London & North Western 2-4-2 Locomotives in Great_Britain

Class 4'6" Tank (Locobase 2171)

Data from "LNWR 4ft 6in Tank Class" in Wikipedia at[]; and W A Tuplin, The Steam Locomotive: Its Form and Function (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1974); and "London Suburban Tank Engines", Railway World, Volume IV [4], No 2 (February 1895), p. 46.

Crewe supplied 180 new locomotives plus another 40 to replace 2-4-0Ts.

A slightly larger version of the 2-4-0T. According to Wikipedia, the usual designation refers to the driver diameter at the wheel centers..Assigned to local passenger trains,

the class, the engines served for decades. In 1895, Railway World's account testified to their suitability by first reporting an apparent liability: "The smallness of the driving wheels makes them smaller than the Fowler's [sic], " the author conceded, "but they are handy engines and ofent run fast local trains on the main line."

In 1902, six of the class went to Ireland's Dublin, Wicklow & Wexlow Railway, fitting their wheels on longer axles to run on the 5 ft 3 in (1,600 mm) gauge, taking the names of Irish earls and road numbers 59-64. Their suburban line ran 12.5 miles (20.1 km) from Harcourt to Bray. The crews reportedly disliked the sextet, preferring instead their earlier locomotives.

By 1913, 59-63 had been sidetracked and thus available to return to England in 1916, whre they regained their standard-gauge spread.

Wikipedia traces the 64's unusual later career: "During the Irish Civil War it carried additional steel plating, carried the name Faugh a Ballagh (Clear the way) and was used to draw an armoured train." Its users belonged to the "Pro-Treaty" faction that supported the agreement to form an Irish Free State that would enjoy the same relationship with the British Empire as Australia or Canada. (Strong objections led to an extension of fighting and a series of votes that the Pro-treaty side finally won led to grudging acceptance.)

Most of the class were outfitted as"push-pull"by installing a second set of locomotive operation controls in dedicated rail cars; so equipped they were termed "Motor Tanks". The first such conversion entered service in 1909.

Wirral Railway bought four in 1913. These were absorbed by the London, Midland & Scottish in the 1923 Grouping. Cardiff Railway's lone 4ft 6 in tank arrived in Wales in 1914. It later took a Great Western number.

90 of the original 220 went into the LMS, but only 37 ever took the numbers reserved for the class. Sales for scrap began in 1924 and were completed in 1936.

The last of these ran until 1935.