The North Eastern Railway (NER) Class K classified as Class Y8 by 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 ...

(LNER) is a class of 0-4-0T

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 designed for shunting. It was designed by Thomas W. Worsdell and five of these tiny engines were built in 1890. These were numbered 559-63.

Description

The Class K design was not just small, it was diminutive, and as Class Y8 these were the smallest steam locomotives used by the LNER. They were fitted with steam and hand brakes only, never having vacuum brakes, and were unusual in having no bunker behind the cab for the coal, but rather having the small amount of coal required stored in a bin at the back of the footplate. The Y8s were built with 'marine' type

boilers A boiler is a closed vessel in which fluid (generally water) is heated. The fluid does not necessarily boil. The heated or vaporized fluid exits the boiler for use in various processes or heating applications, including water heating, central h ...

, i.e. with a cylindrical flue into which the grate fitted. Between 1902 and 1904, they were all re-boilered with more traditional boilers similar to those fitted to the

NER Class H The North Eastern Railway (NER) Class H, classified as Class Y7 by the London and North Eastern Railway (LNER) is a class of 0-4-0T steam locomotives designed for shunting. Description Introduced in 1888 by Thomas W. Worsdell, six were built ...

locomotives. Originally all of the Y8s were fitted with a single

whistle A whistle is an instrument which produces sound from a stream of gas, most commonly air. It may be mouth-operated, or powered by air pressure, steam, or other means. Whistles vary in size from a small slide whistle or nose flute type to a larg ...

of the bell-shaped type. 560, 561, and 563 acquired the organ type during LNER ownership. 559 also had one of these whistles fitted, but after 1940. In 1942 LNER No. 8091 (NER No. 560) acquired the chime whistle from the LNER Class A4 4469 Sir Ralph Wedgewood when it was damaged during an air raid on York in 1942. By 1946, the original organ-pipe whistle had been restored.

Operation and preservation

The NER built the K class specifically to shunt the docks at Hull, and it was here that they performed for most of their lives. During

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

No.559 was used both at Woolwich Arsenal and by the Royal Engineers near the mouth of the

Humber Estuary The Humber is a large tidal estuary on the east coast of Northern England. It is formed at Trent Falls, Faxfleet, by the confluence of the tidal rivers Ouse and Trent. From there to the North Sea, it forms part of the boundary between the ...

. In 1940-41 559 spent a second period on the Spurn Head Railway. No 8091 became Departmental Locomotive No. 55, and acquired a 50A shed plate, being the last of the class when finally withdrawn in June 1954. All five K class locos survived into LNER ownership. However, the

Depression-era The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The Financial contagion, ...

reduction in dock traffic and the increased use of

Sentinel Sentinel may refer to: Places Mountains * Mount Sentinel, a mountain next to the University of Montana in Missoula, Montana * Sentinel Buttress, a volcanic crag on James Ross Island, Antarctica * Sentinel Dome, a naturally occurring grani ...

shunters (

LNER Class Y1 The LNER Class Y1 was a class of 0-4-0 geared steam locomotives built by Sentinel Waggon Works for the London and North Eastern Railway and introduced in 1925. They passed into British Railways ownership in 1948 and were numbered 68130-6815 ...

and

LNER Class Y3 The LNER Class Y3 was a class of 0-4-0 geared steam locomotives built by Sentinel Waggon Works for the London and North Eastern Railway and introduced in 1927. They passed into British Railways ownership in 1948 and were numbered 68154-68185 ...

) led to the scrapping of three Y8s in 1936/7. Numbers 559 and 560 survived to the 1946 renumbering, and were renumbered as 8090 and 8091 respectively. Both survived into

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 ...

(BR) ownership, but neither survived long enough to acquire an updated '60000' number plate. 8090 was withdrawn in November 1948. None of the original five survived into preservation. After years of speculation, in 2022 the

Beamish Museum Beamish Museum is the first regional open-air museum, in England, located at Beamish, near the town of Stanley, in County Durham, England. Beamish pioneered the concept of a living museum. By displaying duplicates or replaceable items, it wa ...

announced plans to build a new K Class engine where its small size and marine type boiler are seen as perfect for the museum's short demonstration line.

References

* {{LNER Locomotives K 0-4-0T locomotives Railway locomotives introduced in 1890 Standard gauge steam locomotives of Great Britain Scrapped locomotives Shunting locomotives