London & South Western 0-4-4 Locomotives in Great_Britain

Class M7 (Locobase 3133)

Data from "Railway Notes -- London & South Western Railway", The Locomotive, Vol XII, No 170 (15 October 1906), p. 163. See also Bryan Attewell ([] Steam Locomotive simulator and OS Nock's reference (Southern Steam, 1968) to it in his table of ex-London & South Western locomotives that were brought into the Southern.

According to the Southern E-group ([], visited October 2002), Dugal Drummond based this passenger engine on his earlier North British Railways 157 class of 1877. Provided with a relatively large grate and ample firebox heating surface area, this design included the unusual feature of a feedwater heater in the tanks. It consisted of a bundle of forty 2" (50.8 mm) tubes, each 11 ft 3 1/2 in (3.45 m) long and deploying 234 sq ft (21.75 sq m). (The boiler and firebox also appeared on the 30 0-6-0s that began production the same year; see Locobase 14912.)

Built over a fourteen-year period, this sturdy design appeared in five major variants, although many of the differences related to sandbox location (with the splasher vs inside the boiler wrapper), pump type, and the amount of front overhang. Other changes reflect improvements, such as feedwater heating, balanced crank axles, and steam reverse gear. Drummond's feed water heater, introduced in 1911, had a bundle of tubes that comprised 234 sq ft (21.74 sq m).

After a derailment at Tavistock, the M7 no longer pulled the London & South Western's express passenger trains between Plymouth and Exeter. On the other hand, it proved a very handy size for local passenger service, both main line and branch, as well as suburban traffic. 36 were converted to push-pull operation in the 1930s.

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Class unknown (Locobase 3209)

Data from Glover (1967) and "The History of the London & South Western Ry Locomotives", The Locomotive Magazine, Vol XIV (15 October 1908), p. 174.

William Adams placed the Jubilee (0-4-2) express-engine boiler on a tank-engine frame and produced these locomotives over the course of 8 years.

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Class unknown (Locobase 5418)

Data from October 1891 RREJ.

This William Adams tank engine is smaller than the one referenced in Locobase 3209. The journal describes these as Forney-type engines for heavy suburban traffic that were intended to supplant a lighter class. Indeed, a few years later, C J Bowen Cooke, "British Locomotives", (London: Whitaker & Co, 1894), pronounced them as "exceedingly useful engines for working the important local services of which there are many on the South-Western [sic] Railway. They have also comfortable and roomy foot-plates and are a very favourite class of engine with the drivers."

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Class unknown (Locobase 5707)

Data from April 1894 (Vol LXVIII, No 4) American Engineer & Railroad Journal. See also "Tank Engine for Suburban Traffic, '180' Class, London and South Western Railway", Railway Engineer, Volume 12, No 6 (June 1891), p. 141.

A slightly larger version of the William Adams tank engine described in Locobase 5418. Note the 1/2" increase in cylinder size. The RE reported coal consumption was under 26 lb/mile (7.33 kg/km). "They are very powerful," added RE, "and exactly suited to the heavy local passenger service of the South-Western Railway."