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) "Precursor" Class was a type of

4-4-0 4-4-0 is a locomotive type with a classification that uses the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives by wheel arrangement and represents the arrangement: four leading wheels on two axles (usually in a leading bogie), four po ...

("Atlantic")

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 ...

Chief Mechanical Engineer Chief mechanical engineer and locomotive superintendent are titles applied by British, Australian, and New Zealand railway companies to the person ultimately responsible to the board of the company for the building and maintaining of the locomotive ...

George Whale George Whale (7 December 1842 – 7 March 1910) was an English locomotive engineer who was born in Bocking, Essex, and educated in Lewisham, London. He worked for the London and North Western Railway (LNWR). Career In 1858 he entered the LNWR ...

. Introduced in 1904, it should not be confused with the LNWR 2-4-0 "Precursor" Class of 1874 designed by Francis Webb, the last example of which was scrapped in 1895. In 1906, a

4-4-2T Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives by wheel arrangement, represents a configuration of a four-wheeled leading bogie, four powered and coupled driving wheels, and two trailing wheels supporting part of the we ...

("American") tank variant of Webb's engine, the "Precursor Tank" Class, also entered service.

History

The Precursor Class was essentially a larger version of the LNWR "Improved Precedent" Class, being Whale's first attempt at producing a locomotive which would remove the requirement for

express train An express train is a type of passenger train that makes a small number of stops between its origin and destination stations, usually major destinations, allowing faster service than local trains that stop at most or all of the stations alo ...

s to be double headed (then standard practice on the LNWR). 130 examples of the class were constructed at

Crewe Works Crewe Works is a British railway engineering facility located in the town of Crewe, Cheshire. The works, which was originally opened by the Grand Junction Railway in 1840, employed around 7,000 to 8,000 workers at its peak. In the 1980s, a lot ...

between March 1904 and August 1907, their introduction allowing Whale to phase out the unreliable

compound locomotive A compound locomotive is a steam locomotive which is powered by a compound engine, a type of steam engine where steam is expanded in two or more stages. The locomotive was only one application of compounding. Two and three stages were used in shi ...

s favoured by his predecessor, Francis Webb. As built, they were

saturated Saturation, saturated, unsaturation or unsaturated may refer to: Chemistry * Saturation, a property of organic compounds referring to carbon-carbon bonds ** Saturated and unsaturated compounds **Degree of unsaturation ** Saturated fat or fatty ac ...

, although a small number were fitted with

superheater A superheater is a device used to convert saturated steam or wet steam into superheated steam or dry steam. Superheated steam is used in steam turbines for electricity generation, steam engines, and in processes such as steam reforming. There ar ...

s between February 1913 and September 1919. LNWR Whale Precursor Class No 1117

Whilst the Precursors created issues for crews as some of the cab controls were difficult to operate or reach, they were generally successful in terms of operating performance. However, having apparently experienced difficulty keeping time on trials between

Crewe Crewe () is a railway town and civil parish in the unitary authority of Cheshire East in Cheshire, England. The Crewe built-up area had a total population of 75,556 in 2011, which also covers parts of the adjacent civil parishes of Willaston ...

and , they were not used on heavier gradients such as the climb to

Shap Shap is a linear village and civil parish located among fells and isolated dales in Eden district, Cumbria, England, in the historic county of Westmorland. The parish had a population of 1,221 in 2001, increasing slightly to 1,264 at the 2011 ...

. A consequence of this was the introduction of an extended version of the Precursors, the

4-6-0 A 4-6-0 steam locomotive, under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives by wheel arrangement, has four leading wheels on two axles in a leading bogie and six powered and coupled driving wheels on three axles with the abse ...

"Experiment" Class, in 1905. Nevertheless, double heading was still necessary on many trains north of Preston due to accelerated schedules and increased loads. In 1919, the Precursors were developed by Whale's successor, Charles Bowen-Cooke, into the superheated "George the Fifth" Class. The main visual difference was that the Precursors had separate splashers over each of the driving wheels while the Georges had combined splashers that covered both pairs. The LNWR reused numbers and names from withdrawn locomotives, with the result that the numbering system was completely haphazard. Starting with the first of the class 513 ''"Precursor"'' in 1913, were given

s, the process continuing until just after grouping in 1923. Most of the superheated engines were also converted from having

slide valve The slide valve is a rectilinear valve used to control the admission of steam into and emission of exhaust from the cylinder of a steam engine. Use In the 19th century, most steam locomotives used slide valves to control the flow of steam into ...

s to

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 ...

. This resulted in two main subclasses; saturated locomotives with cylinders, and superheated locomotives with cylinders. The LMS gave them the

power classification A number of different numbering and classification schemes were used for the locomotives owned by the London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMS) and its constituent companies; this page explains the principal systems that were used. The followi ...

3P. The saturated engines were given the LMS numbers in the 5187–5266 series, though not all survived long enough to receive them. The superheated engines were given the LMS numbers 5270–5319 (5267–5269 were not used). The LMS continued to superheat engines until 1926, these rebuilds retained their LMS number. Also, three superheated engines became saturated via

boiler 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 ...

swaps. Withdrawals of the saturated engines started in 1927 and the last engine in as built condition was withdrawn in 1935. The four superheated engines which retained slide valves were withdrawn from 1931 to 1936. Withdrawals of the superheated engines with piston valves began in 1935. Those not withdrawn had 20000 added to their numbers from 1934 to 1937 to make room for

Black Fives Black Fives is a trademarked term, federally registered in the United States Patent & Trademark Office, that refers to the all-Black basketball teams that existed in the United States between 1904, when the game was first introduced to African Ame ...

. By the outbreak of 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 ...

in September 1939, only 11 Precursors were still in service. A single example, 25297 ''"Sirocco"'', was inherited by

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 this was withdrawn in June 1949 before the number it had been allocated (58010) could be applied. None were preserved.

Accidents

Great Bridgeford

On 17 June 1932, locomotive number 5278 ''Precursor'' was hauling the 7:23 p.m. to and express passenger service when, at around 7:52p.m., the engine and all four coaches derailed just to the south of station,

Staffordshire Staffordshire (; postal abbreviation Staffs.) is a landlocked county in the West Midlands region of England. It borders Cheshire to the northwest, Derbyshire and Leicestershire to the east, Warwickshire to the southeast, the West Midlands Cou ...

. Of the 70 to 80 passengers on board the train, three were killed immediately and a fourth died in hospital the next day. Together with the driver and fireman, 9 passengers received injuries serious enough to require hospital care, whilst a further 18 were treated at the scene and able to continue their journeys.

Fleet list

Notes

References

Sources

* {{LNWR Locomotives Precursor (Whale) 4-4-0 locomotives Railway locomotives introduced in 1904 Standard gauge steam locomotives of Great Britain Scrapped locomotives