The

Furness Railway The Furness Railway (Furness) was a railway company operating in the Furness area of Lancashire in North West England. History Formation In the early 1840s, the owners of iron ore mines in the Furness district of Lancashire became interested i ...

94 class (unofficially classified L4 by Bob Rush), or "Improved Cleator Tanks", were built to haul mineral trains from inland to the

blast furnace A blast furnace is a type of metallurgical furnace used for smelting to produce industrial metals, generally pig iron, but also others such as lead or copper. ''Blast'' refers to the combustion air being "forced" or supplied above atmospheric ...

s on the coast around Workington.

Variations

The first two locos, numbers 94 & 95 were fitted with

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 e ...

superheater A superheater is a device used to convert saturated steam or wet steam into superheated steam or dry steam. Superheated steam is used in steam turbines for electricity generation, steam engines, and in processes such as steam reforming. There ar ...

s, with the smokebox extended to accommodate this and the chimney set far forward. The apparatus was obviously unsuccessful, as a subsequent order for a further two locos, numbers 92 and 93 omitted this, having instead an extended boiler with the frames being extended to accommodate.

Use

The locomotives operated on the northern part of the Furness Railway, particularly on the tracks of the

Whitehaven, Cleator and Egremont Railway The Whitehaven, Cleator and Egremont Railway was an English railway company which built and operated a standard gauge railway in Cumberland, England intended to open up the hematite orefield to the south-east of Whitehaven. It opened for go ...

and the

Cleator & Workington Junction Railway The Cleator & Workington Junction Railway (C&WJR) was located in West Cumberland in Northern England, serving the towns of Cleator Moor and Workington and intermediate villages. It was mainly used for coal, limestone and iron ore traffic for t ...

in the Cleator and Frizington areas. Here they hauled trains of Haemetite Ore over the steep and sharply curved lines linking the mines to the coast.

Numbering

By 1923 and the grouping of the FR into the

London, Midland and Scottish Railway The London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMSIt has been argued that the initials LMSR should be used to be consistent with LNER, GWR and SR. The London, Midland and Scottish Railway's corporate image used LMS, and this is what is generally u ...

all four engines were still in service, and received the LMS numbers 11641–11644. The locos were withdrawn between 1929 and 1934.

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Furness Railway 094 class 094 0-6-2T locomotives Kitson locomotives Railway locomotives introduced in 1912 Scrapped locomotives Standard gauge steam locomotives of Great Britain Freight locomotives