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 ...

(GER) Class G14 was a class of

2-4-0 Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, represents the wheel arrangement of two leading wheels on one axle, four powered and coupled driving wheels on two axles and no trailing wheels. The notation 2-4-0T indi ...

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 locomot ...

s. The Class G14 was designed by

Thomas William Worsdell Thomas William Worsdell (14 January 1838 – 28 June 1916) was an English locomotive engineer. He was born in Liverpool into a Quaker family. Family T. W. Worsdell – normally known as William – was the eldest son of Nathaniel Worsdell (180 ...

for the express service from

London London is the capital and 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 down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

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 See of Norwich, with ...

, the first locomotive produced while he was superintendent. A total of 20 were built, 562–564 in late 1882 and the rest in 1883.

Details

The locomotive was designed for the Great Eastern Railway's London to Norwich route on which the frequent sharp curves between London and Cambridge necessitated that the wheelbase not be entirely rigid, so a radial axle box was fitted to the front wheels giving 1 1/2 inches of side motion each way controlled by a horizontal elliptical spring. It used Joy valve gear, with the valves placed on top of the cylinders, allowing them to be brought closer together allowing larger cylinders and longer bearings, the Joy valve motion having the benefit of not requiring space on the crankshaft for eccentrics. The locomotives were numbered 562 to 571, and 640 to 649, 20 in total.

Accidents/Incidents

In Swaffham on 31 January 1894 G14 number 567 managed to either run across the turntable, or reverse out of it instead of moving forward, and crashed through the buffer stops and down a steep bank tender first. The locomotive fortunately being saved by the tender which jammed between the rear of the locomotive and the road below that separated the engine yard from Northwell Pool.

References

{{Great Eastern Railway locomotives, state=expand 2-4-0 locomotives G14 Railway locomotives introduced in 1882 Standard gauge steam locomotives of Great Britain Scrapped locomotives