The Standard class 6, otherwise known as the ''Clan'' Class, was a class of
4-6-2 ''Pacific'' tender
Tender may refer to:
Entertainment Film
* ''Illegal Tender'' (2007), a film directed by Franc. Reyes
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* ''Tender'' (2019), a sh ...
steam locomotive
A steam locomotive is a locomotive that provides the force to move itself and other vehicles by means of the expansion of steam. It is fuelled by burning combustible material (usually coal, oil or, rarely, wood) to heat water in the loco ...
designed by
Robert Riddles
Robert Arthur "Robin" Riddles, CBE, MIMechE, MinstLE (23 May 1892 – 18 June 1983) was a British locomotive engineer.
Biography LNWR and LMS
Riddles was born in 1892 and entered the Crewe Works of the London and North Western Railway as a pre ...
for use by
British Railways. Ten locomotives were constructed between 1951 and 1952, with a further 15 planned for construction. However, due to acute steel shortages in Britain, the order was continually postponed until it was finally cancelled on the publication of the
1955 Modernisation Plan
Events January
* January 3 – José Ramón Guizado becomes president of Panama.
* January 17 – , the first Nuclear marine propulsion, nuclear-powered submarine, puts to sea for the first time, from Groton, Connecticut.
* January 18� ...
for the re-equipment of British Railways. All of the original locomotives were scrapped, but a new one was being built.
The ''Clan'' Class was based upon the
''Britannia'' Class design, incorporating a smaller
boiler
A boiler is a closed vessel in which fluid (generally water) is heated. The fluid does not necessarily boil. The heated or vaporized fluid exits the boiler for use in various processes or heating applications, including water heating, centr ...
and various weight-saving measures to increase the
route availability of a ''Pacific''-type locomotive for its intended area of operations, the west of
Scotland
Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to th ...
. The ''Clan'' Class received a mixed reception from crews, with those regularly operating the locomotives giving favourable reports as regards performance. However, trials in other areas of the British Railways network returned negative feedback, a common complaint being that difficulty in steaming the locomotive made it hard to adhere to timetables. Reports exist that suggest a degree of the disappointment with these locomotives was attributable to their being allocated to Class 7 work where they were only a Class 6 in reality; a problem put down to their very similar appearance to the BR Standard Class 7.
Some of the ''Clan'' Class locomotives took their names from the
Highland Railway Clan Class
The Highland Railway's Clan Class was a class of passenger 4-6-0 steam locomotives designed by Christopher Cumming. The design is derived from that of the slightly earlier Clan Goods although the similarity is more visual than real. The firs ...
which was being withdrawn from service at the time, indicating further their intended area of operations.
The class was ultimately deemed a failure by British Railways, and the last was withdrawn in 1966. None survived into preservation, although a project to build the next locomotive in line, number
72010 ''Hengist'', is progressing. Assembly of the frames has commenced at CTL Seal, Sheffield.
Background
Under the initial scheme for the creation of a series of British Railways standard locomotives, larger passenger and mixed traffic types were intended to be of the 4-6-2 ''Pacific'' wheel arrangement, the main advantage of which was that it could be fitted with a wide
firebox
Firebox may refer to:
*Firebox (steam engine), the area where the fuel is burned in a steam engine
*Firebox (architecture), the part of a fireplace where fuel is combusted
* Firebox Records, a Finnish 8101705801record label
*Firebox.com, an electro ...
capable of burning a range of coal types (and qualities). The ''Pacifics'' were originally intended to be produced in four power groups: 8, 7, 6, and 5, according to the system of power ratings inherited from the
LMS LMS may refer to:
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* Labeled magnitude scale, a scaling technique
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* Lenz ...
constituent company. Power groups 7, 6 & 5 were to be for mixed traffic (MT) service. The whole standardisation programme was launched with the building of the
7MT Britannia design in 1951; in the event, the 5MT proposal was dropped in favour of an updated version of the highly successful
Stanier mixed traffic 4-6-0.
[Haresnape, Brian: ''Loco profile no. 12: BR Britannias'', p. 270]
It was further appreciated that a ''Pacific'' of 6MT power could be built with a high enough route availability to fulfil all remaining requirements; this had been amply demonstrated by
Oliver Bulleid
Oliver Vaughan Snell Bulleid CBE (19 September 1882 – 25 April 1970) was a British railway and mechanical engineer best known as the Chief Mechanical Engineer (CME) of the Southern Railway between 1937 and the 1948 nationalisation, ...
,
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 locomotiv ...
of the
Southern Railway, who had developed a lighter version of his large 3-cylinder
''Merchant Navy'' Class in 1945. H.A.V. Bulleid, Oliver Bulleid's son, advocated that the resultant
''Light Pacifics'' had "almost 90%" route availability on the Southern railway network.
The advantages of such a locomotive for use on some of the heavily restricted main lines in Scotland, such as the
Dumfries to
Stranraer line, had been further demonstrated by the remarkable performance of ''Light Pacific'' number 34004 ''Yeovil'' on the ex
Highland Railway
The Highland Railway (HR) was one of the smaller British railways before the Railways Act 1921, operating north of Perth railway station in Scotland and serving the farthest north of Britain. Based in Inverness, the company was formed by mer ...
line to
Inverness
Inverness (; from the gd, Inbhir Nis , meaning "Mouth of the River Ness"; sco, Innerness) is a city in the Scottish Highlands. It is the administrative centre for The Highland Council and is regarded as the capital of the Highlands. Histo ...
during the British Railways
1948 Locomotive Exchange Trials
The 1948 Locomotive Exchange Trials were organised by the newly nationalised British Railways (BR). Locomotives from the former "Big Four" constituent companies ( GWR, LMS, LNER, SR) were transferred to and worked on other regions. Officiall ...
. During these trials the locomotive showed that a ''Light Pacific'' had the potential to revolutionise the timetable over this difficult trunk route. As the general policy of the Railway Executive was to eliminate as far as possible the perceived complication of multi-
cylinder
A cylinder (from ) has traditionally been a three-dimensional solid, one of the most basic of curvilinear geometric shapes. In elementary geometry, it is considered a prism with a circle as its base.
A cylinder may also be defined as an infi ...
locomotives, an equivalent 2-cylinder ''Pacific'' was produced by mounting a smaller and lighter boiler on the standard 7MT chassis.
[Haresnape, Brian: ''Loco profile no. 12: BR Britannias'', p. 271]
Design details

The arrangement consisted of a modified Standard Class 7 boiler, with smaller steel cylinders and other modifications to save weight and hence increase route availability.
The wider firebox, designed for use with cheaper imported coal, was also utilised to spread its weight evenly over the
axles
An axle or axletree is a central shaft for a rotating wheel or gear. On wheeled vehicles, the axle may be fixed to the wheels, rotating with them, or fixed to the vehicle, with the wheels rotating around the axle. In the former case, bearing ...
, whilst the standard
smokebox
A smokebox is one of the major basic parts of a steam locomotive exhaust system. Smoke and hot gases pass from the firebox through tubes where they pass heat to the surrounding water in the boiler. The smoke then enters the smokebox, and is ...
completed the boiler, which at 225 lbf/in² was rated at a lower working pressure than that of the ''Britannias''.
A single chimney was incorporated into the design, although this was to create problems later on, due to its small diameter, which reduced the choke area that allowed the fierce exhaust blast to escape, reducing the overall efficiency of the locomotive. Similarities with the ''Britannias'' rested with the frames, tenders and running gear, allowing easy standardisation of parts common with other classes.
The design was fitted with a standard set of two
Walschaerts valve gear
The Walschaerts valve gear is a type of valve gear used to regulate the flow of steam to the pistons in steam locomotives, invented by Belgium, Belgian railway mechanical engineering, engineer Egide Walschaerts in 1844.
The gear is sometimes name ...
systems, and all members of the class were equipped with 4,200 gallon BR 1 tenders.
Following experience of occasional cracks appearing in the frame plates near the spring brackets, had the second batch of Class 6 Standard Pacifics been built, the chassis would have been rearranged to be similar to that used on the solitary Class 8 Pacific. This would have resulted in the locomotive riding on three cast steel Combined Frame Stretcher & Spring Brackets carrying the 10 front-most spring brackets and lengthened spring brackets behind the rear driven axle. These Combined Frame Stretcher & Spring Brackets are often referred to as "sub-frames". (Perhaps remarkably, the rearmost spring brackets were not to be integrated into a single cast combined sub-frame/pony truck pivot stretcher. The pony truck pivot stretcher being a separate fabrication).
Unlike the smaller BR Standards the exhaust steam manifold within the smokebox saddle (along with the BR Standard Class 7 engines) was a steel casting that was welded into the saddle. Other original drawings confirm the exhaust steam manifold was a steel fabrication in the smaller BR standards.
Construction history
Designed at the drawing offices of
Derby Works
The Derby Works comprised a number of British manufacturing facilities designing and building locomotives and rolling stock in Derby, England. The first of these was a group of three maintenance sheds opened around 1840 behind Derby station. Th ...
, the new class was constructed at British Railways'
Crewe Works
Crewe Works is a British railway engineering facility located in the town of Crewe, Cheshire. The works, which was originally opened by the Grand Junction Railway in 1840, employed around 7,000 to 8,000 workers at its peak. In the 1980s, a lo ...
between 1951 and 1952.
[Cox, E. S.: ''British Railways Standard Locomotives'', p. 61] The initial order was for 25 locomotives, but such was the immediacy of demand regarding a smaller version of the ''Britannias'' that a batch of 10 was rushed through construction before teething problems had been ironed out at the British Railways testing station at
Rugby
Rugby may refer to:
Sport
* Rugby football in many forms:
** Rugby league: 13 players per side
*** Masters Rugby League
*** Mod league
*** Rugby league nines
*** Rugby league sevens
*** Touch (sport)
*** Wheelchair rugby league
** Rugby union: 1 ...
.
[Clarke, David: ''Riddles Class 6/7 Standard Pacifics'', p. 80] No more were constructed due to the steel shortages of the 1950s, and onset of the British Railways
Modernisation Plan from 1954.
Initial modifications
After initial running-in, E.S.Cox was quoted as discerning a distinct "woolliness" in their steaming, and although they missed their appointment at the
Rugby Locomotive Testing Station
The Rugby Locomotive Testing Station was a British railway testing plant in Rugby, Warwickshire. Originally envisioned by Sir Nigel Gresley as a joint LMS- LNER operation, construction was started in the late 1930s but then deferred by the war. ...
due to late completion, some modifications were carried out, most notably to the diameter of the
blastpipe The blastpipe is part of the exhaust system of a steam locomotive that discharges exhaust steam from the cylinders into the smokebox beneath the chimney in order to increase the draught through the fire.
History
The primacy of discovery of the ...
, resulting in better steaming and increased power.
[Cox, E. S.: ''British Railways Standard Locomotives'', p. 64] Initially, the return cranks on the main driving wheels were of
LNER LNER may refer to:
*London and North Eastern Railway, a railway company in the United Kingdom from 1923 until 1947
*London North Eastern Railway
London North Eastern Railway (LNER) is a British train operating company. It is owned by the D ...
block-type as seen on
Arthur Peppercorn
Arthur Henry Peppercorn, (29 January 1889 – 3 March 1951) was an English railway engineer, and was the last Chief Mechanical Engineer (CME) of the London and North Eastern Railway.
Career
Arthur Peppercorn was born in Leominster in 1889 ...
's
A1s and
A2s, but this was changed to the simpler
LMS LMS may refer to:
Science and technology
* Labeled magnitude scale, a scaling technique
* Learning management system, education software
* Least mean squares filter, producing least mean square error
* Leiomyosarcoma, a rare form of cancer
* Lenz ...
four-stud fitting. With time, enough information was gathered from operational feedback from crews to allow modifications to be applied to the further 15 locomotives on order in the second batch, had they been built.
Naming the locomotives
The choice of locomotive names came from engineer and future railway historian Ernest Stewart Cox's desire to replicate the extinct Ex-
Highland Railway
The Highland Railway (HR) was one of the smaller British railways before the Railways Act 1921, operating north of Perth railway station in Scotland and serving the farthest north of Britain. Based in Inverness, the company was formed by mer ...
4-6-0 ''Clan'' Class,(the last example being withdrawn in January 1950), thereby representing Scotland in the new organisation.
[Cox, E. S.: ''British Railways Standard Locomotives'', p. 62] The first of the class, No. 72000 ''Clan Buchanan'', was treated to a special ceremony at
Glasgow Central station
, symbol_location = gb
, symbol = rail
, image = Main Concourse at Glasgow Central Station.JPG
, caption = The main concourse
, borough = Glasgow, City of Glasgow
, country ...
on 15 January 1952 at which the
Lord Provost unveiled its nameplates. Five of these names had previously been used on Highland Railway locomotives.
The first five of the planned second batch of 15 locomotives were intended for use on BR's
Southern Region; these were allocated names ''Hengist'', ''Horsa'', ''Canute'', ''Wildfire'' and ''Firebrand'', which had all been previously used on locomotives in southern England. The following ten were to be allocated to Scotland and were allocated further "Clan" names, all of which were new.
Operational details
The ''Clan Class'' had a mixed reception when first introduced to British Railways locomotive crews because there were only 10 locomotives in a class that was mostly confined to the North West of the railway network. This was due to the fact the low number of class members prevented effective training of locomotive crews throughout the nationalised network, and a degree of partisanship amongst crews towards newer locomotives further ensured this. The entire class was also based predominantly at two depots throughout their working lives, these being
Glasgow
Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated pop ...
Polmadie
Polmadie (; gd, Poll Mac Dè, lit=Son of God pool) is a primarily industrial area of Glasgow in Scotland. Situated south of the River Clyde, Polmadie is close to residential neighbourhoods including Govanhill (to the west) and Toryglen (south- ...
and
Carlisle
Carlisle ( , ; from xcb, Caer Luel) is a city that lies within the Northern English county of Cumbria, south of the Scottish border at the confluence of the rivers Eden, Caldew and Petteril. It is the administrative centre of the City ...
Kingmoor, compounding their restricted circulation. However, factors such as these meant that they spent most of their short careers out of the limelight that the ''Britannias'' had, resulting in a relatively camera shy class of locomotive. Crews that used them on regular duties displayed their liking for the locomotives, and as such, could produce good work. However, the predominant number of crews who were unfamiliar with the ''Clans'' found them difficult to handle, leading to an undeservedly bad reputation.
The poor steaming characteristics of the class had been the result of rushed production, which was another factor that led to the bad reputation of the ''Clan'' Class.
[Farr, Keith: ' 'Clans' Highland and Lowland', pp. 722–723] Furthermore, they suffered from complaints regarding a lack of pulling power, although this can be attributed to indifferent handling and firing techniques, which certainly did not help the situation.
However, had the
Modernisation Plan been delayed, and the correct amount of investment made for undertaking the relevant modifications, such as streamlining of the steam passages and increased diameter
blastpipe The blastpipe is part of the exhaust system of a steam locomotive that discharges exhaust steam from the cylinders into the smokebox beneath the chimney in order to increase the draught through the fire.
History
The primacy of discovery of the ...
in a double-chimney layout, the ''Clans'' would have been free-steaming workhorses worthy of complementing the ''Britannias''.
[Farr, Keith: ' 'Clans' Highland and Lowland', p. 718] Without modification, they were still capable machines when handled properly, as various feats testifying this included regular ascents of
Shap
Shap is a linear village and civil parish located among fells and isolated dales in Eden district, Cumbria, England, in the historic county of Westmorland. The parish had a population of 1,221 in 2001, increasing slightly to 1,264 at the 201 ...
and
Beattock
Beattock is a village in Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland, approximately southwest of Moffat and north of Dumfries.
Beattock was historically served by the A74 road and the West Coast Main Line, however the road has since been upgraded to the ...
with 14
carriages
A carriage is a private four-wheeled vehicle for people and is most commonly horse-drawn. Second-hand private carriages were common public transport, the equivalent of modern cars used as taxis. Carriage suspensions are by leather strapping ...
without the assistance of a
banking locomotive
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 gradi ...
. Other arduous duties that the class frequently undertook were the regular turns on the
Settle to Carlisle route, which has some of the steepest gradients and harshest working conditions of any British mainline. The Midland region was always short of top-link motive power and the ''Clan'' Class proved to be a very welcome addition to the fleet.
The engines also performed on Glasgow–
Crewe
Crewe () is a railway town and civil parish in the unitary authority of Cheshire East in Cheshire, England. The Crewe built-up area had a total population of 75,556 in 2011, which also covers parts of the adjacent civil parishes of Willaston ...
,
Manchester
Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of City of Salford, Salford to ...
and
Liverpool
Liverpool is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the List of English districts by population, 10th largest English district by population and its E ...
services,
Edinburgh
Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...
–
Leeds
Leeds () is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds district in West Yorkshire, England. It is built around the River Aire and is in the eastern foothills of the Pennines. It is also the thi ...
services, Carlisle–
Bradford services, and finally the
Stranraer Boat Train workings.
[Barnes, Robin: 'Salute to the Scottish standard - Part 2', pp. 286–287] As more crews got used to them, the class could be found far from home territory at destinations as diverse as
Aberdeen
Aberdeen (; sco, Aiberdeen ; gd, Obar Dheathain ; la, Aberdonia) is a city in North East Scotland, and is the third most populous city in the country. Aberdeen is one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas (as Aberdeen City), ...
,
Inverness
Inverness (; from the gd, Inbhir Nis , meaning "Mouth of the River Ness"; sco, Innerness) is a city in the Scottish Highlands. It is the administrative centre for The Highland Council and is regarded as the capital of the Highlands. Histo ...
,
Port Talbot
Port Talbot (, ) is a town and community in the county borough of Neath Port Talbot, Wales, situated on the east side of Swansea Bay, approximately from Swansea. The Port Talbot Steelworks covers a large area of land which dominates the sout ...
,
Newcastle upon Tyne
Newcastle upon Tyne ( RP: , ), or simply Newcastle, is a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England. The city is located on the River Tyne's northern bank and forms the largest part of the Tyneside built-up area. Newcastle is a ...
,
Bristol
Bristol () is a city, ceremonial county and unitary authority in England. Situated on the River Avon, it is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Gloucestershire to the north and Somerset to the south. Bristol is the most populous city i ...
, and even
London
London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
.
''Clan'' number 72001 to this day remains the only Pacific locomotive to have worked over the
West Highland Line
The West Highland Line ( gd, Rathad Iarainn nan Eilean - "Iron Road to the Isles") is a railway line linking the ports of Mallaig and Oban in the Scottish Highlands to Glasgow in Central Scotland. The line was voted the top rail journey in the ...
, the result of a successful trial held in early 1956 to ascertain whether a Pacific type could traverse this steeply graded line.
[Farr, Keith: ' 'Clans' Highland and Lowland', pp. 714–723] Having passed that test, a tribute to the versatility of the class, ''Clan Cameron'' was allowed to work special trains for the
Clan Cameron
Clan Cameron is a West Highland Scottish clan, with one main branch Lochiel, and numerous cadet branches. The Clan Cameron lands are in Lochaber and within their lands lies Ben Nevis which is the highest mountain in the British Isles. The Ch ...
gathering that took place in June of that year.
[Farr, Keith: ' 'Clans' Highland and Lowland', pp. 719–720]
In August 1958, number 72009 was tested on the
Eastern Region Eastern Region or East Region may refer to:
* Eastern Region (Abu Dhabi): Al Ain
*Eastern Region, Ghana
*Eastern Region (Iceland)
*Eastern Region, Nepal
*Eastern Region, Nigeria
* Eastern Region, Serbia
* Eastern Region, Uganda
* Eastern Region of ...
, being based at
Stratford
Stratford may refer to:
Places Australia
* Stratford, Queensland, a suburb of Cairns
* Stratford, Victoria, a town in the state district of Gippsland East
** Stratford railway station, Victoria, a railway station on the Bairnsdale railway line in ...
MPD, though a preference for the ''Britannias'' meant that this sojourn was short-lived, lasting only a month. The locomotive was utilised on services from London
Liverpool Street to
Norwich
Norwich () is a cathedral city and district of Norfolk, England, of which it is the county town. Norwich is by the River Wensum, about north-east of London, north of Ipswich and east of Peterborough. As the seat of the Episcopal see, See of ...
,
Clacton, and
Harwich
Harwich is a town in Essex, England, and one of the Haven ports on the North Sea coast. It is in the Tendring district. Nearby places include Felixstowe to the north-east, Ipswich to the north-west, Colchester to the south-west and Clacton- ...
.
['Experimental use of the ''Clan'' Class on the Liverpool Street-Clacton service', p. 218] At first they were mistakenly allocated Class 7 duties, in which the ''Clans'', although capable, were not able to keep to their allotted timings.
This was part of the trials for the West Highland Line services mentioned earlier, but the locomotive was rejected for such duties on the grounds that they were "no better than a good
B1".
The result of these trials was that as both Standard Class 7 and 8 locomotives were moved north in 1961 after
dieselisation
Dieselisation (US: dieselization) is the process of equipping vehicles with a diesel engine or diesel engines. It can involve replacing an internal combustion engine powered by petrol (gasoline) fuel with an engine powered by diesel fuel, as o ...
started in earnest, the ''Clans'' were downgraded to secondary work. Maintenance was initially undertaken at Crewe Works, but responsibility was transferred to
Cowlairs
Cowlairs is an area in the Scottish city of Glasgow, part of the wider Springburn district of the city. It is situated north of the River Clyde, between central Springburn to the east and Possilpark to the west.
Administratively, in the 21st cen ...
Works in the spring of 1958.
[Barnes, Robin: 'Salute to the Scottish Standard - Part 1', pp. 235–241] More varied work was allocated to them as their reliability improved, including working portions of the ''Thames-Clyde Express'' and the ''Queen of Scots Pullman''. They also deputised for the many failed
diesel locomotives
A diesel locomotive is a type of railway locomotive in which the prime mover is a diesel engine. Several types of diesel locomotives have been developed, differing mainly in the means by which mechanical power is conveyed to the driving whee ...
that plagued the network at the time, and were extensively used on
freight
Cargo consists of bulk goods conveyed by water, air, or land. In economics, freight is cargo that is transported at a freight rate for commercial gain. ''Cargo'' was originally a shipload but now covers all types of freight, including trans ...
workings.
Most Scottish and Midland region crews that used them regularly took to the class, and found that if used properly, running times were kept with ease.
These crews rated them the most sure-footed of any ''Pacifics'' available on the Midland Region, though other crews who tested them claimed that the ''Clans'' were prone to
slipping
Slipping is a technique used in boxing that is similar to bobbing. It is considered one of the four basic defensive strategies, along with blocking, holding, and clinching. It is performed by moving the head to either side so that the opponent' ...
, though this was the case with most ''Pacific'' designs.
[Barnes, Robin: 'Salute to the Scottish Standard - Part 2', pp. 288–290] Despite the various successes of the ''Clans'', the class was generally regarded as a failure, even with overall performance being just short of Riddles' aims.
[Barnes, Robin: 'Salute to the Scottish Standard - Part 1', pp.236–237] However, the premise of all British Railways Standard designs was for a hard working, easily maintained, economical, highly available, and all-purpose locomotive. In these respects, the ''Clans'' were highly successful.
[Barnes, Robin: 'Salute to the Scottish Standard - Part 2', p. 290]
Proposed second batch and withdrawal
Prior to the publishing of the
Modernisation Plan advocating the change-over to diesel traction, there was a proposal to construct a second batch of the ''Clan'' Class, which was accepted as Crewe Works Order Lot 242. This authorised the construction of a further batch of fifteen ''Clans'' that included modifications to the original design.
Originally scheduled for 1952 with frames constructed for 72010 ''Hengist'', acute steel shortages meant that the order was continually rescheduled until the publication of the British Railways Modernisation Plan finally halted the project. The initial name allocations for the new batch would seem to suggest several operating the
Kent
Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...
coast trains, hauling the
Golden Arrow and other expresses, so that some of this batch would have been allocated to the Southern Region.
['"CLANS" for the Southern' (Trains Illustrated), p. 406]
The first locomotives to be withdrawn from service were the Polmadie locos 72000-72004 en masse in December 1962, where after being moved first to Glasgow Parkhead and stored, they were eventually moved to
Darlington
Darlington is a market town in the Borough of Darlington, County Durham, England. The River Skerne flows through the town; it is a tributary of the River Tees. The Tees itself flows south of the town.
In the 19th century, Darlington under ...
for scrapping in 1964.
Of the Kingmoor allocation, the first, number 72005, was withdrawn in April 1965, whilst the final loco was 72008 on 21 May 1966 from Carlisle Kingmoor shed.
When No 72008 ''Clan MacLeod'' was finally scrapped in August 1966, it rendered the class extinct. Though this locomotive served British Railways for only fourteen years and three months, it was the longest serving ''Clan''.
[Clarke, David: ''Riddles Class 6/7 Standard Pacifics'', p.84]
Livery and numbering
The livery of the ''Clans'' was a continuation of the standard British Railways
Brunswick green
Spring green is a color that was traditionally considered to be on the yellow side of green, but in modern computer systems based on the RGB color model is halfway between cyan and green on the color wheel.
The modern spring green, when plot ...
applied to express passenger locomotives after
nationalisation, lined in orange and black. The class was given the
power classification
A number of different numbering and classification schemes were used for the locomotives owned by the London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMS) and its constituent companies; this page explains the principal systems that were used.
The followi ...
6P.
[Clarke, David: ''Riddles Class 6/7 Standard Pacifics'', pp. 82–83] Following on from the ''Britannias'', the ''Clans'' were numbered under the British Railways standard numbering system in the 72xxx series.
[Clarke, David: ''Riddles Class 6/7 Standard Pacifics'', p. 82] The locomotives were numbered between 72000 and 72009, and featured brass nameplates with a black background, located on the smoke deflectors, though towards the end of their working lives, some nameplates were painted with a red background.
[Clarke, David: ''Riddles Class 6/7 Standard Pacifics'', p. 84]
Preservation
None of the original engines survived into preservation, however progress is being made by a Registered Charity (No. 1062320), the Standard Steam Locomotive Company, on constructing a new locomotive that would have been the first of the uncompleted batch of 15, number
72010 ''Hengist''. As 999
BR standard steam locomotives were built in the years up to 1960 the builders consider this is the 1000th locomotive build to be commenced to a British Railways standard design.
The Standard Steam Locomotive Company believes that significant costs will be avoided as many of the required cast parts can be made from patterns held by fellow members of the
British Railways Standard Locomotive Owners Group (BRSLOG).
See also
*
List of BR 'Clan' Class locomotives
Footnotes
References
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
External links
72010 ''Hengist'' Official WebsiteClass CLAN Detailsat ''Rail UK''
* http://www.tower-models.com/towermodels/ogauge/djh/k308/
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6
4-6-2 locomotives
Railway locomotives introduced in 1951
Scrapped locomotives
2′C1′ h2 locomotives
Standard gauge steam locomotives of Great Britain
Mixed traffic locomotives