The GER Class C32 was a class of fifty steam locomotives designed by James Holden and built by the company's

Stratford Works Stratford Works was the locomotive-building works of the Great Eastern Railway situated at Stratford, London, England. The original site of the works was located in the 'V' between the Great Eastern Main Line and the Stratford to Lea Bridge rou ...

between 1892 and 1902. They all passed to 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 ...

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 F3.

History

These locomotives were fitted with cylinders and diameter driving wheels. They were a tank engine version of the T26 class s, albeit with a shorter coupled wheelbase. They shared the same type of boiler as that class, as well as the N31 and later Y14 class s. They were intended for use on long-distance stopping services, and so they were all initially fitted with

Westinghouse air brake The Westinghouse Air Brake Company (sometimes nicknamed or abbreviated WABCO although this was also confusingly used for spinoffs) was founded on September 28, 1869 by George Westinghouse in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Earlier in the year he had i ...

equipment. The R33 and D53 batches had been fitted with condensing equipment from new, but the LNER gradually removed them from all but one locomotive, the exception being an early retirement. All had survived to pass to the LNER in 1923; the first retirement started in 1936 when 8090 was withdrawn. Thirty-seven locomotives lasted long enough to be renumbered in the 1946 scheme; fifteen of them became the property of

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 ...

in 1948, but only three of them lasted long enough to receive their BR number.

References

Sources

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Further material

* {{LNER Locomotives C32 2-4-2T locomotives Railway locomotives introduced in 1893 Scrapped locomotives Standard gauge steam locomotives of Great Britain Condensing steam locomotives Passenger locomotives