0-8-0 Steam Locomotives in Great Britain

Class 8A - superheated (Locobase 6415)

Data from Richard Marsden of [] (visited 11 December 2004). Mike Parkes -- [], last accessed 26 June 2006.

A deep Belpaire firebox is noticeable as are the outside cylinders tucked under the frame.

Marsden says eight Q4s (Locobase 8407) retained their saturated boilers throughout their working lives. Mike Parkes credits the GCR with superheating 35 boilers by 1916 and the LNER converting an equal number from 1925-1933. Withdrawals began a year later and by 1940 41 had been taken out of service. The remainder carried on in the face of increased traffic demands; Thompson rebuilt 13 as Q1 0-8-0T tank engines in 1942-1945.

After World War II, all but one of the remaining 35 were carried on the British Railway rolls at Nationalization in 1948. In the next three years, these were retired with the last one going in October 1951.

Class 8A Tinies/Q4 (Locobase 8407)

Data from Samuel Rendell (M. I Mech.E), "The Steam Locomotive: Fifty Years Ago and Now", read Saturday, 13 January 1906 and published in the Transactions of the Manchester Association of Engineers 1906 (January to March); "New Engines, Great Central Railway," The Locomotive Magazine, Volume VIII [8] (3 January 1903), p. 3; and "Recent Heavy Locomotive Equipment of the Great Central Railway of England", Railroad Gazette, Volume XXXIX [39], No 24 (29 December 1905), pp. 608-610; and "GCR Class 8A" in Wikipedia at "[], last accessed 11 June 2026. (Thanks to Alexander Blessing for his 31 May 2026 email correcting the engine and tender weights, cylinder diameter, and supplying the tube length.) Neilson, Reid works numbers were 46251-6253 in 1902, Kitson order 273A 4202-4234 in 1903-1904, order 306L 4335-4339 in 1905, order 333T 4475-4487 in 1907. GCR's Gorton Works supplied an additional 20 in 1910-1911.

Rendell's entry presented John G Robinson's saturated-steam goods locomotive as introduced in 1902. This heavy mineral engine (drag freighter for coal, iron ore, etc.) used essentially the same boiler as the 4-6-0 Fish engines of the same year (Locobase 6301), but grafted on a deeper firebox with more surface area.