The Great Northern Railway 521 Class was a class of

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 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, introduced in 1911. They were designed by Henry Ivatt for goods traffic. From 1912 to 1922 further examples, slightly modified by

Nigel Gresley Sir Herbert Nigel Gresley (19 June 1876 – 5 April 1941) was a British railway engineer. He was one of Britain's most famous steam locomotive engineers, who rose to become Chief Mechanical Engineer (CME) of the London and North Eastern Rai ...

, were built and designated 536 Class. The most obvious difference was in the front sandboxes. These were below the running plate on the 521 but above it, and merged with the front

splashers A footplate provides the structure on which a locomotive driver and fireman stand in the cab to operate a British or continental European steam locomotive. It comprises a large metal plate that rests on top of the locomotive frame, usually it is c ...

, on the 536. The boiler and firebox were also moved back, thus resulting in a shortened cab. 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 ...

classified them both as J6. Initially, there was to be 120 members of this class. However, an order of ten was canceled so that Doncaster Works could build ten of Gresley's N2 Class

0-6-2 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 two trailing wheels on one axle. The type is sometimes known a ...

Tanks, which shared the same cylinders, boilers, valve gear, and piston valves as the J6s. The J6s had

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 and

piston valves Piston valves are one form of valve used to control the flow of steam within a steam engine or locomotive. They control the admission of steam into the cylinders and its subsequent exhausting, enabling a locomotive to move under its own power ...

operated by Stephenson valve gear. The class earned the nickname "Knick-Knacks" due to the sound made by the locomotives when steam was shut off.

Operational history

Under GNR ownership, the fast goods work of the 521s and 536s was short-lived, as the arrival of the H2 Class Moguls in 1913 saw the class reassigned to lighter goods and occasional passenger traffic. The class was also used on coal trains between Colwick and Hornsey. All survived into LNER ownership in 1923, being reclassified as J6s. The LNER put the class to good use, with about twenty locomotives being allocated to the former Great Central network in 1923. These worked alongside the J10 Class and the J11 Class "Pom-Poms", with common duties for them being beer trains out of Burton, heavy coal trains, and excursions along the Lincolnshire coast. On multiple occasions, the class would go as fast as 66 mph (106.22 km/h). This is what led to them also being used on timed cross-country passenger trains from Grantham to Derby via Nottingham. Seven members of the class were reallocated to the North East during World War II. This was to replace the forty J25s that were temporarily reallocated to the

Great Western Railway The Great Western Railway (GWR) was a British railway company that linked London with the southwest, west and West Midlands of England and most of Wales. It was founded in 1833, received its enabling Act of Parliament on 31 August 1835 and ran ...

. Some would also be temporarily based at Haymarket and around Newcastle.

BR Days

All 110 locomotives passed to

British Rail 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 ...

ways in 1948 and had 60000 added to their numbers. The arrival of the Thompson L1 Class Adriatic Tanks led to the J6s being taken off the Grantham to Derby services. Other than that, their jobs remained more or less the same. As a result of the 1955 Modernisation Plan, the J6s were withdrawn between 1955 and 1962, the last stand of the class being in the West Riding. All members of this class were scrapped.

Modelling

Detail drawings and scale model kits are available from some suppliers.

Sources

External links

LNER Encyclopedia

Class J6 Details
at ''Rail UK''
GNR/LNER Ivatt "J6" Class 0-6-0
at BRDatabase {{LNER Locomotives 521 0-6-0 locomotives Railway locomotives introduced in 1911 Scrapped locomotives Standard gauge steam locomotives of Great Britain Freight locomotives