Midland 0-10-0 Locomotives in Great_Britain

Class Big Emma (Locobase 2350)

Data from "New 0-10-0 Type Locomotive. Midland Railway", The Railway Engineer (May 1920, pp. 205-208; "Midland Railway 0-10-0 Type Banking Engine", Locomotive News and Railway Notes, Volume V [5], No 26 (25 March 1920), pp.41-43; and "0-10-0 Banking Engine: Midland Railway", Locomotive Magazine, Volume XXVI [26], No 332 (15 April 1920), pp. 69-71. See also E L Ahrons, The British Steam Locomotive from 1825 to 1925 (London: Ian Allan, 1927), p. 363. See also the detailed entry from [], last accessed 26 December 2011.

Designed by Sir Henry Fowler as a "banking" engine (helper on a grade). Fowler chose a tender-engine layout as opposed to a tank engine to avoid concentrating the the weight of water and fuel on the five driving axles. The four cylinders were inclined on a 1 in 7 slope and drove on the center axle. Each 10" (254 mm) piston valve served the two cylinders on each side; Ahrons commented that the outside-admission valves had crossed ports (because the two cylinders would be positioned at different parts of their stroke).

2290's profile lacked elegance as it mated a cylinder containing the tubes and flues with a rectangular box surrounding the Belpaire firebox. But the design's proportions of boiler to grate and its relatively high superheater percentage compensated for its low ratio of boiler to cylinder volume.

Only one was built, but it was used for many years on the notorious Lickey incline between Birmingham and Gloucester (see Locobases 4533-4535 for the Norris 4-2-0s of the late 1830s that demonstrated a steam locomotive's ability to pull a train up the 1 in 37.7/2.65% grade). In recognition of the Lickey's slope, all ten wheels were braked. A hand brake in the cab could act simultaneously. En-route braking was divided between a steam cylinder acting on the first three axles and another under the dragbox acting on the rear two.

The blogspot entry notes that Big Bertha (as he says she was known) compiled a surprising 838,856 miles (1,350,558 km) during her 35 years of service.