Furness 4-4-2 Locomotives in Great_Britain

Class M1 (Locobase 20420)

Data from "New Tank Engines, Furness Railway", Locomotive Magazine, Volume XXI [21], No 375 (15 July 1915), p. . See also "Furness Railway: locomotive history", [], last accessed 14 January 2017. Kitson works numbers were 5119-5120 and 5172-5173 in 1915. Vulcan Foundry's works numbers 3176-3177 in 1916.

Summer season traffic on the Furness's Lakeside, Coniston and Kendal branches led W F Pettigrew to design a set of six of these Atlantic tanks. Two had the tube count shown in the specs (208 tubes), but the other four held 220 tubes in their boilers. All had taller drivers than the 0-6-0Ts they replaced.

Although designed for the peacetime resort service, they initially hauled the "heavy and intensive workmen's services" around Barrow, where several key defense industries were located.

After 1919, the class began serving the branches for which they had been intended. And, according to steamindex, "These handy little engines could perform without fuss." They scaled Coniston's 1 in 49 gradient (2%) and achieve "a good turn of speed" on the LNWR's line into Lancaster.

They lasted less than a decade in LMS livery, perhaps because their original venue saw falling traffic and they weren't suitable for the LMS. The six were withdrawn in 1930-1932.