘Gobbler’ 2-4-2Ts – Lyn Brooks
• GER Society Journals nos. 14 and 18 – A Background to GER Locomotive Policy 1856-1923, parts 1 & 2 – Lyn Brooks & A. C. Sandwell
• GER Society Journal no.87 – Personal Profile: T. W. Worsdell – Richard Joby
• GER Society Journal no.87 – GER Locomotive Mysteries: Worsdell Gobblers – Did They? – Lyn Brooks
• GER Society locomotive drawings – John Gardner
• Locomotives of the LNER – RCTS Part 7
• Yeadon’s Register Vol. 39

 

 

 

The Buckjumper Prequel: Bromley’s M12 Class

I hadn’t intended to include this entry here, but after a request for more information on the class (about which there really is precious little to say!) I’ve dredged it up from the bulging draft folder and packaged it up as the prequel to the series on the Buckjumpers.

As recounted in the entry on the T18s, when Holden took office at Stratford in 1885 there were, perhaps unusually for the period, only eighteen 0-6-0 tank engines on the Register of the Great Eastern Railway, all of the shunting variety. Most shunting duties were undertaken by older 0-4-4T types and unsuitable, ancient life-expired tender locomotives close to withdrawal. Ten of these eighteen tanks were of a type introduced by Bromley in 1881 and classed M12 under the Stratford alpha-numeric Letter Account system.

Unless a student of the Great Eastern Railway, one might be forgiven for never having heard the name Massey Bromley. Despite holding a BA from Oxford, Bromley, born in 1847, was a keen engineer and a Great Eastern man, having apprenticed himself to SW Johnson in 1869, rising to the post of Running Shed manager in 1871 (during which time he also found time to complete his MA), Works Manager in 1874 and finally in 1878 Locomotive Superintendent following the departure of William Adams for Nine Elms on the L&SWR.

The ten engines of the M12 Class were the fourth and penultimate class of locomotive introduced during Bromley’s tenure, an 0-6-0T version of the E10 0-4-4T class which had been designed and ordered by Adams, but built after Bromley took office.

M12 no 548 was the seventh member of the class to be built, ex-Works and released to traffic on the same day – 12th July 1881, and after a short an uneventful sixteen years of shunting was withdrawn on 17th September 1898. One of only two photographs of the class I’m aware of,  wherever the photograph was taken – I have no details of class allocations, and I doubt any survive – the date is no later than c1886 as the early lamp hangers are extant. Snap-head rivets were a feature of the three classes built at Stratford under Bromley – the outside contractors continued to fit flush rivets in the period, and Stratford reverted to them after Bromley’s departure. Photograph © Public Domain.

 

The M12 class is one of three Stratford-built engines of the period for which there is no known GA drawing (the others being the very similar Adams K9 and the Adams/Bromley E10), but a GA for Bromley’s contractor-built 140 class (built by Hawthorn & Co.), which was essentially a shortened E10 with larger diameter driving wheels does exist, and many details can be extrapolated from it and applied to the M12. There are also two contemporary side-elevations  available, drawn by HT Buckle and published in The Locomotive Magazine in 1911,  and these may be considered accurate as Buckle at that time worked in the drawing office at Brighton Works and had previously held a similar position at Stratford.

So to details; released to traffic between 21st March and 1th August 1881 and measuring 27ft 4in over buffers with a 14ft 5in wheelbase, the ten engines had 1000 gallon tanks with unfastened filler lids, weighed 40T 5cwt, had 16-spoke 5ft 2in wheels (Aldrich erroneously states 4ft 10in) and 16 x 22in cylinders. Stephenson’s Link motion was fitted, the configuration was the same as fitted to the T18 Bucks which can be traced all the way back to Johnson’s 204 class in the 1860s.  The slidebars were almost certainly single-bar which would become standard on the GER. The coupling rods had square-finished end with a vertical pin through to prevent the bush turning in the boss.

The three-ring butt-jointed boiler was pressed to 140psi with the steam dome seated on the middle ring, and was the same pattern as those fitted to the K9 0-4-2Ts, ‘140’ Class 0-4-4Ts, E10 0-4-4Ts and the rebuilt  Johnson ‘204’ Class 0-6-0Ts.  A large wooden toolbox was placed between the dome and twin uncased Ramsbottom safety valves. These were spaced 2ft 6in from the cab weatherboard with the whistle mounted on the valve seat on the driver’s side.

An early pattern blower valve sat on the top of the first ring of the boiler and was operated by crank from a rod running inside the handrail on the driver’s side, the blower pipe entering the base of the deep-skirted chimney. Injectors were mounted in front of the side tanks with the steam cocks on the boiler next to the dome. Displacement lubricators were fitted to the side of, and fed directly into the smokebox with two more lubricators on the front of the cylinders.

The operation of the leading sands is worthy of comment; introduced by Adams on his 61 class 0-4-4T and fitted to his K9 0-4-2T, Bromley perpetuated the design on the E10, 140, and M12 tank engine designs. A horizontal shaft passed across the front of the boiler backplate with a vertical operating lever in the middle.  Bell cranks, arranged at each end, connected to pull-rods which in turn passed through the front weatherboard, running down both sides of the boiler. Passing through bearings bracketed to the smokebox sides, vertical spindles surmounted by bell cranks connected to the pull-rods and passed down to the bottom of the sandboxes where they operated a rotary ‘hit and miss’ valve. When the operating lever was pulled, the pull-rods moved backwards, turning the spindles and opening the sanders. Whether this arrangement was implemented to enable the driver to operate the sands from either side of the cab, or for the fireman to operate them is open to debate.

The cab was open at the rear, and the spectacles in the front weatherboard were of the rectangular Adams pattern. The reversing rod was operated by lever, and as-built the locos were hand-braked only. Rear sands were filled through pipes fitted inside bunker.

Bromley continued Adams’ black livery but increased the width of the vermilion lining and added incurved corners. Coupling rods and bufferbeams were vermilion on which the engine running number was hand painted in 8″ yellow letters in an Egyptian block serif style in the form No. [hook] 548.

Bromley introduced the elliptical numberplate to the GER, replacing Adams’ rectangular plate. Cast in iron these may have been painted black or vermilion (it’s not recorded) with the numerals painted white. The plates had axis of 24 and fifteen inches and a raised semi-circular beading 7/8in wide by 3/8in deep. The serif running number was placed on the horizontal centre line, 6 inches high and 3/16in deep with GER sans serif horizontally above and STRATFORD 1881 horizontally beneath. Mounted centrally on the tank sides they were surrounded by a vermilion line.

Bit of a fortuitous find this one; sold as something quite different it doubles the number of photographs of the class I know to be in existence. No. 549 (not the highest numbered, but the final one released to traffic) in original condition (and very grubby…what…dirt in the 1880s?!), the date is no later than c1886 as the original lamp irons are still in place. Many of the features of the class are clearer in this photo than the one at the top of the entry, particularly the complex arrangement of rods and fittings to the blower, leading sands and injectors. Many of the 29 cattle wagons in the train appear to be the elusive diagram 3, the smallest of the GER cattle wagons classed as the ‘Medium’ type, 16ft 0in over headstocks and built between 1881 and 1893, with the longer 19ft 0in diagram 6 ‘Large’ cattle wagons mixed in. All the cattle wagons are sheeted which suggests a military train; except for officers’ cavalry and artillery horses which always travelled in horseboxes, the British Army regularly transported large numbers of horses in sheeted cattle wagons. The location is unknown to me (read that as I’ve not yet had the opportunity to find out!) but shows the typical condition of the Great Eastern Railway’s deep-ballasted permanent way of the period, and of course the simply glorious sky-arm bracket signal which appears to be of MacKenzie & Holland design with three stop boards and a fish-tailed auxiliary (distant) board below. The GER didn’t adopt the Coligny-Welch lamps on it’s distant signals until 1906, and of course they were painted the same red as the stop signals until much later. Pity the signalman who had to climb that to replace the lamps in a gale! Photograph ©Public Domain.

By the end of 1886 Holden’s new spike lamp irons had replaced the early ‘socket and swan-necked spoon’ type and rebuilding began the following year with numbers 542 and 543, and no. 544 in 1888.  These were fitted with new 140psi two-ring boilers with the dome on the front ring and the safety valves on the firebox moved back six and a half inches towards the cab. Other fittings included Worsdell’s stovepipe chimney, a Roscoe pattern displacement lubricator with a visible pipe feeding backwards directly to the steam chest.

The two rebuilt engines (and any other members of the class requiring repainting in the period 1883-1890) would have been finished in Worsdell’s original ultramarine livery for non-new locos.  The difference between this and the later Standard blue livery was that as older locos they were not given the GER lettering on the tank sides and nor did they receive Worsdell’s brass elliptical number plates, but retained their cast iron plates centrally mounted on the tank sides, the background painted vermilion and the raised portions scoured bright.

In 1890 Holden standardised the livery to only Westinghouse-fitted engines being painted in ultramarine, so all unfitted goods and shunting engines including the M12s requiring painting were turned out in plain unlined black. However, to offset this, all engines were now given the 6in high GER lettering on the tank sides and the Bromley numberplates were  moved to the bunker sides.

In 1895 the first of the class, no.547 was withdrawn from traffic and a further (but final) two of the class rebuilt – nos. 545 and 546. The specifications of the rebuilding was the same as the earlier three members of the class but with the addition of steam brakes, an enclosed cab – a flat rear weatherboard linking the bunker front and the cab roof – and three coal rails added to the top of the bunker. It’s not known for certain, but is likely that the rear weatherboards had spectacles of the by now standard round pattern, and it’s probable that the front weatherboards were fitted with them too.  Photographs show that the early E10 rebuilds in the 1880s retained their square windows, but, the rebuilds of the 1890s were given round spectacles fore and aft. Until a definitive photograph emerges, however, it’s pure speculation. As with any engine rebuilt by Holden they were also fitted with Worsdell pattern brass numberplates with a vermilion background which bore the rebuild date.

In 1896 the original three rebuilt locos nos. 542, 543 and 544 were withdrawn, followed by no.551 in 1897, no.548 in 1898, 549 and 550 in 1899 and the recently rebuilt no.545 in 1900. The class became extinct with the withdrawal of rebuilt no 546 on 22 February 1902.

Allocation

I haven’t a clue! If the location of the two photographs above can be ascertained then that will help. I’d suggest that some of the ten were in the London District, and the rest sent to the larger centres in the country districts, such as Cambridge, Ipswich, Norwich, etc.

Modelling the M12 class

Obviously no commercial kits exist for such a niche engine, and so if I do – and I might! – then it will be a scratchbuild using the limited information given above.

Afterword

I think that’s it for GER 0-6-0 tanks for Basilica Fields – I don’t believe the remaining eight engines of various classes at the time of Holden’s taking office are applicable to this project.

Considering the dearth of information on the M12s which doesn’t amount to more than three or four sentences in all the references, I’m rather pleased that I’ve managed to squeeze out 2000 words on them (who at the back said ‘waffle’?) – not bad for an ugly duckling which Rice poetically called ‘The be-riveted Drudge’!

References

• Great Eastern Locomotives Past & Present 1862-1945 – C Langley Aldrich
• Great Eastern Railway Journal
• Model Railway Journal preview issue – The be-rivetted Drudge, Iain Rice
• A Background to GER Locomotive Policy 1856-1923, GER Society Journal no.14 – Lyn Brooks & A. C. Sandwell
  
• Massey Bromley: Locomotive Superintendent 1878-1881, GER Society Journal no.27 – Roger Farrant
• The Locomotive Magazine 1911
• John Gardner of the GERS

 

The Buckjumper Mk.II: Class E22 – The Blackwall Tanks.

By the late 1880s there was an urgent need to replace not only the surviving ECR and early GER tanks pottering up and down lightly laid rustic branch lines, but also the aged locomotives in charge of the quarter-hourly service on the Fenchurch Street – Blackwall line.

George England’s indigenous London & Blackwall 2-4-0Ts had been withdrawn from the line in 1882, and the positively ancient Jones & Potts 2-2-2WTs became extinct a year later. At that time, examples of Robert Sinclair’s V class 2-4-2WTs, the ‘Scotchmen’ had been allocated the services, but these were gradually withdrawn throughout the decade as their boilers expired, and a steady succession of Adams, Bromley and Worsdell tank engines temporarily took charge.

Classified under Stratford’s Letter Account as E22, nine of the first batch of ten 0-6-0Ts nos. 150 – 158 were delivered to the Running Department between 5th Feb and 18th March 1889 with no.159 following on June 24th. About half were immediately rusticated to various branch lines and the rest allocated to Millwall Junction, a sub-shed of Stratford, for working out of Fenchurch Street to Blackwall and North Woolwich.

The E22s were a development  of the T18 class but of lighter construction. Their butt-jointed boilers pressed to 140 psi were shared with the T18 class and the wheelbase was identical, but the side tanks and cab were smaller and the frames 1ft shorter at the rear to help steady the ride at passenger speeds. The cylinders were smaller than the T18’s at 14″ diameter with a 20″ stroke, and the crank axles, crossheads, slidebars and connecting rods were also lighter than those used on the earlier class.

Beautiful! E22 no. 151 at Braintree during the period 1889-1894 in ‘as built’ condition with the original flat-faced smokebox built up from angle iron, separate handrails, Roscoe lubricator on the smokebox, no  coal rails on the bunker and without the Macallen blastpipe lever to the smokebox. In typical E22 fashion it’s running as a 2-4-0T with the front coupling rods removed. For such an early shot there’s already a considerable amount of heat distress to both the smokebox and chimney, and despite not appearing in the scan, the original photograph clearly shows patterns of traffic grime on the side tanks and sooty grime deposits on the boiler. Photograph ©Public Domain.

Instead of fitting the same cast iron 15-spoke unbalanced wheels as the T18s, Holden gave the E22s new 10-spoke balanced wheels with a 10″ crank throw which meant the outside brake pull rods didn’t require the characteristic 1½” drop sections in the path of the crankpin as did their predecessor. As a consequence of the lightly constructed motion and short cylinder stoke the E22s only required small balance weights; on the leading and trailing driving wheels the weights were formed by filling the adjacent spokes to the crankpin, and the inner wheels had half-width weights on the same side as the crankpin but extending over into the space between the adjoining spokes.

By the late 1880s most of the rest of the world was using steel for inner fireboxes, but in Great Britain copper was the preferred medium. Numbers 150 – 158 were released to traffic with the usual copper fireboxes, but no.159 was given an experimental steel one, and it’s almost certain that the delay in its release to traffic was due to comprehensive testing. No.159 kept the steel firebox until a General overhaul lasting between September 1909 and January 1910 when it was rebuilt with a new telescopic boiler (fitted to all the E22 rebuilds) and a conventional copper firebox. As with the T18 class, the clack boxes on the original boilers were positioned on the centre line of the dome.

The E22s were regaled with all the contemporary standard GER fittings; including a Worsdell pattern stovepipe, dome and shrouded twin Ramsbottom safety valves with the whistle seated on the raised valve base, the Westinghouse brake and screw reverse for passenger duties. The engines were finished in ultramarine which in the late 1880s was still applied to all new and rebuilt locomotives.

As built, boiler handrails were in three separate sections and the one on the driver’s side incorporated the Worsdell pattern spherical blower operated by a rod inside the rail. The tank filler lids were the same cast iron hinged type which had been fitted to the T18s. The tanks themselves extended into the cabs, and as with the T18s ended inside with a curved top. Due to the short cab  the front plate of the bunker was flush with the cab door, and the brake standard was completely enclosed within the bunker with a long vertical slot in the plate for maintenance access. As released to traffic the E22s were fitted with Worsdell’s parallel buffer housings.

From 1892 all new and replacement Great Eastern smokeboxes were of a flanged construction with a radiused leading edge, replacing the previous smokebox design constructed from built-up angle iron, and the E22 class would have been fitted with them from the mid-late 1890s as their original ones wore out and further repair deemed not viable.

Number 151 again, but this time in the period 1895 – 1901 before its first rebuilding. It has a new flanged smokebox and new (or reconditioned) chimney, the Worsdell spherical blower at the end of the handrail is prominent, and the other pipe lower down on the smokebox is the Westinghouse pump exhaust (the pump is fitted to the tank front). The loco is still running as a 2-4-0T but four coal rails have been fitted to the bunker. Again, in the original photograph, patterns of traffic grime can be discerned on the side tanks and bunker. Photograph ©Public Domain.

Between 20th February and 10th April 1893 ten more E22s to Letter Account B32 were released to traffic.  Numbered 245 – 254, they were given slightly lower but wider tanks than the first batch, increasing the water capacity from 600 to 650 gallons, and the cabs and bunkers were widened to match. As with no.159,  the ten B32 locos were given steel fireboxes and kept them until all were rebuilt between December 1908 and September 1912. Contrary to what has been published elsewhere and regurgitated ad infinitum, none of these eleven locos fitted with steel fireboxes had the safety valves moved from the firebox to the rear ring of the boiler – more on this in the next entry. As with the E22 batch, about half were sent to work on the Fenchurch Street line where they monopolised services, while the rest were sent to outlying districts.

Unlike the original batch, the ten B32 locos appear to have been fitted with an 8-bolt tapered buffer housing from new. Later, during overhaul, these would be swapped with whatever was to hand, some of the E22s receiving tapered housings and some B32s the parallel type.

Like the E22s, the B32s were all finished in the ultramarine blue livery which, by the early 1890s was only applied to passenger-rated Westinghouse-fitted locomotives.

All twenty locos were built with Roscoe displacement lubricators on the fireman’s side of the smokebox, but from 1894 they were gradually replaced with sight feed lubricators located in the cab.

E22 no.155 heads a line-up including T18 no. 318 and an unidentified M15 built after 1905. Both the E22 and T18 have been rebuilt (no.155 in 1905 and no.318 in 1904) – with 160psi telescopic boilers and the clack valves seated further forward. The Macallen blastpipe operating lever is prominent on the smokebox, and the Roscoe lubricator has been removed. No.155 was a regular on the Blackwall line for many years and is still running as a 2-4-0T. The locos are all pretty grimy and there’s considerable heat distress to the E22s smokebox and chimney. Photograph ©Public Domain.

From about 1894 (though the B32s may have had them from new) the locos were fitted with Macallen’s patent blastpipe, and from about the same date some of the class were given continuous handrails. Some of those with continuous handrails were also fitted with Holden’s Rotary pattern blower valve operated via a crank attached to a push-pull rod inside the handrail. Others received the handrail but retained the Worsdell blower but now fitted higher on the smokebox – the operating rod clearing the top of the tank. Some may even have been fitted with Holden’s short-lived slide-valve blower, but I’ve not yet seen any photographic evidence.

From 1895 the twenty locos were gradually fitted with coal rails as they passed through the Works, some gaining three rails, others four.

Between 1899 and 1912 the whole class was reboilered with 160psi telescopic boilers and copper fireboxes which were interchangeable with the T18 and R24 classes. These new boilers had the clack valves positioned closer to the smokebox.

Services

Given their allocations and duties it would seem that the E22s are barely relevant to Basilica Fields. However, from 1901 the last Sunday Up train from Buntingford ran through to Liverpool Street. It’s possible that this working via Broxbourne, Lea Bridge and Stratford may occasionally (say, in the event of a failure on the Hertford branch) have  been hauled by one of the resident Buntingford locos, which from 1889 to the mid-1890s were numbers 158 and 159. Tenuous, I know, but I’m going to stick my head in the sand and run with it! Other members of the class were allocated to Buntingford from about 1905.

Many examples of the class ran as 2-4-0Ts with the leading section of the coupling rods removed, all engines working the Blackwell line were altered in this way, as were a number of those allocated to country depots such as Braintree. No official reason for this has been given, though over the years suggestions have varied from enabling the locos to traverse sharper curves, to protecting both the flanges and rails. Neither explanation rings true as the practice generally ceased under the LNER except on the tight curves of Ipswich docks with no discernible difference. Whatever the reason their low tractive effort of 11,100lbs and high axle weight over the leading and trailing wheels would have made the locos quite free-running four-coupled machines, and with their relatively light loads of four to five four-wheeled coaches, were unlikely to experience the embarrassment of slipping. Under Fredrick V. Russell – James Holden’s brilliant young protégé – trials were also undertaken with the locos running as 0-4-2Ts, but the results must have proved less satisfactory as they stopped early on.

No.248 from the B32 batch of 1893, running as a 2-4-0T, hauls a train of five six-wheel carriages past Haydon Square Junction on the 1.35pm Blackwall – Fenchurch Street service on 12th July 1913. Their long history with the line earned the tanks the soubriquet ‘Blackwall Tanks’. Photograph ©Public Domain.

Model

A couple of years ago I scratchbuilt an example in an LNER/British Railways transitional livery here, but have in my Basilica Fields pile of brass of one of the long-discontinued and much-missed J65 kits from Connoisseur Models, and will be using this as the basis for building one of the Buntingford locos, probably no.158, for the through service to Liverpool Street.

Source Material

It’s perhaps not surprising that most of the sources for this article are the same as for the T18 class.

• Great Eastern Locomotives Past & Present 1862-1945 – C Langley Aldrich RCTS Locomotives of the LNER Part 8A
• Locomotives Illustrated #116
• Yeadon’s Register Volume 48
• Lyn Brooks of the GERS
• John Gardner of the GERS

 

100 Not Out!

With this entry the Basilica Fields journal is one hundred posts old. Not only that, but in the last week it passed the 30,000 views mark. I am all astonishment; twenty one months of waffle, a little progress and lots of fantastic feedback. All in what is, to be honest, a very niche subject.

I wanted to mark this milestone with something a little bit special so I looked up all the possible prototype locos of the various companies which might have worked the Basilica Fields lines with a running number of 100. Two locos presented themselves, both Great Eastern tanks, and they ran consecutively – although there was, strictly speaking, a few months of overlap. The earliest of the two, an E10 class 0-4-4T, worked throughout the whole period covered by this project, whereas the latter, an M15 2-4-2T, appeared right at the end of the timeframe, therefore I’ve no expectation of it appearing on the layout.

Shortly after Massey Bromley took the post of Locomotive Superintendent at Stratford the E10 0-4-4T class appeared. The design was obviously that of his predecessor William Adams, essentially being an elongated version of his K9 class and very closely related to his 61 class. Sixty of the new locos were built between 1878 and 1883, the final twenty being fitted with the Westinghouse brake from new and the rest of the class fitted retrospectively shortly after.

© Public Domain

Number 100 was the eighty-third locomotive to be built at Stratford Works, and was constructed under Order R10. The loco was ex-works on the 18th June 1879 and released to traffic two days later in the then standard Great Eastern livery of black, lined red – the class being the first to benefit from Bromley’s widened lining style compared to that applied by Adams. It had 8″ yellow numerals hand-painted on the buffer beams, and was fitted with a pair of Bromley’s new-style cast iron elliptical number plates on the side tanks.

In November 1894 No.100 was rebuilt with a new boiler pressed to 140psi, fitted with larger diameter cylinders and standard Holden-pattern boiler fittings. New round-spectacle front weather boards replaced the Adams-style square window type, and for the first time a matching rear weatherboard was fitted, finally enclosing the cab. It was painted in the then standard ultramarine blue livery (probably for the second time) with Holden’s enlarged ‘GER’ transfers on the side tanks, and fitted with Worsdell-style brass number plates cast with the legend ‘Rebuilt 1894’ on the bunker sides.

In July 1905 it was one of nine E10 tanks placed on the duplicate list to make way for two new batches of Holden’s version of Worsdell’s M15 2-4-2 double-ended radial tanks destined to take the 91-110 number series, the new No.100 appearing in October of that year. On the duplicate list the E10 received a 0 prefix and a new set of cast brass numberplates were fitted to ring the changes. However, the sands of time were running out for the locomotive and No.0100 was withdrawn from service in January 1906. Thirty nine of the class remained in service, their numbers dwindling over the next six years, and the last of the class, No.097, was withdrawn from service in November 1912 rendering them extinct.

The photograph is precious old, as Mr. Jonas would have it; no earlier than 1882 from the early-style low-slung Westinghouse brake pipe, but no later than c1885/6 from the early-style spoon-shaped lamp irons which were rapidly phased out upon Mr. Holden’s appointment as Locomotive Superintendent. Also fitted are early style clack valves and steam cocks on the boiler, along with the old sanding apparatus looking not unlike scaffolding climbing up the smokebox sides. I don’t think anyone could say that the Adams stovepipe was a thing of beauty; ‘characterful’ is probably as generous an adjective as one could muster.

The location had me stymied for a while, and even though I found an untouched version of this photograph in an early GERS Journal, the background is too indistinct to help. Given that the loco was working out of Fenchurch Street when the photograph was taken, I couldn’t correlate that with the design of any engine sheds on the routes out of the terminus. Initially I posted that I thought it was Epping goods shed, but Colin Dowling (Eastsidepilot) sent a photo of Millwall and it’s patently obvious he’s hit the nail on the head. The photo is reproduced here.

So there we have it, No.100 at Millwall in the early 1880s. The loco may well make it onto the layout too – it’ll have to be scratchbuilt, but will make a perfect partner for No.101 which was fitted with condensing apparatus for working the East London Line, but that’s a tale for another time…and no, not for the 101st post either…

Edited for correction; location now identified.