LNER 4-4-0 Locomotives in Great_Britain

Class B6/D12 (Locobase 20078)

Data from Richard Marsden's LNER Encyclopedia

Locobase 1094 shows the original Charles Sacre design. After Sacre's retirement, the class was relegated to secondary service. Richard Marsden reports that the class received new boilers late in the 19th Century. As outlined in the specifications, the new vessels contained more tubes of smaller diameter.

Marsden adds " After 1900, by which time the MS&L had been acquired by the Great Central, John G Robinson fitted longer smokeboxes and the standard Robinson chimney. The original iron buffer beams were replaced with steel buffer beams at about this time.

Twelve of the 27 were numbered by the LNER in 1923, but all had been retired by 1930.

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Class D16/3 - Gresley Rebuild (Locobase 7471)

Data from Richard Marsden's [] (accessed 1 March 2006; and "D16/3:1933 Gresley modernization" in Steamindex at [], last accessed 21 September 2022.

Locobase 7470 describes the last new-construction engines in the Claud Hamilton line that began in 1900. Of interest in this last go-round was the wholesale substitution of a round-topped firebox for the Belpaire design that had distinguished Clauds since 1903. Marsden doesn't say why Gresley deemed this change necessary; perhaps it was to allow a larger superheater. Twenty of the rebuilds featured piston valves - 10 measured 8" (203 mm) in diameter, 10 spanned 9 1/2" (241 mm); these saw an adhesion weight increase to 81,648 lb (36 ton 6 cwt or 37,035 kg) and all-up weight of 125,216 lb (55 tons 18 cwt or 56,797 kg).

Steamindex summarizes R H N Hardy's discussion of this rebuild (pp.40-44 in his Go East, young man! autobiography): "[N] otes on the involvement of Edward Thompson, Albert English and L.P. Parker in the development of the D16/3 with long travel, long lap piston valves using J39 cylinders and motion parts (at Gresley's insistence: KPJ once again showing Gresley's true approach to standardisation). Later locomotives retained some of the Stratford motion parts."

The upgrade -- known as the Gresley Rebuild -- produced a still more powerful engine, particularly in its piston-valve form. So much greater was the motive force, however, that the front frames weren't equal to the task and began cracking. It was these piston-valve engines that went out of service first in 1945.

But the relatively large class of Clauds continued in service into the Nationalisation Era, which saw 117 (14 D15, 103 D16). BR staged a withdrawal from service for these surviving engines beginning in 1955 which ended in September 1960.

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Class D54 (Locobase 8349)

Data from Richard Marsden's LNER Encyclopedia -- [], last accessed 11 April 2007.

The Midland & Great Northern Joint Railway bought 40 Eight-wheelers in five years in the late 1890s; see Locobase 8348. Over time, the railway began to update its engines. After two were rebuilt with the round-topped H class boiler in 1908, eight of them received the Midland standard G7 boiler in 1909-1916, a larger vessel pressed to a higher psi and fitted with a Belpaire firebox. (The two H-class engines received G7 boilers in 1924-1925.)

The D54's larger grate and boiler meant more steam and they took on the expresses. They didn't operate much beyond the time the M & GNJ was absorbed by the LNER in October 1936. The last of the 10 was retired in 1943.

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Class D7 (Locobase 8439)

Data from Richard Marsden's LNER Encyclopedia entry at [], last accessed 7 January 2013.

Designed by Thomas Parker and described in its original form in Locobase 20754. Marsden reports in his description of the LNER era that the 1890 straight boiler was replaced by one with a Belpaire firebox in 1909. The boiler shown in Marsden's entry had 43 fewer boiler tubes than the 233 in the 1890 engine.

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Class Shire/D49 (Locobase 3120)

Data from Richard Marsden's LNER Encyclopedia ([], (accessed 20 May 2006). For a full description of Paxman's promotion and production of Lentz gear for British and overseas customers, see "Lentz Valves for Locomotives" on Richard Carr's Paxman History Pages at [], last accessed 9 August 2021.

Designed by Nigel Gresley, these engines used the conjugated swing lever to operate the inside valve from the outside Walschaert motion. These eight-wheelers operated at relatively benign pressures, although the demand on the relatively small boiler was typically high.

According to [], the first batch of 28, (D49/1) produced in 1927-1929, had piston valves. These had "Shire" names as did six more D49/3s, which were delivered with the Lentz poppet valves driven by Walschaerts gear -- these were converted to piston valves like the D49/1s in 1938. 42 D49/2s with "Hunts" names had Lentz poppet valves and a rotary cam valve gear; these entered service between 1929-1935. Also see Richard HN Hardy (see Locobase 2314 for a discussion of this photographer and his extensive collection of LNER images; see [], accessed 8 May 2006) emphasizes the class's reputation for rough-riding: "...a bone-shaking engine if ever there was one." Those fed by Walschaerts gear using a 2:1 lever were "reasonably popular and stronger than the Hunts (49/2) with Lentz poppet valve gear."

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Class Super Claud/D16 (Locobase 7470)

Data from Richard Marsden's [] (accessed 1 March 2006.

Locobase 2277 and 3119 detail the first two versions of this long-running and quite successful 4-4-0 design from the Great Eastern. In the mid-1920s, just before Grouping, the GER enlarged the boiler, which allowed for a larger superheater as well. This new variant - the Super Claud - appeared as a new-construction batch of 10 and rebuilds of 29 D15 Belpaire Clauds classified as D16/2. Like the latter, they had the Belpaire firebox and extended smokebox and, like all Claud Hamiltons, these had the variable blastpipe.

Many were rebuilt once more as the round-topped D16s; see Locobase 7471.