The

London, Midland and Scottish Railway The London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMSIt has been argued that the initials LMSR should be used to be consistent with LNER, GWR and SR. The London, Midland and Scottish Railway's corporate image used LMS, and this is what is generally u ...

Fowler Class 7F was a class of 0-8-0

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. They were a Midlandised version of the

London and North Western Railway The London and North Western Railway (LNWR, L&NWR) was a British railway company between 1846 and 1922. In the late 19th century, the L&NWR was the largest joint stock company in the United Kingdom. In 1923, it became a constituent of the Lo ...

(LNWR) Class G2 and Class G2A

0-8-0 Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, represents the wheel arrangement of no leading wheels, eight powered and coupled driving wheels on four axles and no trailing wheels. Locomotives of this type are also referre ...

s. They were also classified as Class G3 under the former LNWR system. The class were sometimes known as ''Baby Austins'', or ''

Austin 7 The Austin 7 is an economy car that was produced from 1923 until 1939 in the United Kingdom by Austin. It was nicknamed the "Baby Austin" and was at that time one of the most popular cars produced for the British market and sold well abroad. ...

s'', after a motor car that was becoming popular at the time.

Overview

Mirfield eastbound empties geograph-2785124-by-Ben-Brooksbank

It featured 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 ...

and increased boiler pressure over its predecessor but had the same power rating of 7F. Unfortunately the design had been done at the old Midlands Railway's

Derby Works The Derby Works comprised a number of British manufacturing facilities designing and building locomotives and rolling stock in Derby, England. The first of these was a group of three maintenance sheds opened around 1840 behind Derby station. Th ...

and the drawing office staff insisted on using Midland practice. Among other things this meant that the

axle An axle or axletree is a central shaft for a rotating wheel or gear. On wheeled vehicles, the axle may be fixed to the wheels, rotating with them, or fixed to the vehicle, with the wheels rotating around the axle. In the former case, bearing ...

bearings were too small for the loads they had to carry. E.S. Cox, writing in a series of articles in Trains Illustrated c. 1957, suggests that they had a sufficiently modern and effective front end that, for steady slogging, some drivers preferred them to an

LMS Stanier Class 8F The London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMS) Stanier Class 8F is a class of steam locomotives designed for hauling heavy freight. 852 were built between 1935 and 1946 (not all to LMS order), as a freight version of William Stanier's successful ...

. However, this also meant that, with bearings comparable to an

LMS Fowler Class 4F The London Midland and Scottish Railway (LMS) Fowler Class 4F is a class of 0-6-0 steam locomotive designed for medium freight work. They represent the ultimate development of Midland Railway's six coupled tender engines. Many trainspotters kne ...

and already inadequate for the lower powered engine, the bearings broke up rapidly.

Numbering

Equipment

Numbers 9672–74 were fitted with

ACFI feedwater heater A feedwater heater is a power plant component used to pre-heat water delivered to a steam generating boiler. Preheating the feedwater reduces the irreversibilities involved in steam generation and therefore improves the thermodynamic efficiency of ...

s when built but these were removed during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. After the war, five were briefly converted to oil burning.

British Railways

All members of the class entered

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 ...

ownership in 1948, but 122 had been withdrawn by the end of 1951; fifty were withdrawn without receiving their BR number. They had a fairly short life, and all were withdrawn and scrapped between 1949 and 1962, some time before the final G2s were withdrawn in 1964.

Accidents and incidents

*On 13 March 1935, a milk train was in a rear-end collision with an express freight train at

King's Langley Kings Langley is a village, former manor and civil parish in Hertfordshire, England, north-west of Westminster in the historic centre of London and to the south of the Chiltern Hills. It now forms part of the London commuter belt. The village ...

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. Another freight train collided with the wreckage. Locomotive No. 9598 was hauling a coal train that ran into the wreckage. One person was killed. *On 14 May 1948, a locomotive of the class was hauling a freight train that ran away and was in collision with an empty stock train at

Battyeford Battyeford is a village in West Yorkshire, England west of the town of Mirfield. History From 1900 to 1953 the village was served by Battyeford railway station on the Leeds New Line. Governance The village is part of the civil parish of Mirfi ...

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 ...

Withdrawal

All engines were withdrawn between 1949 and 1962.

References

*Ian Allan ABC of British Railways Locomotives, summer 1961 edition, part 3, page 52 *

External links

Class 7F-B Details
at ''Rail UK''
1935 photo from the late Alan Whitehead collection
{{LMS Locomotives 7 Class 7F 0-8-0 0-8-0 locomotives Railway locomotives introduced in 1929 Freight locomotives Scrapped locomotives Standard gauge steam locomotives of Great Britain D h2 locomotives