The GER Class F48 was a class of sixty

0-6-0 Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, represents the wheel arrangement of no leading wheels, six powered and coupled driving wheels on three axles and no trailing wheels. This was the most common wheel arrangemen ...

steam Steam is a substance containing water in the gas phase, and sometimes also an aerosol of liquid water droplets, or air. This may occur due to evaporation or due to boiling, where heat is applied until water reaches the enthalpy of vaporization ...

tender locomotive A tender or coal-car (US only) is a special rail vehicle hauled by a steam locomotive containing its fuel (wood, coal, oil or torrefied biomass) and water. Steam locomotives consume large quantities of water compared to the quantity of fuel, so ...

s designed by James Holden for the

Great Eastern Railway The Great Eastern Railway (GER) was a pre-grouping British railway company, whose main line linked London Liverpool Street to Norwich and which had other lines through East Anglia. The company was grouped into the London and North Eastern R ...

in Great Britain. They passed to the

London and North Eastern Railway The London and North Eastern Railway (LNER) was the second largest (after LMS) of the " Big Four" railway companies created by the Railways Act 1921 in Britain. It operated from 1 January 1923 until nationalisation on 1 January 1948. At th ...

at the

grouping Grouping may refer to: * Muenchian grouping * Principles of grouping * Railways Act 1921, also known as Grouping Act, a reorganisation of the British railway system * Grouping (firearms), the pattern of multiple shots from a sidearm See also ...

in 1923 and received the LNER classification J16.

History

The F48 class, of which there were sixty, were built between 1900 and 1903 at

Stratford Works Stratford Works was the locomotive-building works of the Great Eastern Railway situated at Stratford, London, England. The original site of the works was located in the 'V' between the Great Eastern Main Line and the Stratford to Lea Bridge rou ...

, and had round-top fireboxes of the same type as used on the Class S46 ''Claud Hamilton'' 4-4-0s. No. 1189 was built instead with a

Belpaire firebox The Belpaire firebox is a type of firebox used on steam locomotives. It was invented by Alfred Belpaire of Belgium in 1864. Today it generally refers to the shape of the outer shell of the firebox which is approximately flat at the top and squa ...

, being the first Great Eastern locomotive to be so fitted. This was done as a comparative experiment against the regular round-top firebox. The experiment was a success and a further thirty locomotives constructed later were fitted with

es and termed the G58 class.

Reboilering

From 1921, all the round-top boilers were replaced by the Belpaire type, the majority being

superheated 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 are ...

. Sixteen had been reboilered by the Great Eastern before the grouping of 1923. The remaining forty-three were reboilered by the London and North Eastern Railway and were re-classified J17. All had been dealt with by 1932, whereupon the Class J16 ceased to exist.

Blastpipes

At first

Macallan 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 th ...

s were fitted, but later the Stone's variable blastpipe was substituted.

Plain 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 th ...

s were substituted between 1924 and 1929.

LNER ownership

The former Class F48 locomotives were renumbered 5500–5559 in the LNER's 1946 renumbering scheme. The exception was 8200, which had been damaged beyond repair in a

V-2 The V-2 (german: Vergeltungswaffe 2, lit=Retaliation Weapon 2), with the technical name ''Aggregat 4'' (A-4), was the world’s first long-range guided ballistic missile. The missile, powered by a liquid-propellant rocket engine, was developed ...

attack in November 1944.

BR ownership

All the remaining locomotives passed to

British Railways British Railways (BR), which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was a state-owned company that operated most of the overground rail transport in Great Britain from 1948 to 1997. It was formed from the nationalisation of the Big Four British rai ...

in 1948, and had 60000 added to their number. They were withdrawn between 1953 and 1962.

Table of orders and numbers

References

External links

— Great Eastern Railway Society
The Holden J16 & J17 (GER Classes F48 & G58) 0-6-0 Locomotives
— LNER Encyclopedia {{DEFAULTSORT:Ger Class F48 Great Eastern Railway locomotives, F48 0-6-0 locomotives Railway locomotives introduced in 1900 Standard gauge steam locomotives of Great Britain Freight locomotives