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 ...
(NBR) G Class (
LNER LNER may refer to:
* London and North Eastern Railway, a railway company in the United Kingdom from 1923 until 1947
* London North Eastern Railway, a train operating company in the United Kingdom since 2018
* Liquid neutral earthing resistor, a typ ...
Class Y9) is a class of
0-4-0
Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, represents one of the simplest possible types, that with two axles and four coupled wheels, all of which are driven. The wheels on the earliest four-coupled locomotives were ...
ST 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 ...
designed for
shunting. Some locomotives were equipped with small wooden
tenders to carry extra coal. They were introduced in 1882 and thirty-eight entered service on the NBR between 1882 and 1899. Like most 0-4-0 tanks of the period it has outside cylinders and inside
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 driven 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.
...
. The rival Caledonian Railway had the same number (38) of identical locomotives in service. The nickname "Pug" was used on the NBR. (The Caledonian Railway, in common with several other companies, used this nickname for all small shunting engines.)
Origin
The basic industrial shunting locomotive design was originated by
Neilson and Company
Neilson and Company was a locomotive manufacturer in Glasgow, Scotland.
The company was started in 1836 at McAlpine Street by Walter Neilson and James Mitchell to manufacture marine and stationary engines. In 1837 the firm moved to Hyde Park ...
of Hyde Park Works,
Springburn
Springburn ( gd, Allt an Fhuairainn) is an inner-city district in the north of the Scottish city of Glasgow, made up of generally working-class households.
Springburn developed from a rural hamlet at the beginning of the 19th century. Its indu ...
,
Glasgow
Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popul ...
, who built the first examples of the type, mainly for
industrial customers, in the 1870s. One such, built in 1876, is in the collection of the
Scottish Railway Preservation Society
The Scottish Railway Preservation Society is a charity, whose principal objective is the preservation and advancement of railway heritage in Scotland. The society's headquarters is at Bo'ness, in central Scotland.
Bo'ness and Kinneil Railway
Th ...
at Bo'ness. The locomotives were designed to operate at low speed, shunting heavy loads, on tight radius
sidings and
points.
Major railway companies often required engines of this type for duties such as yard and dock shunting, and the design was taken up by the North British Railway and the Caledonian Railway, amongst others. It seems that having trailed a small number of locomotives built by Neilson & Co, each railway company was given consent to produce further examples itself, under licence, happily attributing the design to their own respective
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 ...
s,
Dugald Drummond
Dugald Drummond (1 January 1840 – 8 November 1912) was a Scottish steam locomotive engineer. He had a career with the North British Railway, LB&SCR, Caledonian Railway and London and South Western Railway. He was the older brother of the eng ...
(CR), and
Matthew Holmes (NBR).
Pre-grouping ownership
Caledonian Railway
In 1876 the
Caledonian Railway
The Caledonian Railway (CR) was a major Scottish railway company. It was formed in the early 19th century with the objective of forming a link between English railways and Glasgow. It progressively extended its network and reached Edinburgh an ...
bought four locomotives of this design from Neilsons.
Between 1885 and 1908, the Caledonian Railway built thirty-four more examples at the company's own
St. Rollox railway works
Glasgow Works, formerly the St Rollox Works, is a railway rolling stock heavy maintenance and repair works established in the 1850s in the Glasgow district of Springburn by the Caledonian Railway Company, and known locally as 'the Caley'.
Own ...
in Glasgow.
North British Railway
In much the same way, the North British Railway (NBR) bought two locomotives from Neilson in 1882, and by 1899 they had built thirty-six for themselves at their
Cowlairs railway works
Cowlairs Locomotive, Carriage and Wagon Works, at Cowlairs in Springburn, an area in the north-east of Glasgow, Scotland, was built in 1841 for the Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway and was taken over by the North British Railway (NBR) in 1865. It ...
in Glasgow, giving a total of thirty-eight engines in service.
Having obtained license to replicate the design, each of the railway companies incorporated minor detail modifications into their version. On the NBR the locomotives were designated G class when the new class identification system was introduced in 1913.
Great Eastern Railway
The
Great Eastern Railway
The Great Eastern Railway (GER) was a pre-grouping British railway company, whose main line linked London Liverpool Street to Norwich and which had other lines through East Anglia. The company was grouped into the London and North Eastern R ...
Class 209 is similar but has a flat-topped saddle tank. One example is preserved, formerly at the
North Woolwich Old Station Museum
The North Woolwich Old Station Museum was a small railway museum in North Woolwich, in Newham, East London. Located in the former Great Eastern Railway terminal station building at North Woolwich railway station, the museum opened in 1984. It ...
, and is currently being restored at Lydney, Gloucestershire.
LNER and BR ownership
![St Margarets Locomotive Depot ex-NBR Y9 Dock 0-4-0T geograph-2890859-by-Ben-Brooksbank](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e9/St_Margarets_Locomotive_Depot_ex-NBR_Y9_Dock_0-4-0T_geograph-2890859-by-Ben-Brooksbank.jpg)
The
LNER LNER may refer to:
* London and North Eastern Railway, a railway company in the United Kingdom from 1923 until 1947
* London North Eastern Railway, a train operating company in the United Kingdom since 2018
* Liquid neutral earthing resistor, a typ ...
acquired most of the NBR examples in 1923 and classified them Y9. Thirty-three of them passed 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 ...
ownership in 1948 and were numbered 68092–68124.
Preservation
One, NBR No. 42 (BR 68095), has survived to preservation in the
Scottish Railway Preservation Society
The Scottish Railway Preservation Society is a charity, whose principal objective is the preservation and advancement of railway heritage in Scotland. The society's headquarters is at Bo'ness, in central Scotland.
Bo'ness and Kinneil Railway
Th ...
collection and is a static exhibit. This was bought from British Railways straight out of traffic at St Margaret's Shed,
Edinburgh
Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...
by J.Morris, and was displayed at his former museum at
Lytham St Annes
Lytham St Annes () is a seaside town in the Borough of Fylde in Lancashire, England. It is on the The Fylde, Fylde coast, directly south of Blackpool on the Ribble Estuary. The population at the United Kingdom Census 2011, 2011 census was 42,954 ...
until it was bought by SRPS in 1992.
An example of the original design by Neilson & Co. is also preserved by the Scottish Railway Preservation Society. It was built in 1876 and named ''Kelton Fell''.
Kelton Fell
/ref>
References
Sources
*
External links
LNER encyclopedia
Class Y9 Details
at ''Rail UK''
{{LNER Locomotives
G
0-4-0ST locomotives
Railway locomotives introduced in 1882
Neilson locomotives
Standard gauge steam locomotives of Great Britain
Shunting locomotives