War Department Light Railways 0-6-0 Locomotives in Great_Britain

Class unknown (Locobase 5394)

Datafrom "Narrow Gauge Locomotives at Purfleet", Locomotive News and Railway Notes, Volume III [3], No 18, (25 November 1919) , pp. 156-157; and Frederick C Coleman, "British Narrow Gauge Military Locomotives", Railway Review, Volume 63, (28 December 1918), p. 905. See also WJK Davies, Light Railways of the First World War (NY;Reprints of Economic Classics, 1968). Works numbers were 1518-1542.

Davies says there's not much known about these engines except that they were built to the same spec as the Hudson 0-6-0WTs. Barclay received an order for 25 when Hudson's couldn't accommodate the order. Coleman pointed out the Belpaire firebox "with a considerable steam space above the water level."

Davies says that the Australian Corps, which operated most of the locomotives in this class, liked them so much they moved the engines when they moved.

According to Davies, only one was known definitely to have survived the war, but others probably did.

Class unknown (Locobase 11376)

Data from Lt Col B W Guppy, "A Technical Description of the British Light Railways in France", Professional Memoirs, Corps of Engineers, United States Army and Engineer Department At Large, Vol. XI, No 55 (January-February 1919), p. 190 and from WJK Davies Light Railways of the First World War (NY;Reprints of Economic Classics, 1968). pp. 140-143. These were built by Hudswell, Clarke, who were subcontractors to Robert Hudson Ltd. Actual number built is a little difficult to determine as most locomotives in the 1918 were not completed. Hudswell Clarke works numbers were 1112-1115, 1186-1187, 1216-1221, 1226-1237, 1256-1261, 1265-1282, 1291-1300, 1318-1319, 1328, 1373-1370. See Locobase 5394 for the Barclay variant.

As can be imagined, Davies' book has much good detail on the whole program of light-railway operation in France. Guppy's article, written very soon after the end of World War One, has much on the US operation of its sections. He describes these as 4-6-0WTs, but all other sources report them as 0-6-0WTs.

They were little engines for the military railways that connected the standard-gauge lines well behind the trenches with a network of 60-cm lines that ventured quite close to the front. This design was smaller than the 4-6-0Ts supplied by Baldwin and Hunslet (see Locobases and ) and had no auxiliary axles. One photograph shows the tall, very slender capped stack, small steam dome on the boiler over the gap between the 2nd and 3rd axles, large cab.

Davies describes them as "straightforward" and "...reduced to the simplest essentials ...they had been specially designed for contractors' work over lightly laid, temporary track with little maintenance and were thus well suited to military light railways ...."(p. 141). He notes that in Europe and in Greece at Salonika, the class proved too small to handle "main-line" trains so they shunted (switched) and pulled short local trains.

Col Guppy's appraisal of the design from an American point of view is less generous. One key failure was the boiler feed, which was of unfamiliar design and likely to fail "... in such a way as to render repairs by the engineer impossible on the road."

They also shared shortcomings with the more familiar WDLR designs, notably the absence of a rocking grate as well as the use of ferrules in the ends of boiler tubes. Guppy concedes " a little reduction in flue leakage", but sternly adds, "...the detriment to the locomotive by the ferreling [sic[ of the tubes more than offset the advantage ...Ferreling the flues means increasing the diameter of the flue opening, allowing a smaller space for the passage of fire box gases, and also offers a greater opportunity for the blocking of flues."