Great Northern 4-4-0 Locomotives in Great_Britain

Class 1326 (Locobase 9922)

Data from Henley's Encyclop'dia of Practical Engineering and Allied Trades: A ... By Joseph Gregory Horner (London: N W Henley, 1907), p 132 and George Frederick Bird, The Locomotives of the Great Northern Railway 1847-1910 (London: Locomotive Publishing Company, 1910), p. 157-159. Doncaster's works numbers were 785-786, 792-795, 798-801, 852-861.

This HA Ivatt design was identical to the first five locomotives shown in Locobase 2258. All of the dimensions seemed right in the first quintet, but operations demonstrated that the smokebox was too small. So Ivatt came up with the 3 ft 5 1/2" long smokebox (ten inches longer than the unit on the 1321) that would be standard equipment on this class. Sixty-five engines entered service over an 11-year period.

The biggest visual difference was the raised running board over the drivers, which allowed bystanders to see the coupling rod throughout its revolution.

Twenty-three were eventually fitted with an 18-element Robinson superheater.

Class D1 - 1911 (Locobase 8932)

Data from "Superheater Passenger Locomotive, Great Northern Railway," The Locomotive, Volume 17, No 229 (15 August 1911), p. 176.

Class D1 / D2 (Locobase 2258)

Data from Henley's Encyclop'dia of Practical Engineering and Allied Trades: A ... By Joseph Gregory Horner (London: N W Henley, 1907), p 132.

HA Ivatt design built between 1898-1909. It followed the D2s and adopted a larger boiler that was heated by a larger firebox. After the first 5 locomotives demonstrated that the smokebox was too small, Ivatt came up with the 3 ft 5 1/2" long smokebox that would be standard equipment on this class; see Locobase 9921.

Nigel Gresley rebuilt 49 D1s as D3 Some were taken into the LNER as class D2. 23 of these would later receive superheated boilers beginning in 1928.

Class D2 / D4 (Locobase 8931)

Data from Richard Marsden's LNER Encyclopedia ([], accessed 25 November 2007) and George Frederick Bird, The Locomotives of the Great Northern Railway 1847-1910 (London: Locomotive Publishing Company, 1910), p. 147-152

These Eight-wheelers (Doncaster works #712, 723-732) were derived from Patrick Stirling's 2-4-0 but saw the substitution of a swing-link bogie for the radial truck and used a larger boiler. Bird comments that these were Ivatt's first bogie engines for the GNR and they featured a steam dome on a 2-section boiler (vs the 3 used by Stirling).

Some of the more minute details illustrate how much effort went into stabilizing the boiler of a typical steam locomotive of modest size. Boiler plate measured 9/16" in thickness, the stack was of cast iron and the firebox of copper, the latter having side and back plates of 9/16" thickness and a tube plate that was 3/4" thick. The firebox and casing were stayed with 665 7/8" copper stays. The buffer beams were steel.