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Steam locomotives of British Railways
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The steam locomotives of British Railways were used by British Railways over the period 1948-1968. The vast majority of these were inherited from its four constituent companies, the "Big Four".
In addition, BR built 2537 steam locomotives in the period 1948–1960, 1538 to pre-nationalisation designs and 999 to its own standard designs.
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The steam locomotives of British Railways were used by British Railways over the period 1948-1968. The vast majority of these were inherited from its four constituent companies, the "Big Four".
In addition, BR built 2537 steam locomotives in the period 1948–1960, 1538 to pre-nationalisation designs and 999 to its own standard designs. These locomotives had short lives, some as little as five years against a design life of over 30 years, because of the decision to end the use of steam traction in 1968.
Background
British Railways was created on 1 January 1948 principally by the merger of the "Big Four" grouped railway companies: the Great Western Railway (GWR), the London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMS), the London and North Eastern Railway (LNER) and the Southern Railway (SR). It inherited a wide legacy of locomotives and rolling stock, much of which needed replacing due to the ravages of World War II.
Locomotives inherited from constituent companies
A wide variety of locomotives was acquired from the four major constituent companies. These had generally standardised their own designs. See:
In addition, a handful of locomotives were inherited from minor constituents.
The 1948 Locomotive Exchange Trials compared locomotives from each company against each other.
Classification
After initially using letter prefixes (E for ex-LNER, M for ex-LMS, S for ex-SR, and W for ex-GWR locomotives, as used for other inherited rolling stock), a numbering scheme was decided on in March 1948. Generally ex-GWR locomotives retained their numbers (and hence were able to retain their cast brass number plates), and it was decided to add 30000 to the Southern numbers, 40000 to the LMS numbers and 60000 to the LNER numbers. There were some exceptions though.
BR adopted a slightly modified version of the LMS classification system, itself based on the Midland Railway's system. Each locomotive class was given a number 0-9 that signified its power, 0 for the least powerful and 9 for the most, with a suffix of F or P, indicating freight and passenger roles respectively. Freight power ranged from 0-9, passenger from 0-8. Many locomotives were used for both roles, in which case they were given two class numbers, the P-rating first e.g. 3P4F or 6P5F. A slight change from the LMS system saw those where the freight classification (x) equalled the passenger classification (also x) reclassified as xMT, MT standing for mixed traffic, e.g. for the LMS Black Five locomotives, LMS 5P5F became BR 5MT. Mixed traffic locos had power in the range of classes 2-6.
Locomotives acquired from the War Department
In addition to the inherited and new-build locomotives, BR also purchased 620 locomotives of three types from the War Department. These had been in use on railways in Great Britain and elsewhere in Europe during the Second World War. For two of these types, BR was adding to two classes it already had. BR had inherited 556 ex-LMS Stanier Class 8F 2-8-0s, and added 39 in 1949 and an additional three in 1957, bringing the class total to 666. Additionally, it had acquired 200 ex-LNER Class O7 2-8-0s of the WD Austerity 2-8-0 type, to which it added another 553 examples. The ex-LNER locomotives were later renumbered from the ex-LNER 6xxxx series into the BR series as 90533-732. The third type, of which it had no other examples, were the 25 of the WD Austerity 2-10-0s. Also, five of the eight LMS Fowler Class 3F 0-6-0Ts were....what?
Locomotives built by BR to Big Four designs
Initially, the newly nationalised network continued to be run as four different concerns, and pursued the policy of building of well-established designs. Some of these were already quite old, one class (the J92 tank engines) being a pre-Grouping design.
GWR designs
Great Western management was opposed to nationalisation and built many pannier tanks, resulting in a surplus of them. 452 locomotives were built to ex-GWR designs, of which 341 were pannier tanks.
SR designs
The SR designs built by BR included 50 Bulleid Pacifics. Many of these were later rebuilt in an un-streamlined form. BR also completed and steamed one of the experimental SR Leader Class, but did not take it into stock, and cancelled the remaining orders in various states of completeness.
LMS designs
640 locomotives were built to LMS designs. They were built at various BR works, not just at the ex-LMS works at Crewe, Derby and Horwich. Many of the later BR standard designs were based on the LMS designs.
LNER designs
BR built 396 locomotives to LNER designs. The J72 Class was a North Eastern Railway design, dating from 1898.
BR standard classes
From 1951, BR started to build steam locomotives to its own standard designs, which were largely based on LMS practice but incorporating ideas and modifications from the other constituent companies and America.
Characteristic features were taper boilers, high running plates, two cylinders and streamlined cabs.
Although more were ordered, 999 BR standards were constructed: the last, 92220 Evening Star, was built in 1960. Most never achieved their potential service life and were withdrawn in working order.
Liveries
Initially, BR decided upon blue for the largest passenger types, with GWR-style Brunswick green for passenger locomotives, and LNWR-style lined black for mixed-traffic locomotives. The blue however was quickly dropped and passenger livery for all locomotive classes reverted to green. Towards the end locomotives tended to be painted in lesser liveries, and often this was covered in a layer of grime.
Two logos (or crests) were used during the period. The first logo (1948-1956) was the "Lion and Wheel" (sometimes nicknamed the "Cycling Lion"), showing a lion standing over a spoked wheel upon which the words "British Railways" were displayed.. The second logo (1956 - 1965) featured a lion holding a wheel (which gave rise to the nickname "ferret and dartboard"), sitting in a crown, with the words "British" and "Railways" to left and right. (Passenger stock and certain diesel locomotives used a roundel variant, where the words "British Railways" were in a ring surrounding the crest.) From 1965, the BR Corporate Image and "Double Arrow" logo was adopted, but this logo was not applied to steam locomotives (except on the Vale of Rheidol line).
Withdrawal
The 1955 Modernisation Plan called for the phasing out of steam traction. Major withdrawals occurred during 1962–1966, and steam traction ended in August 1968, coinciding with the Beeching Axe.
Some were sold to London Transport, where steam traction remained in use until 1971. Steam on industrial lines remained until the early 1980s. In the 1950s and 1960s, British Railways operated some engines which were up to 80 years old – in reality though these had been rebuilt often several times with new boilers, etc; later engines such as the 9Fs could not have possibly had a similar lifespan, though 30-40 years would have not been unreasonable.
Vale of Rheidol finale
The locomotives of the Vale of Rheidol Railway, from the 2" narrow gauge Vale of Rheidol Railway (VoR) in Mid-Wales had been inherited with the rest of the GWR stock in 1948. BR however continued to use steam locomotives on the line as a commercial heritage railway. This situation continued until 1989 when the line was privatised, and steam continued. These engines were the only steam locomotives to receive Rail Blue livery.
Preservation
Withdrawn locomotives were sent for scrap to various locations around the country, to scrap metal merchants who had been approved to bid on the contracts. Most locomotives from the former Great Western Railway were either scrapped at Swindon railway works, or Woodham Brothers scrapyard in Barry, Vale of Glamorgan, South Wales which became a centre for the railway preservation movement.
Former main line locomotives, along with various smaller industrial shunters, form the backbone of steam motive power for heritage railways. Main line running on charter trains is possible and they run under TOPS code as Class 98.
Some of these "heritage" lines are remote and cut off from the national rail network, serving obscure or deserted destinations and running primarily as a tourist attraction. Others, especially those which are connected to the National Rail network and/or are situated in more populous areas are often used by members of the local community as a convenient mode of public transport or by ordinary rail travellers to get to their final destination. To cater for this local traffic, some steam lines offer heritage diesel or steam "push-pull" services out of season.
The National Rail network hosts many chartered trains hauled by preserved steam locomotives, and most Saturdays there will probably be such a railtour operating somewhere in the country.
Most regions of Britain have preserved steam lines, and visitors to any part of the country will never be far from one. For a country which withdrew steam traction from its national network relatively early, Britain is now one of the best places in the world to witness steam engines still at work.
See also
For a list of Diesel and Electric locomotives of British Railways:
Further reading
- Hugh Longworth British Railway Steam Locomotives 1948-1968, Ian Allan. ISBN 0-86093-593-0
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