The Great Northern Railway Class H4 (classified K3 by the

LNER LNER may refer to: * London and North Eastern Railway, a railway company in the United Kingdom from 1923 until 1947 * London North Eastern Railway, a train operating company in the United Kingdom since 2018 * Liquid neutral earthing resistor, a typ ...

) was a class of

2-6-0 Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, represents the wheel arrangement of two leading wheels on one axle, usually in a leading truck, six powered and coupled driving wheels on three axles and no trailing wheels. ...

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 ...

designed for mixed-traffic work. The type was a more powerful development of the earlier H3 ( LNER K2) class and was notable at the time, as the boilers were the largest fitted to any British locomotive to that date. After formation of 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 ...

, the type became known as class K3 and was adopted as an LNER standard design. They got the nickname "Jazzers" after the rhythm of their exhaust beat and the unbalanced gyratory movement.

Construction

The first ten locomotives were built at the GNR's

Doncaster Works Doncaster Railway Works is a railway workshop located in Doncaster, England. Also referred to as The Plant''", it was established by the Great Northern Railway in 1853, replacing the previous works in Boston and Peterborough. Until 1867 it un ...

in 1920, to the design of

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 ...

. Six further batches were built at Doncaster and

Darlington Works Darlington Works was established in 1863 by the Stockton and Darlington Railway in the town of Darlington in the north east of England. The main part of the works, the North Road Shops was located on the northeast side of the Stockton and Darl ...

Armstrong Whitworth Sir W G Armstrong Whitworth & Co Ltd was a major British manufacturing company of the early years of the 20th century. With headquarters in Elswick, Newcastle upon Tyne, Armstrong Whitworth built armaments, ships, locomotives, automobiles and a ...

Robert Stephenson and Company Robert Stephenson and Company was a locomotive manufacturing company founded in 1823 in Forth Street, Newcastle upon Tyne in England. It was the first company in the world created specifically to build railway engines. Famous early locomotiv ...

and the

North British Locomotive Company The North British Locomotive Company (NBL, NB Loco or North British) was created in 1903 through the merger of three Glasgow locomotive manufacturing companies; Sharp, Stewart and Company (Atlas Works), Neilson, Reid and Company (Hyde Park Wor ...

. The last few of 193 examples were delivered in 1937.

Use

They were excellent mixed-traffic locomotives, although their large size restricted their route availability. In their latter years they were primarily employed on vacuum-fitted freight traffic.

Accidents and incidents

: *On 15 June 1936, locomotive No. 4009 was hauling an express passenger train which was in a rear-end collision at ,

Hertfordshire Hertfordshire ( or ; often abbreviated Herts) is one of the home counties in southern England. It borders Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire to the north, Essex to the east, Greater London to the south, and Buckinghamshire to the west. For govern ...

due to a signalman's error. Fourteen people were killed and 29 were injured. *In July 1936, locomotive No. 2764 was involved in a serious accident at ,

Lincolnshire Lincolnshire (abbreviated Lincs.) is a county in the East Midlands of England, with a long coastline on the North Sea to the east. It borders Norfolk to the south-east, Cambridgeshire to the south, Rutland to the south-west, Leicestershire ...

. *On 8 March 1937, locomotive No. 126 was hauling a passenger train that was derailed at , Lincolnshire due to the condition of the track. *On 25 August 1956, locomotive No. 61846 was hauling an empty stock train which ran away and crashed through the buffers at station,

Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ; abbreviated Yorks), formally known as the County of York, is a Historic counties of England, historic county in northern England and by far the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its large area in comparison with other Eng ...

. The accident was due to the failure to connect the brake pipe between the train and locomotive.

Class K5

In 1945, Edward Thompson rebuilt K3 No. 206 into a two-cylinder engine forming the

LNER Class K5 The London and North Eastern Railway Class K5 consisted of a single rebuild of LNER Class K3 2-6-0 Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, represents the wheel arrangement of two leading wheels on one axle, ...

. No more were so treated, although some later received K5 type boilers.

Numbering

The original ten locomotives were numbered 1000–1009 by the GNR, and became LNER 4000–4009. Those built for the LNER were numbered haphazardly, filling in gaps in the LNER's numbering scheme. In the LNER's 1946 renumbering programme, the K3s and K5 were renumbered 1800–1992, and they later became

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 ...

61800–61992.

Withdrawal

All were withdrawn and scrapped between 1959 and 1962; the K5 went in 1960. None have survived into preservation. Three were kept as stationary boilers until 1965.

Possible Future Revival

None of the original K3's were preserved; however, it was announced in September 2018 that following on from the

LNER Class V4 The London and North Eastern Railway Class V4 was a class of 2-6-2 steam locomotive designed by Sir Nigel Gresley for mixed-traffic use. It was Gresley's last design for the LNER before he died in 1941. The V4s had similarities in their appearanc ...

no 3403 & LNER Class V3 projects where new engines are planned to be built. A new K3 is to be built after these are completed. The number of the engine has not yet been confirmed, but is expected to be a replica of an original engine since the number 61993 was allocated to the

LNER Class K4 The London and North Eastern Railway (LNER) Class K4 is a class of 2-6-0 steam locomotives designed by Nigel Gresley for the steep grades of the West Highland Line. West Highland Line challenge The North British Railway (NBR) West Highla ...

's.https://www.a1steam.com/2018/09/06/v4-design-reaches-pre-launch-stage/ K3 Project to be looked at

References

;Sources * *

External links

LNER encyclopedia
H4 2-6-0 locomotives Armstrong Whitworth locomotives Robert Stephenson and Company locomotives NBL locomotives Railway locomotives introduced in 1920 Scrapped locomotives Standard gauge steam locomotives of Great Britain {{UK-steam-loco-stub Mixed traffic locomotives