The GER Class G69 was a class of twenty steam locomotives built by for the Great Eastern Railway by

S. D. Holden Stephen Dewar Holden (23 August 1870 – 7 February 1918) was a British engineer, the son of the engineer James Holden and succeeded his father as locomotive superintendent of the Great Eastern Railway in 1908, a post he held until his retirem ...

in 1911–12 following the design of two rebuilt examples of the

GER Class M15 The GER Class M15 was a class of 160 steam locomotives designed by Thomas William Worsdell and built for the Great Eastern Railway between 1884 and 1909. The original (F4) class of locomotives were fitted with Joy valve gear which was notorious ...

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

1923 grouping 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 la ...

and received the classification F6.

History

These locomotives were fitted with cylinders and wheels. They were the final development of the GER's radial ) tank locomotive. Being intended for London suburban service, they were built with condensing gear, and Westinghouse air brakes. All were still in service at the

, the LNER adding 7000 to the numbers of nearly all the ex-Great Eastern locomotives, including the Class G69 locomotives. The LNER added vacuum ejectors to all but one locomotive in 1927; the one exception being fitted in 1929. They also removed the condensing apparatus between 1936 and 1938. On 1 January 1923 the whole class was allocated to Stratford Engine Shed and were employed on suburban traffic in East London on the lines out of Fenchurch Street and Liverpool Street.

789 and 790

Two of the GER M15 rebuilds, numbers 789 and 790, were given Class G69 cabs. This resulted in them being incorrectly classified, which affected their route availability. When the GER was amalgamated into the LNER in 1923 they were classified F6 (instead of F5). It wasn't until 22 December 1948 that the "twins", now numbered 67218 and 7219 respectively, were correctly reclassified into the F5 category. 7219 received her British Railways number in November 1949 after a general repair at Stratford.

British Railways

At Nationalisation in 1948,

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 ...

added 60000 to their LNER numbers. They all continued in service until 1955, when the first was withdrawn; all were gone by May 1958 and none survived into preservation.

New-build Project

As none of the F4s, F5s or F6s were preserved, The Holden F5 Steam Locomotive Trust is recreating GER number 789 from the beginning. As of November 2019 the frame plates, buffer beams, machined cylinder block, motion bracket, star stay, tank supports and buffer beams are awaiting assembly at

Tyseley Locomotive Works Tyseley Locomotive Works, formerly the Birmingham Railway Museum, is the engineering arm of steam railtour promoter Vintage Trains based in Birmingham, England. It occupies part of the former Great Western Railway's Tyseley depot, built in 19 ...

. All wheels castings have been financed with delivery anticipated before the end of January 2020. When completed, 789 is set to appear as the original locomotive did when rebuilt in 1912. Features include the high-arched G69-style cab, Ramsbottom safety valves, condensing gear, and the smaller (6/6.5 inch) Westinghouse air brake pump.

References

External links

* * * {{LNER Locomotives G69 2-4-2T locomotives Railway locomotives introduced in 1911 Condensing steam locomotives Scrapped locomotives Standard gauge steam locomotives of Great Britain Passenger locomotives