LMS/BR Class 7 4-6-0 Rebuilds E-Book

David Clarke

• Herausgeber: Crowood
• Kategorie: Lebensstil
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2014

Beschreibung

A comprehensive look at the LMS/BR Class 7 4-6-0 rebuilt locomotives, including the rebuilt Jubilees, the rebuilt Patriots and the rebuilt Royal Scots. The book includes hundreds of photographs and feedback from the original crews that operated the engines. Contents include:Origins of the rebuilt Class 7s in the 1940s and the design of the 2A boiler; Differences between the classes; Liveries, names and name plates; Detailed allocation tables; Rebuilt Class 7s to the rescue - the severe winter of 1962/3; Decline of the Class 7s and withdrawal in the 1960s; Preservation of the Class 7 rebuilds. Essential reading for all locomotive enthisiasts, illustrated with 240 colour photographs and includes feedback from the original crews.

Leseprobe

LMS/BR CLASS 7 4-6-0REBUILDS

The Rebuilt Jubilee, Patriot andRoyal Scot Locomotives

David Clarke

THE CROWOOD PRESS

First published in 2014 by The Crowood Press Ltd Ramsbury, Marlborough Wiltshire SN8 2HR

www.crowood.com

This e-book first published in 2014

© David Clarke 2014

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication DataA catalogue record for this book is available from the BritishLibrary.

ISBN 978 1 84797 652 9

Photographic AcknowledgementsPhotographs are from the author’s collection unless statedotherwise.

CONTENTS

Acknowledgements

Introduction

1   Origins

2   Detail Differences

3   Liveries, Names and Nameplates

4   Testing and Experimentation

5   Allocations

6   Rebuilt Class 7s to the Rescue – The Severe Winter of 1962–3

7   Decline and Withdrawal

8   Maintenance of the Locomotives

9   Withdrawal and Disposal

10   Summary

11   Preservation

Appendices

Recommended Reading

Index

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Producing a book is not a solitary process; a number of people have provided much help and assistance. Thanks are due to the following photographers for digging through their archives of photographs: Kenneth Tyler (and for his reminiscences of the rebuilds on the Buxton–Manchester services); Peter Groom; Norman Preedy; Malcolm Castledine; and David Cousins. Also thanks to RailOnline (www.railonline.co.uk) for the use of a number of photographs. To Angela Tarnowski and Mal Siddons of the Sherwood Foresters Museum, who provided access to the various plates used on 46112 Sherwood Forester. To Len Pinder, who sorted through a mass of slides and digitally copied them for me and to Steve Taylor for doing some excellent Photoshop work on the colour slides.

I also interviewed as many railwaymen who had direct experience of the class as possible, including: Chris Ward, a fireman at Annesley shed; Alan Newbury, also a fireman at Annesley; Granville Dobson, a fireman at Low Moor shed; and Mike Bentley, a fireman and driver at Buxton and who worked on the engines many, many times.

The published reminiscences of Eric A. Langridge, who was working in the Derby Drawing Office during the 1930s and 1940s, were an invaluable source of inside information. Eric was directly involved with the design of the Stanier locomotives and had a unique view of events and the background as to why things happened. He lived to be well over 100 and published his memories in a number of magazines and books.

Dave Cousins, for digging out some of his black-and-white photographs. Pete Skellon of the Bahamas Locomotive Society provided details of 46115 Scots Guardsman during its time when the Society undertook the restoration of the engine in the 1980s and also some of the modifications made to the rebuilt Scots when in BR service.

I also referred to various issues of Backtrack, Steam Days, Steam World and British Railway Illustrated magazines, which had reminiscences from former railway staff, again giving valuable insight into the working of these locomotives.

Finally, to my wife Glenis, who has put up with my endless hours of research and for helping with the proofreading.

INTRODUCTION

I am old enough to have seen many of the LMS (London, Midland and Scottish Railway) Class 7 rebuilds in traffic and was fortunate to have been pulled by a number of the locomotives on passenger trains as they were used on ‘fill-in’ turns from my local station, Trench Crossing between Stafford, Wellington (Shropshire) and Shrewsbury (where they would then work from Shrewsbury to Crewe). As a teenager in 1962, I went on a rock climbing holiday to Snowdonia, necessitating a rail journey from Wellington to Chester and then to Llandudno Junction and down the branch line to Blaenau Ffestiniog, where I left the train at Betws-y-Coed. The train from Chester to Llandudno Junction was hauled by 46163 Civil Service Rifleman and the return by 46152 The King’s Dragoon Guardsman, both doing the job they were designed for, that of express passenger trains. On one of my visits to Shrewsbury around 1962–3 I was allowed to climb up on the cab of 46125 3rd Carabinier, which had arrived from Crewe on a train destined for the route to Bristol and beyond. It was a real privilege to be on the footplate; I only wish I could have stayed on the locomotive on its journey south.

The saddest sighting for me was seeing one of Crewe North’s rebuilt Scots, 46155 The Lancer, arriving on freight at the military depot at Donnington (on the line between Wellington and Stafford) and, after some shunting, heading off towards Stafford; those 6ft 9in driving wheels were not really designed for mixed freight workings. My last sighting of a rebuilt Class 7 was on 7 February 1965 when visiting Crewe North depot (as part of a Warwickshire rail tour to Crewe Works and depots), where I found one of the last survivors, 46115 Scots Guardsman, standing out of steam in fairly shabby external condition and I feared the worst. I subsequently found out that the locomotive was used on a rail tour a week later and that Crewe North cleaned up the engine and made up some nice replica nameplates.

46124 London Scottish (rebuilt December 1943) is seen at Shrewsbury circa 1959–61 with what is likely to have been a stopping train to Stafford, which was a regular ‘fill-in’ for an 8A engine that would arrive at Shrewsbury with the 11.45 Manchester (London Rd)–Plymouth, where the engine would come off to be replaced by a Western Region engine. The rebuilt Class 7 would do a return trip to Stafford with three coaches and then work back from Shrewsbury to Crewe with another express passenger train. The overall station roof was removed during 1961–2.

46148 The Manchester Regiment (rebuilt July 1954) is seen in ex-Works condition at Stafford shed in the early 1960s, when the loco had acquired AWS (May 1959), speedometer drive (October 1960) and the overhead warning flashes (around 1960). Stanier bogie wheels have replaced the Fowler originals. It was common to see rebuilt Class 7s on Stafford shed as they would be used on ‘fill-in’ turns on the Shrewsbury–Stafford and return stopping services. The author was pulled by 46148 on such a train in 1963. The shed code is difficult to read, but the loco was allocated to Crewe North in April 1962, before moving to Llandudno Junction in September 1962, then on to Holyhead in December 1963. It returned to Llandudno in January 1964, before a final return to Holyhead in April 1964 and withdrawal in November 1964. After storage at Birkenhead shed for a month, it made the long journey to Birds Scrapyard in Morriston, near Swansea, for scrapping in January 1965.

46129 The Scottish Horse (rebuilt December 1944) is seen at Shrewsbury shed in the 1960s. The engine was a long-term resident of Crewe North shed until June 1961, when it was allocated to Carlisle, before being allocated to Crewe again, then going to Longsight Manchester in September 1962. It was withdrawn in June 1964 and scrapped at Central Wagon Company, Wigan, in November 1964. The locomotive has the overhead warning flashes, the additional handrail on the smoke deflectors and the automatic warning system (AWS), but not a speedometer drive. It is fitted with a rocker ash pan (the arm can be seen between the middle and trailing driving wheels), but subsequently in its last years of service it did not have this fitment. G. SHARPE

45526 Morecambe and Heysham (rebuilt February 1947) is seen at Greyrigg on a fitted freight in the autumn of 1964. The engine was allocated to Carlisle Upperby and freight duties were common for its rebuilt Class 7s at this time. The engine has acquired the yellow warning stripe applied at the end of August 1964 and still retains its nameplates and crests above the name. The engine is fitted with AWS (November 1959) and was also fitted with a speedometer (February 1961). The engine had been at Carlisle Upperby since June 1950 and was withdrawn from that shed in October 1964, before being scrapped in February 1965 at one of the scrapyards in the Glasgow area.A. E. DURRANT AND M. BOAKES

In my eyes, the rebuilt Class 7s had a more powerful look when compared to the far more common LMS Jubilees. They had quite a soft exhaust, but when pushed could produce a real ‘bark’ from the exhaust that more than matched their contemporaries, the Castles. The class was the mainstay of the West Coast Main Line from Euston to Glasgow; in reality, the London Midland Region needed more Pacifics, but in the absence of these the rebuilt Class 7s would fill the breach and they were regularly overloaded with fourteen-coach trains. They never seemed to hit the highspeed heights of some of their contemporaries, but the majority of the routes they ran on were not conducive to high-speed running. The valve events on the locomotives were specifically designed to operate at a lower speed range, which gave the locomotives ‘punch’ at lower speeds. This is best illustrated when members of the rebuilt Scots were transferred to Low Moor Bradford and were diagrammed to work a daily heavy Bradford to Southport semi-fast, usually loaded to ten coaches and with forty stops on a steeply graded route (as far as Manchester). The Low Moor crews were surprised how easy the locos, with their 6ft 9in drivers, could accelerate away with a heavy load and the ability of the boiler to generate massive amounts of steam on the hilly sections.

The LMS rebuilt 7s were nominally in three different classes (the rebuilt Jubilees, the rebuilt Patriots and the rebuilt Royal Scots), but they essentially formed one class, all sharing the same wonderful 2A boiler, but with detail differences both among the classes and within each class. Many of the detail changes between the various sub-types are very subtle and not always easy to spot in photographs. The Engine History Cards (EHC) have been analysed, but as with many other classes, the cards suffer from not being fully updated from the early 1960s onwards (and some engines that were on the North Eastern Region stopped having the changes recorded before others), so many of the later changes (such as speedometer, tender changes and Works visits) were not officially recorded.

There are also some anomalies on the EHCs; as an example, 46101 Royal Scots Grey is recorded as having a Light Classified repair between 18 December 1961 and 23 March 1961 and this is the last entry for repairs on the EHC. However, on the same EHC, boiler number 12665 was noted as being fitted on 23 March 1962, indicating a heavy repair at this later date. There are at least four other locos where this sort of discrepancy can be identified. In order to identify many of these later changes, I have used an extensive collection of photographs and observations from such as The Railway Observer, published by the Railway Travel and Correspondence Society (RCTS).

45535 Sir Herbert Walker, K.C.B. (rebuilt September 1948) is seen on a freight at Carlisle on 18 May 1963, when the engine was allocated to Carlisle Kingmoor and not long before it was withdrawn (in October 1963). The engine had been a long-term resident at Edge Hill, with eight years of service from that depot, and had received an overhaul at Crewe Works in April 1962, before its final move to Carlisle Kingmoor in November 1962. The engine had a long journey for its final disposal, as, following storage at Kingmoor, it travelled to William Rigley’s Wagon Works at Bulwell, near Nottingham, where it was scrapped in September 1964. RAILONLINE

Where I have used previously published lists for changes and variants I have validated this with photographic evidence and where the photograph contradicts the published data I have not used the published sources. In the course of doing the research for this book I came across a number of contradictory statements, so if there are any errors they are mine not a simple reiteration of ‘facts’ from an unknown source. The same applies to allocations. The Engine History Cards do not list all of the final allocations, so, for example, the last entry for 46164 The Artists’ Rifleman is an allocation to Crewe North in 1959; the EHC does not mention the subsequent allocation to 41C Millhouses Sheffield in February 1960 and there are many other examples.

The three separate classes have been well covered in book form compared to many other classes, but the three varieties of Class 7 rebuild locomotives have never been documented and treated as one class, whereas of course from the Operating Departments’ point of view they were the same. What does this book have to add to the story beyond the obvious one of having colour photographs? I have tried to summarize all the detailed changes in a compact format so that when viewing a photograph the reader should be able to identify any changes made to that particular locomotive. The key element of the book is to give a full picture of the locomotives in operation, covering all the depots to which they were allocated and the principal trains that the class worked, as well as the experiences of the driving and fitting staff.

45512 Bunsen (rebuilt July 1948). A magnificent shot taken in June 1964 at Willesden when Bunsen was visiting from its home depot of Carlisle Upperby, to which it had been allocated in May 1949 and where it remained until a move across the city to Carlisle Kingmoor in November 1964. The front bogie wheels are Stanier and the rear set is Fowler, whilst the leading and middle driving wheels are Stanier and the rear set is Fowler, with the usual Stanier-style balance weights. AWS was fitted in November 1959 and speedometer drive in February 1961. The engine survived until March 1965, before scrapping at Motherwell Machinery and Scrap, Wishaw, in July 1965. COLOUR-RAIL

The decline of the class and the allocation to some very unglamorous depots has not been covered in depth before, as well as their widespread use filling in for failed diesels during the early 1960s. The allocation to depots such as Wigan Springs Branch, Saltley, Low Moor and Annesley would appear not to make any sense, until one looks at and understands the traffic workings from those depots.

The photographs have been chosen to show as many of the possible variations through the classes. What surprised me, as I have been collecting photographs and slides of these engines for over thirty years, has been the paucity of good colour photographs, but the recent RailOnline collection has made the task a little easier. I have also tried, where possible, not to use photographs that have been used many times before; not an easy task, but I hope I have succeeded.

CHAPTER ONE

ORIGINS

William Stanier took over the Locomotive Department of the London Midland and Scottish Railway in 1932, bringing with him many of the progressive engineering and design influences from the Great Western Railway at Swindon. The most powerful engines in the LMS fleet at that time were the seventy Royal Scots introduced in 1927. Whilst these proved to be successful machines they were not without fault, principally with axle box failures, rough riding and smokeboxes that proved difficult to keep airtight (this was due to the design of the built-up smokeboxes). Stanier quickly initiated some modifications to the springing and axle boxes as well as the bogies, resulting in a considerable improvement in the reduction of hot boxes, the locomotives having been provided originally with Midland-style axle boxes.

Subsequently, new locomotives were designed and built under Stanier’s regime, with the Princess Royal 4-6-2s introduced in 1933 (thirteen locomotives) and the Coronation 4-6-2s introduced in 1937 (thirty-seven locomotives), both classes replacing the original Royal Scots on the heavy principal West Coast trains. In addition, new 4-6-0s such as the Jubilee, introduced in 1934 (187 locomotives), were supplementing the Royal Scots. Prior to Stanier’s arrival, Patriots (more popularly known as ‘Baby Scots’) had been introduced in 1930, the first two incorporating many parts from London and North West Railway (LNWR) Claughton 4-6-0s. Subsequent batches were built from 1932 and Stanier approved the building of more members of the class during 1933 and 1934, the latter batches incorporating some detail changes initiated by Stanier, finishing with a total of fifty locomotives.