LNER Class U1
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LNER Class U1
The London and North Eastern Railway Class U1 was a solitary Beyer-Garratt locomotive designed for banking coal trains over the Worsborough Bank, a steeply graded line in South Yorkshire and part of the Woodhead Route. It was both the longest and the most powerful steam locomotive ever to run in Britain. It was built in 1925 with the motion at each end being based on an existing 2-8-0 design. The original number was 2395, and it was renumbered 9999 in March 1946, and then 69999 after nationalisation in 1948, although it retained its cab-side plate bearing its original number throughout its life. The locomotive ran for some time as an oil burner, and was tried out on the Lickey Incline in 1949–1950 and again, after the electrification of its home line, in 1955. These trials were unsuccessful, and so the locomotive was withdrawn in 1955 and scrapped. Origins The Worsborough Bank, sometimes referred to as the Worsborough Incline, was a steep bank on the Great Central Railway (G ...
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Photographic Grey
Photographic grey, also known as works grey, was a paint scheme commonly applied to steam locomotives during the period before colour photography became commonplace. It was applied to allow sharper, more detailed images of the locomotive to be recorded. The first photographs of railways and their locomotives were made by private individuals, but by the 1860s the railway companies themselves were keen to create official photographs of the highest quality possible of their latest designs, which led to the adoption of photographic grey in railway photography. Use Railway companies wished to record their latest locomotives for use in publicity material and advertisements, and as a technical record of their work. This was especially the case in the United Kingdom, where all but the smallest of the 'pre-grouping' companies owned their own locomotive works and designed and built their own railway engines. For the numerous private locomotive builders it was especially important to hav ...
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Railway Correspondence And Travel Society
The Railway Correspondence and Travel Society (RCTS) is a national society founded in Cheltenham, England in 1928 to bring together those interested in rail transport and locomotives. Since 1929 the Society has published a regular journal ''The Railway Observer'' which records the current railway scene. It also has regional branches which organise meetings and trips to places of interest and an archive & library. It has published definitive multi-volume locomotive histories of the Great Western, Southern and London & North Eastern Railways, and has in progress similar works on the London, Midland & Scottish Railway and British Railways standard steam locomotives. It also has published many other historical railway books since the mid-1950s. On 2 November 2016, the RCTS become a Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO), registered number 1169995. Its new Archive and Library (located within the former station-master's house at Leatherhead station) was opened on 6 October 20 ...
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Assisting Engine
A bank engine (United Kingdom/Australia) (colloquially a banker), banking engine, helper engine or pusher engine (North America) is a railway locomotive that temporarily assists a train that requires additional power or traction to climb a gradient (or ''bank''). Helpers/bankers are most commonly found in mountain divisions (called "helper districts" in the United States), where the ruling grade may demand the use of substantially greater motive power than that required for other grades within the division. Historic practice Helpers/bankers were most widely used during the age of steam, especially in the American West, where significant grades are common and trains are long. The development of advanced braking systems and diesel-electric or electric locomotives has eliminated the everyday need for bankers/helpers in all but a few locations. With the advent of dynamic brakes on electric or diesel-electric locomotives, helpers/bankers can also be used to provide more braking fo ...
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Mexborough Engine Shed
Mexborough engine shed was an engine shed in Swinton, in South Yorkshire, England. It was built by the Great Central Railway and opened in 1875. The shed was built slightly to the west of the current Mexborough station on land between the River Don and the River Don Navigation. It had 15 dead end roads, and could handle about 150 steam locomotives, mainly for use on freight trains. The London and North Eastern Railway operated the shed from 1923. In 1948, on the formation of British Railways Eastern Region, Mexborough bore the shed code 36B, then 41F from 1958. It closed in February 1964. Most of the locomotives stabled at Mexborough were used for hauling coal trains. The coal originated from the many collieries in the South Yorkshire coalfield and wagons of coal were despatched to locations all over the country. However, the main destinations were the industries and power stations in Lancashire. With the opening of the Wath marshalling yard in 1907, Mexborough supplied l ...
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Stockton & Darlington Railway
The Stockton and Darlington Railway (S&DR) was a railway company that operated in north-east England from 1825 to 1863. The world's first public railway to use steam locomotives, its first line connected coal mining, collieries near Shildon with Darlington and Stockton-on-Tees in County Durham, and was officially opened on 27 September 1825. The movement of coal to ships rapidly became a lucrative business, and the line was soon extended to a new port at Middlesbrough. While coal waggons were hauled by steam locomotives from the start, passengers were carried in coaches drawn by horses until carriages hauled by steam locomotives were introduced in 1833. The S&DR was involved in the building of the East Coast Main Line between York and Darlington, but its main expansion was at Middlesbrough Docks and west into Weardale and east to Redcar. It suffered severe financial difficulties at the end of the 1840s and was nearly taken over by the York, Newcastle and Berwick Railway, be ...
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GNR Class O2
The Great Northern Railway (GNR) Class O2 was a class of three-cylinder 2-8-0 steam locomotives designed by Nigel Gresley for freight work and built by the GNR from 1921. Further examples were built by the London and North Eastern Railway (LNER) from 1924. Sub-classes The LNER created four subclasses: Ian Allan ABC of British Railways Locomotives, summer 1961 edition, part 4, pp 37–38 * O2/1, Introduced 1921. Development of experimental Gresley GNR 3-cylinder locomotive (LNER 3921). Subsequently rebuilt with side-window cab and reduced boiler mountings. * O2/2, Introduced 1924. Development of O2/1 with detail differences. * O2/3, Introduced 1932. Development of O2/2 with side-window cab and reduced boiler mountings. * O2/4, Introduced 1943. Rebuilt with 100A ( B1 type) boiler and smokebox extended backwards. GNR The first models of this class were designed and built under GNR ownership, the first locomotive, 461, was built in May 1918. A batch of ten further O2s was built by ...
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Chief Mechanical Engineer
Chief mechanical engineer and locomotive superintendent are titles applied by British, Australian, and New Zealand railway companies to the person ultimately responsible to the board of the company for the building and maintaining of the locomotives and rolling stock. In Britain, the post of ''locomotive superintendent'' was introduced in the late 1830s, and ''chief mechanical engineer'' in 1886. Emerging professional roles In the early Victorian era, projected canal or railway schemes were prepared by groups of promoters who hired specialists such as civil engineers, surveyors, architects or contractors to survey a route; and this resulted in the issue of a prospectus setting out their proposals. Provided that adequate capital could be raised from potential investors, agreements obtained from the landowners along the proposed route and, in Britain, an Act of Parliament obtained (different terminology is used in other countries), then construction might begin either by a new compa ...
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Railways Act 1921
The Railways Act 1921 (c. 55), also known as the Grouping Act, was an Act of Parliament enacted by the British government and intended to stem the losses being made by many of the country's 120 railway companies, by "grouping" them into four large companies dubbed the " Big Four". This was intended to move the railways away from internal competition, and retain some of the benefits which the country had derived from a government-controlled railway during and after the Great War of 1914–1918. The provisions of the Act took effect from the start of 1923. History The British railway system had been built up by more than a hundred railway companies, large and small, and often, particularly locally, in competition with each other. The parallel railways of the East Midlands and the rivalry between the South Eastern Railway and the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway at Hastings were two examples of such local competition. During the First World War the railways were under st ...
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LNER Class O4
The London and North Eastern Railway (LNER) Class O4 initially consisted of the 131 ex-Great Central Railway (GCR) Class 8K 2-8-0 steam locomotives acquired on grouping in 1923. The engines were designed by John G. Robinson and built at the GCR's Gorton Locomotive Works, Manchester. O4 History post 1923 The O4s were added to when the LNER purchased 273 ex-Railway Operating Division ROD 2-8-0s to the same design between 1923 and 1927. Meanwhile, the 19 GCR Class 8M (LNER Class O5) were rebuilt as O4 standard during the 1920s and 1930s. 92 O4 locomotives were requisitioned by the War Department during World War II and shipped during late 1941 for operation in the Middle East. The O4 class were used to haul heavy freight trains throughout the LNER system. 329 engines remained in operation at 1 January 1948. Sub-classes The LNER rebuilt many, allotting them into eight subclasses. Sub-class details:Ian Allan ABC of British Railways Locomotives, summer 1961 edition, part 4, pp 36- ...
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Garratt
A Garratt (often referred to as a Beyer Garratt) is a type of steam locomotive invented by British engineer Herbert William Garratt that is articulated into three parts. Its boiler, firebox, and cab are mounted on a centre frame or "bridge". The two other parts, one at each end, have a pivot to support the central frame; they consist of a steam engine unit – with driving wheels, trailing wheels, valve gear, and cylinders, and above it, fuel and/or water storage. Articulation permits locomotives to negotiate curves that might restrict large rigid-framed locomotives. The design also provides more driving wheels per unit of locomotive weight, permitting operation on lightly engineered track. Garratt locomotives produced as much as twice the power output of the largest conventional locomotives of railways that introduced them, reducing the need for multiple locomotives and crews. Advantages of the Garratt concept The principal benefit of the Garratt design is that the boil ...
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Kitson And Company
Kitson and Company was a locomotive manufacturer based in Hunslet, Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. Early history The company was started in 1835 by James Kitson (businessman), James Kitson at the Airedale Foundry, off Pearson Street, Hunslet, with Charles Todd as a partner. Todd had been apprenticed to Matthew Murray at the Round Foundry in Holbeck, Leeds. Initially, the firm made parts for other builders, until it was joined in 1838 by David Laird, a wealthy farmer who was looking for investments, and the company became Todd, Kitson and Laird. That year saw the production of the company's first complete locomotives, either for the North Midland Railway, North Midland or the Liverpool and Manchester Railway. However, Todd left almost immediately to form Railway Foundry, Shepherd and Todd, and the company was known variously as Kitson and Laird or Laird and Kitson. The order for six engines by the Liverpool and Manchester began with ''LMR 57 Lion, Lion'', which still exists. A ...
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