The LNWR 18-inch Tank class was a class of 80

0-6-2T T, or t, is the twentieth Letter (alphabet), letter in the English language, modern English English alphabet, alphabet and the ISO basic Latin alphabet. Its name in English is English alphabet#Letter names, ''tee'' (pronounced ), plural ''te ...

locomotives built by 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 ...

in their Crewe Works between 1898 and 1902. They were also known officially as the 5 ft 3in Tank Class or unofficially as the Watford Tank Class.

Design

The design featured a boiler pressed to delivering saturated steam to two cylinders connected by Joy valve gear to the driving wheels. The "5ft 3in" in the title referred to the diameter of the driving wheels (usually the stated dimension was for the wheel centres) but which were actually . The nominal diameter including the tyres was . They were a tank engine version of the

LNWR Cauliflower Class The LNWR 18-inch Goods was a class of 310 0-6-0 freight steam locomotives built by the London and North Western Railway at their Crewe Works between 1880 and 1902. They were also known officially as the Express Goods 5 ft 0in, and unoffi ...

, built from 1892.

Service

Leighton Buzzard Station geograph-2211751

They were built as mixed traffic locomotives, and were frequently used on suburban services. Their use on Euston to Watford suburban trains gave rise to the nickname "Watford Tanks". The first locomotive was withdrawn in 1920. By the time of 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 ...

, 77 were still in service and passed to 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 ...

who gave them power classification 1P, and renumbered them 6860 to 6939. Fifteen were still in service at nationalisation in 1948, but only two survived to receive their

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 ...

' number. None were preserved.

References

* * {{LNWR Locomotives London and North Western Railway locomotives 0-6-2T locomotives Railway locomotives introduced in 1898 Scrapped locomotives