The NBR A Class (

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 ...

(LNER) Classes N14 and N15 were the standard

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 ...

tank locomotive A tank locomotive or tank engine is a steam locomotive that carries its water in one or more on-board water tanks, instead of a more traditional tender. Most tank engines also have bunkers (or fuel tanks) to hold fuel; in a tender-tank locom ...

s designed by

William P. Reid William Paton Reid, Commander of the Order of the British Empire, CBE (8 September 1854 – 2 February 1932) was apprenticed to the Cowlairs railway works of the North British Railway in 1879 and was Chief Mechanical Engineer, Locomotive Superin ...

for freight duties on the

North British Railway The North British Railway was a British railway company, based in Edinburgh, Scotland. It was established in 1844, with the intention of linking with English railways at Berwick. The line opened in 1846, and from the outset the company followe ...

. The LNER regarded the original locomotives as two separate classes (N14 & N15). The final batch of locomotives was on order at the time of the grouping in 1923.

History

N14 Class

The original six locomotive introduced in 1909 and had inside cylinders 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 Stephenson valve gear or Stephenson link or shifting link is a simple design of valve gear that was widely used throughout the world for various kinds of steam engines. It is named after Robert Stephenson but was invented by his employees. ...

, and weighed . They were built by 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 ...

and numbered 858-863. They were withdrawn 1947-1954.

N15/1 Class

Fifty three similar locomotives were built by the North British Locomotive Company between June 1910 March 1917 with longer cabs but shorter bunkers. They were fitted with

Steam brake A steam brake is a type of brake for steam locomotives and their tenders, whereby a steam cylinder works directly on the brake linkages. Steam brakes were primarily used on railways where vacuum brakes were used to brake the train, but where th ...

s and used on Freight duties. A further batch of ten locomotives was built by North British Locomotive Company in February and March 1920. A third batch of ten was on order from

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 ...

when the North British Railway became a constituent of the LNER. They were delivered between January and March 1923. They weighed and were numbered to fill gaps in the sequence between 20 and 926. Two of these locomotives were later fitted with Westinghouse brakes in 1929 and were re-classified N15/2. The remainder were withdrawn between 1957 and 1962.

N15/2 Class

Six N15/1 locomotives were built by the North British Locomotive Company with Westinghouse brakes in 1910. They were used to

bank A bank is a financial institution that accepts deposits from the public and creates a demand deposit while simultaneously making loans. Lending activities can be directly performed by the bank or indirectly through capital markets. Because ...

passenger trains up the 1 in 42

Cowlairs Cowlairs is an area in the Scottish city of Glasgow, part of the wider Springburn district of the city. It is situated north of the River Clyde, between central Springburn to the east and Possilpark to the west. Administratively, in the 21st ce ...

incline leading from

Glasgow Queen Street railway station Glasgow Queen Street ( gd, Sràid na Banrighinn) is a passenger railway terminus serving the city centre of Glasgow, Scotland. It is the smaller of the city's two mainline railway terminals (the larger being Glasgow Central station, Glasgow Central ...

. Prior to 1910 trains had been rope hauled by a

stationary engine A stationary engine is an engine whose framework does not move. They are used to drive immobile equipment, such as pumps, generators, mills or factory machinery, or cable cars. The term usually refers to large immobile reciprocating engines, pr ...

. A further two N15/1 were converted to N15/2 in 1929. They weighed and were numbered to fill gaps in the sequence between 7 and 282 and were withdrawn between 1957 and 1962.

References

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External links

NBR/LNER Reid "N14" Class 0-6-2T
at ''BRDatabase''
NBR/LNER Reid "N15" Class 0-6-2T
at ''BRDatabase'' {{LNER Locomotives A 0-6-2T locomotives Railway locomotives introduced in 1909 Railway locomotives introduced in 1910 Scrapped locomotives Standard gauge steam locomotives of Great Britain NBL locomotives Robert Stephenson and Company locomotives Freight locomotives