Great Eastern 4-4-0 Locomotives in Great_Britain

Class Belpaire Claud D56/D15 (Locobase 9443)

See table on Locomotive Cyclopedia of American Practice, p 506 for data, supplemented by A T Taylor, Modern British Locomotives (London: E & FN Spon, Ltd, 1907), p. 14. See also"D56 Class 4-4-0 1903-1911 (plus rebuilds)" on the Great Eastern Railway Society website at [], last accessed 18 May 2021. See Locobase 2277 for a fuller description of both the Claud Hamilton class locomotive and the performance of which it was capable.

Beginning in December 1903, the GER put a Belpaire-boilered variant of the Claud Hamilton that had more boiler tubes and a slightly larger grate. The firebox didn't quite match the boiler heating surface increase, but the class merited series production nonetheless. They came out of the shops burning only coal after the railway decided to remove the oil burners from the earlier batches.

To sample the effects of superheating on the Claud Hamiltons, Stratford Works delivered two of the last four D56s outfitted wth 18 flues holding 18 element Schmidt superheaters to go with 158 1 3/4" small tubes.. The other two tried out Swindon's 72-element superheater, which bundled six elements into each flue. Although maintenance was said to have been simplified in some respects, the amount of superheat it generated was only moderate.

. The railway adopted Robinson's 18-element version of a basic Schmidt design for later superheater upgrades.

Class Claud Hamilton S46/D14 (Locobase 2277)

See Ahrons (1927) for data; Marsden has slightly lower numbers. See also"D56 Class 4-4-0 1903-1911 (plus rebuilds)" on the Great Eastern Railway Society website at [], last accessed 18 May 2021.

James Holden design (well, Chief Draughtsman Frederick V. Russell actually, because Holden was out of the country) that Hollingsworth (1982) describes as "really superb." He notes that the engines had many advanced features such as the exhaust steam injector and a variable blast pipe as well as a water scoop (for refilling the tender at speed) and a power reversing gear.

Holden's oil burner usefully supplemented the tender's 1 1/2 long ton (1.65 tons) of coal. Before very long, however, the GER started converting this batch to all-coal fuel supply. By the time the 1903 Belpaire Clauds continued the class, their tenders held and burned only coal.

GER Society's assessment also mentions an often-underappreciated (except by the footplate crew) design innovation: "[The] new 4-4-0s had air-operated reversing gear of a type that proved to be one of the most reliable and positive in action." It overlaid the operating gear on the conventional reversing gear, which meant that once set it remained in position and did not `creep', and it could be operated by hand even if there was no air supply available"

Even the sanding gear offered its own benefits. The crew operated it "by a twist sleeve on the regulator handle, and forward or reverse sanding was automatically selected according to the setting of the reversing gear."

As many served for over four decades, changes were inevitable.

Richard Marsden, of [] (27 May 2004) comments "During their days as the prime express locomotives of the GER, the original Clauds could handle a 14-car Norfolk Coast Express non-stop from the Liverpool Street terminus in London to North Walsham. The schedule provided for hauling loads up to 430 tons and running the 130 miles (208km) in 159 minutes, quite an amazing feat for so small a locomotive"

Marsden offers a summary of subclasses from which the following table is drawn:

# 1st remarks LNER class withdrawn

41 1900 original; most refitted with Belpaire fireboxes beginning in 1915.

D14 1931

66 1903 Belpaire firebox D15 1933 See Locobase 9443.

9 others rebuilt

4+70 1911 Superheaters D15/1 1935 Locobase 3119

0+80 1914 Extended smokebox D15/2 1952

10 1923 Super Claud D16/1 1934 Locobase 7470

with larger boiler

0+40 1926 Rebuilt as SuperClaud D16/2 1952

0+104 1933 Splashers off, D16/3 1958

round-top boilers

Class D56/D16 Super Claud (Locobase 3119)

Data from Richard Marsden, LNER Encyclopedia [] (27 May 2004). See also "Four-Coupled Superheater Express Engine, with Top Feed Water Heater, Great Eastern Ry", Locomotive Magazine, Volume 28 (15 November 1922), p. 327.

Locobase 9443 shows the original Belpaire-boiler variant of the very successful James Holden Claud Hamilton design that began with the 1900 round tops described in Locobase 2277.

Beginning in 1911, the Great Eastern began superheating its locomotives. Marsden's D56 entry gave only 155 sq ft (14.4 sq m) for the superheater, but the 1922 LM article reported the 226 sq ft shown in Locobase's specs. The 1922 engines used A J Hill's design of feed water heater, which added "largely to its efficiency and economical working."

Hill's system featured clack boxes on each side of the dome that fed water to shallow trays located in the boiler's steam space and drilled with about 40 1/2" (12.7 mm) holes in each side of the tray. The steam heated the water before it ran down to join the water in the boiler. Another benefit had the solids that came in with the water fall to the bottom of the boiler "in a state of fine mud which is readily washed out in the ordinary way."

In this configuration, the class served "a fair share of the express work" as well as "almost exclusively" handling the "very arduous" run to Southend, "on which they acquit themselves with great credit."

Class G16 (Locobase 2930)

Data from "Locomotives from the Great Eastern Railway," Locomotive Magazine, Volume 18 (15 May 1912), p. 99; E L Ahrons, The British Railway Locomotive, 1825-1925 (London: Locomotive Publishing Company, 1926); supplemented by data from J. Pearson Pattison, British Railways: Their Passenger Services, ... (London: Cassell & Co, 1893), p 73..

Essentially duplicates of the G14 2-4-0s described in Locobase 2998, this class adopted a Worsdell-von Borries two-cylinder compound layout. According to TW Worsdell's successor, James Holden, compounding achieved a 14% savings over similar non-compound engines at 160 psi. When pressure was reduced to 150 psi (10.34 bar), the savings virtually disappeared. Reder (1974, p 187) notes that the von Borries compound design was the only one adopted by the Great Eastern as Worsdell left the GER for the North Eastern in 1885.

After ten years in service, the class was simpled in 1892 to match the G14s' 18 x 24" cylinder volume. Two years later they were fitted with the same boilers as those adopted for eight of the G14s (see Locobase 20064).

Class Ironclads (Locobase 3204)

Data from "Fast Goods Locomotive, Great Eastern Ry," The Locomotive Magazine, Vol IX (12 September 1903)., p.154. Dubs built the first batch (works number 893-902 in 1876) and R & W Hawthorns (works numbers 1705-1714 in 1877).

These were produced by William Adams as outside-cylinder engines that were larger than the run of 4-4-0s then being built in Great Britain. "[B]ut," says Glover (1967), "it is understood they were not a success, and were ultimately relegated to goods work."

Locomotive Magazine later published a history of Great Eastern locomotives that included a description of the Ironclads (Volume XVI, 15 November 1910, p. 239). Almost everything matched the earlier article except for the boiler having 177 1 7/8" tubes and a tube evaporative heating surface of 1,009 sq ft.

Adams would have better luck on the London & South Western.

Class T19 / D13 rebuilds - saturated (Locobase 10564)

Data from "Rebuilt GER Locomotive," The Locomotive Magazine, Volume XII [12] (14 July 1906), p. 110.

Class T19 rebuilds/ D13 - superheate (Locobase 7476)

See Ahrons (1927) and Glover (1967) for data. Designed by James Holden, these engines originally had a 3-ring boiler that was later reduced to 2 rings; diameter was 52". Earlier engines were pressed to 140 psi.

Ahrons notes that at 5 1/2" in diameter, the steam pipe allowed the steam chests to maintain higher pressure at higher speeds. Glover summarizes their "look" : "With their stove-pipe chimneys, neat but adequate cabs and their effective finish in blue, set off by scarlet coupling rods, they presented a characteristic appearance which marked Great Eastern productions until the end of the century."

Another 90 identical engines were completed with 68"-diameter drivers for general passenger traffic.

Some in this class were rebuilt as 4-4-0s in 1902; see Locobase 7475. and called Humpty Dumpties. According to specifications on a tinted lithograph of the time, the result was a larger boiler and firebox (1,476 sq ft of heating surface, 117 3/4 sq ft of which was Belpaire firebox heating surface), higher boiler pressure (180 psi). Driver diameter was reduced to 78".

Class unknown (Locobase 2989)

First inside-cylinder, inside-frame 4-4-0s in England with a unique splasher cutout that framed the hubs with a curved edge. Designed by SW Johnson, these engines were delivered with 100-sq ft iron fireboxes that were replaced two years later with copper one.