A Coarse Guide to the Steam Locomotive for ‘N’ Gauge Modellers

[nickk]

So interesting thank you so much, John. 6519 is our star loco at Telford Steam Railway and until recently was out on loan until she was returned for 10 year check and boiler test which she passed with flying colours 

[Train Waiting]

A Coarse Guide to the Steam Locomotive for 'N' Gauge Modellers - Part 8


Hello Chums

Tank Locomotives

If you recall, towards the end of the Nineteenth Century in Great Britain, two types of tender locomotive had become so commonplace that they could almost be described as British standard types – the 4-4-0 for passenger work and the 0-6-0 for goods and general duties.  The 2-4-0 was fast becoming outdated and the 0-4-2, although popular on the Great Northern and Glasgow & South Western for mixed traffic duties, was not that common, althought the London & South Western had some attractive examples.  Mr Stroudley's 0-4-2 passenger locomotives (he didn't like bogies) on the London Brighton & South Coast Railway were being superseded on top passenger work by Robert Billinton's 4-4-0 designs.  As for 'single driver' types, it appeared they had had their day, but something fascinating was about to happen.  That's maybe a subject for a later postington, though.

However, when it came to tank locomotives, no such apparent consensus appeared and locomotive designers seemed to delight in building locomotives with as many wheel arrangements as possible.  There could be any even number of wheels between four and 12, in a glorious diversity of arrangements.  There wasn't even a consensus between passenger and goods type – for instance, 0-6-2 or 0-6-4 tank engines were built for either type of duty, depending on the railway concerned.

Before we consider some of these wheel arrangements, let's pause to establish what a tank locomotive is.  Put simply, unlike a locomotive towing a tender, the coal and water required for its duties are carried on the locomotive and no tender is required.

The main advantages are the locomotive is shorter, saving platform space, particularly useful at terminus stations, and, in theory, it can run as happily in reverse as in forward gear.  In practice, enginemen often turned a tank locomotive to run chimney first if there was sufficient time and a convenient opportunity to do so presented itself.

The disadvantages were a shorter range before requiring to take water (and, less importantly, coal) than a tender locomotive.  All the coal and water carried on the locomotive increased its weight and water sloshing about in tanks that were higher up on the locomotive could make it unsteady at speed.

There were four main varieties of tank locomotive, having side, saddle, pannier and well tanks respectively.  Whyte notation uses a suffix to designate these types, as the following picturinghams will, hopefully, show:-




Side tank - 0-6-0T



Saddle tank - 0-6-0ST



Pannier tank - 0-6-0PT



Well tank - 0-4-0WT


At the time of the Board of Trade's locomotive 'census' in 1913, tank engines accounted for 40% of the railways' locomotive stock, with the most common types in service being:

0-6-0T = 3,700
0-6-2T = 1,395
0-4-4T = 1,233
2-4-2T = 1,004
4-4-2T =    455

These types were not in any way equally distributed amongst the railway companies.  The proportion of tank engines in railways' locomotive stock varied widely.  Some of the smaller railways, including the South Wales companies and the London, Tilbury & Southend used tank engines almost exclusively.

Amongst the larger companies, as reported in 1913, the London, Brighton & South Coast Railway's proportion of tank engines was 73%.  The Great Western came in at 55% - a third of its total locomotive stock consisted of 0-6-0 tank engines, mostly saddle tanks at that time.

As for the Glasgow & South Western, with its heavy short distance passenger services from St Enoch to Ayrshire and Renfrewshire – 7%.

The Lancashire & Yorkshire took a different approach and most of its short-distance services (and some not so short) were worked by its legions of 2-4-2T locomotives.  It put 300 2-4-2T engines into service from 1889 to 1911.  Incidentally, the Lancashire & Yorkshire built 20 2-6-2T locomotives, essentially an enlarged 2-4-2T, in 1904, but declined to build any more as the smaller locomotives were superior.  In the period we are discussing, this was not an unusual phenomenon.

The London & South Western also liked tank engines and 105 of Dugald Drummond's 'M7' 0-4-4 class were built between 1897 and 1911.

The 4-4-2T was a popular passenger locomotive on many railways.  It was sometimes a tank engine version of an existing 4-4-0 type.

Particularly in South Wales, the 0-6-2T was often a tank engine equivalent of a 0-6-0 goods engine.  Other railways built larger-wheeled examples for passenger work, although the Great Western favoured the 2-6-2T.

More unusual were 4-4-0T, 4-4-4T, 2-6-0T, 4-6-0T and 0-6-4T types.  4-6-2T classes started appearing in 1910 on the London Brighton & South Coast, London & North Western and Great Central railways.  Although we think of this type as a passenger engine, the North Eastern built 20 powerful examples of the type for goods work in 1910/11.  Right at the end of our period, in 1911, the first 4-6-4T class was introduced on the London, Tilbury & Southend.

Eight-coupled tank engines were an interesting lot.  Apart from the first 11 0-8-2T engines introduced on the Great Northern for suburban passenger work, eight-coupled tank engines tended to be used for specialised goods and shunting work.  For more general goods work, the Caledonian had six 0-8-0T locomotives.  The Great Northern decided its 11 0-8-2Ts would be better employed on goods traffic and transferred the lococotives to Yorkshire and Nottinghamshire, where they joined another 30 examples of the type which had been built for goods work.  By far the biggest user of the eight-coupled tank locomotive for general goods traffic was the Great Western which, from 1910 to 1923, built 215 2-8-0T engines of the '4201' class.

For specialised heavy shunting and banking duties, several types appeared.  The Port Talbot Railway and Docks Company obtained two American-built 0-8-2T locomotives in 1900.  More details of these are in the earlier discussion.  Home-built examples included the  Lancashire & Yorkshire's  five 0-8-2T engines in 1908 and the London & North Western followed in 1911 with what eventually totalled 30 0-8-2s.

The Great Central and the North Eastern both introduced large eight-coupled tank engines in 1907. Reflecting the diversity of opinion between locomotive engineers, the Great Central's was a 0-8-4T and the North Eastern's was a 4-8-0T.

As we saw in the discussion earlier, there was even a single ten-coupled tank engine, an 0-10-0WT, the Great Eastern's No. 20, Decapod.  Designed to show that steam-hauled suburban services could perform as well as a proposed electrically-worked railway into Essex, she performed well in a series of tests held between January and June 1903.  She achieved a gravity-assisted maximum speed of 55mph down Brentford Bank.  The GER enginemen must have been brave individuals.  Interest in the electric railway waned and she never ran again as a tank engine.  She was rebuilt as a 0-8-0 tender locomotive in 1906.  Not surprisingly, this lasted only until 1913.  The GER was correct to protect its suburban services – it carried 220,000 suburban passengers a day into and out of Liverpool Street.  However, the service continued to be worked exclusively by 0-6-0T locomotives until the first 0-6-2T engines began to appear in 1915.

Incidentally, Decapod was Great Britain's first ten-coupled locomotive.  Can you suggest what the second one was?

I suppose I ought to mention there was also a variety of little 0-4-0 tank engines, some with side tanks and some with saddle tanks, that were used for dock shunting and suchlike.

And, finally, the North Eastern Railway's gorgeous curiosity, Aerolite.  She was built in 1869, as a 2-2-2WT, to work the Engineer's saloon.  Side tanks were later added and she was completely rebuilt, in 1892, as a 4-2-2T.  Ten years later, she was rebuilt again, this time as a 2-2-4T.  The LNER made her class 'X1'.  She was withdrawn in 1933 and preserved - the LNER was good at that.  Surprisingly, there was also an 'X2' and two locomotives in class 'X3'.  Like Aerolite, these three 2-2-4T locomotives were of North Eastern origin for use on Officers' Saloons.

***

Time for another apology.

Sorry, I think this postington has gone on far too long.  But there are two matters I still wish to address with regard to tank engines before we move on to how we can make a locomotive's wheels go round.  So, one more post about frames and wheels to come.  Sorry!


'N' Gauge is Such Fun!

Many thanks for looking and all best wishes.

Cheerio

John

[icairns]

Incidentally, Decapod was Great Britain's first ten-coupled locomotive.  Can you suggest what the second one was?

I believe it was the Midland Railway's 0-10-0 built in 1919 for banking trains on the Lickey incline, nicknamed "Big Bertha" or sometimes "Big Emma"

Ian

[Hailstone]

Thanks all this is so interesting 

Just wondering, is the welsh connection the reason 5619 an 0-6-2 designed by Mr Collett and built in Swindon, I believe, is sometimes refferred to as a taffy tank. (no offence to anyoine Welsh obviously) . Its currently looking slightly daft sporting a cow catcher, large headlight, and bell for Polar Express duties. Still the kids love it and it a great money spinner for our small local preserved railway

Thank you very much.  Yes, the '56xx' class was designed primarily for use in South Wales.  The pre-Grouping South Wales companies had come to the conclusion that the 0-6-2T was the ideal locomotive type for working in the Valleys.  After the Grouping in 1923, when these companies became part of the even greater Great Western Railway (GWR), a survey of all acquired locomotives was carried out.  There were a fair amount of South Wales 0-6-2T locomotives in poor condition - effectively they were worn out.  Many were in good condition and the GWR commenced a programme of rebuilding them with standard or modified GWR boilers.

However, the ones in poor condition were to be scrapped, which would cause a locomotive shortage.  Mr Collett arranged for the Swindon drawing office to design a new 0-6-2T, based on the Rhymney Railway 'R' class 0-6-2T.  Design and construction proceeded quickly and the first of the new class was tested in steam in December 1924.  I'm given to understand the test was not a success as, due to a design error in how the valve gear was supported, the valve spindles bent which restricted the valves' movement.

It appears an urgent re-design was carried out and new drawings were issued to provide for the necessary modifications. There is a suggestion that the dating of the drawings was such as to imply this matter had been thought about in August rather than December, 1924.  The valve motion of the class is supposed to be particularly inaccessible due to the large support bracket for the valve gear which was then provided.

Notwithstanding, the class was successful in service and 200 were built between 1924 and 1928.  Such was the urgency that 50 of these were built by Armstrong Whitworth which delivered them at five per week.

I have heard tell of another, rather less than complimentary, name for this type of engine and wonder if @Hailstone might care to repeat it on our FabulousForum.

   
Thanks again and all best wishes

John

6697 was known as the Welsh pig at Didcot and was the first steam loco that I drove 46 years ago!

Regards,

Alex

[martyn]

Thanks for another entertaining chapter, John.

One tiny and unimportant correction:  what became the LNER J69s ran the 'Jazz' service from the west side of Liverpool Street to Chingford and Enfield on the Cambridge line. The east side suburban on the Colchester line was a mixture of 'Gobbler' 2-4-2, and 0-4-4 tanks until the mid 30s. The N7s were not around in sufficient numbers until then.

Looking forward to the next installment. Sorry for hijacking the thread so many times, but there are so many branches on the main line of this thread!


Martyn

[Newportnobby]

Incidentally, Decapod was Great Britain's first ten-coupled locomotive.  Can you suggest what the second one was?

I believe it was the Midland Railway's 0-10-0 built in 1919 for banking trains on the Lickey incline, nicknamed "Big Bertha" or sometimes "Big Emma"

Ian

That's what crossed my mind. Big Bertha (43,313 lbf) was more powerful than Decapod (38,788 lbf) but the former was a tender loco v the latter being a tank loco. At the time of its build Decapod could quite legitimately claim to be the most powerful steam loco in the world

[PennineWagons]

The GER gets mentioned in my next postington.  There might even be a picturingham of a blue ... engine

Ah yes, blue engines. I know 4-4-0s were several chapters ago, but I couldn't resist taking your cue to post a picture of what I, and a few others, think is the most elegant steam loco ever built*, Holden's 'Claud Hamilton'.



Sadly, I don't think either the UM model or the BHE kit do justice to it, but that hasn't stopped me buying two UMs.

Keep up the good work,

Cheers,

Chris

* I'm prepared to accept a counter-argument in favour of Stirling's 8ft Single...

An entertaining little clip from YouTube about Clauds : 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=9IukNd6u3gQ

Hadn't realised there was a new build project to reconstruct one, although it seems to be in its very early stages at the moment.
PW

[Ed]

An entertaining little clip from YouTube about Clauds : 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=9IukNd6u3gQ

Hadn't realised there was a new build project to reconstruct one, although it seems to be in its very early stages at the moment.
PW



What a lovely little film, I too like Claud's 




Ed

[Train Waiting]

One tiny and unimportant correction:  what became the LNER J69s ran the 'Jazz' service from the west side of Liverpool Street to Chingford and Enfield on the Cambridge line. The east side suburban on the Colchester line was a mixture of 'Gobbler' 2-4-2, and 0-4-4 tanks until the mid 30s. The N7s were not around in sufficient numbers until then.

Thank you very much, Martyn.

At the risk of repeating myself, it's the discussion where the really interesting things are found.

I knew the GER had 40 0-4-4T locomotives of class 'S44', later, LNER 'G4', and I wondered what they did.  I associate the railway with 0-6-0T and 2-4-2T types.  Now I know - thank you.

Incidentally, I hope we'll mention the GER class 'L77' (LNER 'N7') in a future postington.

*

By the way - an apology.  For reasons I cannot imagine, I managed to leave out the Barry Railway's 0-8-2T locomotives, built by Sharp, Stewart & Co in 1896, from the postington on tank engines.  This was an important type, the first of its kind in Britain.

Best wishes

John

[martyn]

One tiny and unimportant correction:  what became the LNER J69s ran the 'Jazz' service from the west side of Liverpool Street to Chingford and Enfield on the Cambridge line. The east side suburban on the Colchester line was a mixture of 'Gobbler' 2-4-2, and 0-4-4 tanks until the mid 30s. The N7s were not around in sufficient numbers until then.

Thank you very much, Martyn.

At the risk of repeating myself, it's the discussion where the really interesting things are found.

I knew the GER had 40 0-4-4T locomotives of class 'S44', later, LNER 'G4', and I wondered what they did.  I associate the railway with 0-6-0T and 2-4-2T types.  Now I know - thank you.

Incidentally, I hope we'll mention the GER class 'L77' (LNER 'N7') in a future postington.

*

By the way - an apology.  For reasons I cannot imagine, I managed to leave out the Barry Railway's 0-8-2T locomotives, built by Sharp, Stewart & Co in 1896, from the postington on tank engines.  This was an important type, the first of its kind in Britain.

Best wishes

John

'A coarse guide to Liverpool Street steam suburban workings in 20th century'

I need to look up the details in my RCTS History of the LNER locos, but off the top of my head:
What became the G4 0-4-4s were used on the suburban services, but were not really found suitable. When the 'Jazz' services were introduced in 1920, it was timed around the J69s, but applied only to the west side suburban. Planned alterations to make a similar service on the east side were not made, possibly due to grouping? . The G4s, despite being specifically designed for the Enfield and Chingford services were not found suitable, having poor acceleration, though they remained on some such workings, and were later downgraded to carriage shunting. The east side being run with F4, F5, and F6 2-4-2s, as well as the G4s: I can't find reference to the J69s on the east side. The bigger F3s were used on longer outer suburban such as Bishops Stortford or Chelmsford, as well as longer country branches. The F3s were an example of what you have mentioned, a tank engine version of a tender loco class, in this case the E4s.

The N7s were only available in very small numbers until grouping, when new deliveries replaced the older, smaller tanks generally, being supported at odd times with small numbers of N2s. Stratford never got their hands on the full N7 class, which apparently they desired.

Later, of course, V1s, V3s and L1s arrived, and electrification or dieselisation replaced steam, but N7s remained active until the end of steam, together with the L1s. The N2s, V1s, V3s, and L1s were used on the longer outer suburban runs, not the inner services; they replaced older locos, including the F3s, D13s, and Clauds on such workings.

There were also cross-London trains from the suburbs direct to the docks so that workers did not have to go via Liverpool St and change trains.

Sorry to have gone down yet another branch.....

Thanks again for the thread, fascinating.

Martyn

Later-Note I've updated the info on the LNER tanks.

[Train Waiting]

A Coarse Guide to the Steam Locomotive for 'N' Gauge Modellers - Part 9


Hello Chums

Radial axles

In mid-Victorian times, the six-wheel locomotive predominated but, as we have seen, there was a desire to design tank engines with eight wheels.  This was generally supposed to lead to an overlong fixed wheelbase, especially with larger coupled wheels, which might have annoyed the Civil Engineer and some way of achieving a flexible wheelbase was deemed desirable.  The bogie had been in locomotive use since William IV's time and, as we have noted, Levi Bissell patented a single axle swivelling truck in Great Britain in May 1857.  Both the bogie and the Bissell truck, or more commonly, pony truck, were pivoted from the frames of the locomotive by one means or another.

The idea of having an axle mounted on the main frames, but with a degree of radial movement appears to have been that of a French engineer, Edmond Roy, in 1857.  His arrangement was defective and the first practical version was patented by William Bridges Adams in 1863.  Please note the 'Bridges' part of this engineer's name or we'll get confused later.

Now for the tricky part.  A radial axle doesn't simply move from side to side, whilst remaining at right-angles to the frames.  Its movement is that of an arc of a circle.  In order to achieve this, William Bridges Adams used curved sides to the axleboxes, which moved inside hornguides with a matching curve.  Attempting to decide the optimum radius for the circle, which then decided its arc, gave locomotive engineers rather a lot of fun for the next 50 years or so.

I have to admit the radial axle sounds rather Heath Robinson, but it was employed on many tank locomotives in the period under discussion.  FW Webb, of the London & North Western Railway (LNWR), designed a development of the W Bridges Adams' radial axle.  In the W Bridges Adams' radial axle, the two axleboxes were independent of each other.  The Webb design placed the axleboxes at either end of a curved steel inner casting which moved within another steel outer casting, bolted to the locomotive's frames.  Any engineers shuddering at my coarse description will recognise the use of a cannon box.  As well as on LNWR locomotives, the legions of Lancashire & Yorkshire 2-4-2T tank engines used Webb radial axles.

The original W Bridges Adams' design was still used, notably on William Adams'¹ ever-popular 4-4-2T design for the London & South Western Railway – usually called the 'Adams Radial'.  One is preserved at the Bluebell Railway where another locomotive, the London Brighton & South Coast Railway's 0-6-2T Birch Grove, also has a radial axle.





The picturingham shows an Adams 'Radial' 0-4-2T.  Bogie at the front and radial axle at the rear.


¹ They weren't related but have caused plenty of opportunities for confusion.

*

Garstang & Knott End Railway/ Knott End Railway 2-6-0T

[...] Interestingly, this history of the Mogul says the first UK example was a tank for the Garstang and Knott end railway circa 1870. This is the first time I've heard of this, the GER example is usually quoted as being first. Perhaps the GER was just the first tender engine in the UK of this type.

https://locomotive.fandom.com/wiki/2-6-0

I'm very grateful for that, Martyn.  Thank you.  I hardly ever use the internet for research, so it was an interesting experience for me.

I didn't notice any references given in the article and looked elsewhere on the internet.  The 'Wikipedia' website has an article which is noticeably similar to the one you kindly brought to my attention.  It quotes references and the one for the 'circa 1870' 2-6-0T is Bertram Baxter, British Locomotive Catalogue 1825–1923, Moorland, 1977, p. 30.

As luck would have it, I don't have this book (I'm going to try to obtain a copy, though).

However, EL Ahrons' The British Steam Railway Locomotive 1825-1925, Locomotive Publishing Co., London, 1927, makes no mention of this locomotive.  Perhaps Mr Ahrons overlooked it, but that would not have been typical of him.  The book, published posthumously, was based on his series of articles for The Engineer, commissioned in celebration of the railway centenary in 1925. Perhaps such an important omission would have been noted in the correspondence columns of the magazine and corrected by the three editors of the book.

I also consulted John Scott-Morgan's British Independent Light Railways, David & Charles, Newton Abbot, 1980.  This fascinating book has a chapter on the Garstang & Knott End Railway/Knott End Railway.  The railway opened between Garstang and Pilling in 1870 and appears to have been worked by two successive 0-4-0ST locomotives until 1875 when a 0-6-0ST called Farmers Friend was purchased for the line.  The remaining 0-4-0ST was replaced by another 0-6-0ST called Hope in 1883.

Again, no mention of a 2-6-0T 'circa 1870'.

What are we to make of this?  Without seeing the reference, it is difficult to say. Eventually the line got to Knott End by means of an extension from Pilling, operated by the Knott End Railway, in 1908.

But, the fascinating story doesn't end there.  You see, both Messrs Ahrons and Scott-Morgan mention that the railways did have a 2-6-0T locomotive.  She was Blackpool, built by Manning Wardle & Co. in 1909.  Mr Scott-Morgan describes her as, '... a large and unusual machine for a light railway'.  The date of 1909 is of special interest, given the extension opened the previous year.  Incidentally, Manning Wardle also delivered a 0-6-0T, named Knott End, in 1908.  The locomotives and rolling stock were pooled between the companies and ran on both sections of the line.

The Garstang & Knott End and the Knott End railways were absorbed by the LMS in the 1923 Grouping and Blackpool was scrapped in 1925 as LMS No. 11303.

*

Yet another apology!

When I first thought it might be a jolly jape to attempt to write this series, I assumed it would run to four or five parts.  Clearly, I'm greatly in need of a stern editor.  I decided to start with the wheels, then move on to what makes the wheels turn and finally the boiler.  Maybe concluding with a look at recent developments - I take these as being from 1912 onwards.

My first outline drafts regarding what makes the wheels go round keep mentioning steam, so please forget what has been advertised.  We'll discuss boilers next.


'N' Gauge is Such Fun!   

Many thanks for looking and all best wishes.

Tickety-tonk

John

[martyn]

Please don't edit, John, I'm enjoying this thread a lot-even though I keep sending it down a branch!

The Garstang and Knott End 2-6-0T; I think the webpage entry is a bit cross threaded, as it goes on to say the first examples in the UK were the GER Moguls-which is what I've always seen elsewhere in other articles.

Martyn

[chrism]

I have to admit the radial axle sounds rather Heath Robinson, but it was employed on many tank locomotives in the period under discussion.

It was also employed on many larger and later locos too. The Cartazzi Axle, a variation of the Adams Radial Axle, was used as the trailing axle on all (I think) of Gresley's pacifics as well as his P1s & P2s and as the leading trailing axle on the W1 Hush-Hush. The trailing trailing axle on the latter was a normal Bissel truck, making it, technically, a 4-6-2-2 rather than a 4-6-4 Baltic.

The principle differences were that the Adams/Webb radial axles were true radials with curved hornguides/axleboxes and a spring arrangement to restore the axle to the centre position on straight track, whereas the Cartazzi has shorter, straight (but angled) hornguides/axleboxes, since that was easier to machine, and an arrangement of horizontal wedges such that the weight of the loco provided the necessary force to centre the axle.

[Hailstone]

A Radial truck was used on all the large GW prairie tanks, the 56xx tanks and I believe the 72xx tanks

Regards,

Alex

[martyn]

Purely by coincidence, friends bought me a Will's cigarette picture card album for Christmas. I think one or two are missing.

However, two of the cards give the names of loco wheel formations, with answers on the back, and another is lamp codes. Two more are 'How the vacuum brake works' and 'how the Westinghouse brake works'.






Martyn