North Eastern 0-6-2 Locomotives in Great_Britain

Class B - compound (Locobase 6986)

Data from Richard Marsden's LNER site -- [] accessed 15 September 2005). See also "Compound Freight Locomotive," National Car & Locomotive, Vol XX, No. 2 (February 1889), p. 18.

First some background: Marsden says these were the first new designs authored by TW Worsdell after he took the helm as Locomotive Superintendent for the NER. In 1886, 10 simple-expansion engines with Joy valve gear went into service (see Locobase 9141). Worsdell built two more 0-6-2Ts for a side-by-side comparison. One was a simple-expansion, the others a von Borries compound with an 18" HP and 26" LP cylinder combination. The compound won the trial and Worsdell produced 50 more engines to that design for a total of 62.

Compounding at a relatively low ratio (2.08 to 1) had its good and bad points. The good lay in the relatively high temperature of the steam entering the LP cylinder. Fuel economy proved decidedly better for the compounds over the earlier 0-6-0s on the longer runs and indeed the compound Bs were better than the simple-expansion variants. Given that the design was aimed at pulling medium-distance freight traffic, the compounds were for a time superior.

The bad was that even with an intercepting valve these engines were hard to get moving. As the Bs were used more and more for local freight "pick-up" traffic with many stops and starts, this was a true liability. In the early 20th Century, TW's brother Wilson converted the Bs to simple expansion. See Locobase 6895.

Class B / N8 (Locobase 6985)

Data from Richard Marsden's LNER site -- [] accessed 15 September 2005). The specifications represent one of the two variants described below. The date shown is the date of the first conversion to the final simple-expansion layout -- the difference is in the cylinder size.

As noted in Locobase 6986, TW Worsdell's brother Wilson converted the compound B radial tanks to simple expansion. Other than 3 that retained the Joy valve gear and used 18" x 24" cylinders, all of the rebuilds used the Stephenson link motion and piston valves. The ones shown in this entry had the advantage of operating on the same crank axle as the compounds because the stroke was the same. 13 were fitted with 26"-stroke cylinders, but were otherwise the same.

Starting in 1915, 37 Bs were superheated. See Locobase 6987 for the subsequent history of this class.

Class B/N8 - superheated (Locobase 6987)

Data from Richard Marsden's LNER site -- [] accessed 15 September 2005).

As noted in Locobase 6985, 37 Bs were superheated from 1915-1927. The resulting boiler had less heating surface area, but the superheat ratio was better than many British small-boilered designs. Wiki

Although the LNER decided in 1930 not to renew superheated boilers that had reached their allotted time, retirements meant that only 15 actually received saturated boilers before they were withdrawn. About half of the N8s (35) remained in 1938 and of these 30 survived into the Nationalization period that began in 1948. Presumably they represented a mixture of superheated and saturated engines, although most or all had continuous-braking systems suitable for passenger service. An N8 working the Tyne Dock was the last to go in October 1956.

Class unknown (Locobase 9141)

Data from Mr Edward Woods, Address to the Institution of Civil Engineers 9 November 1886 (London: ICE, 1886), p. 61

These preceded the Worsdell compounds described in Locobase 6986.