The NER Class A (

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 F8) was a class of 2-4-2

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

Thomas William Worsdell Thomas William Worsdell (14 January 1838 – 28 June 1916) was an English locomotive engineer. He was born in Liverpool into a Quaker family. Family T. W. Worsdell – normally known as William – was the eldest son of Nathaniel Worsdell (180 ...

and built at

Gateshead works Gateshead TMD was a railway traction maintenance depot situated in Gateshead, England. The depot code was 52A during the steam era and GD later on. It was known, along with the adjacent locomotive works, as Greenesfield or Greensfield, after ...

for the North Eastern Railway (NER). Sixty locomotives were built between 1886 and 1892. At this time the class was designated class A by the NER and was the first class in the company to be given an alphabetical letter classification.

Design

Boiler

They were the first locomotives to use

steel Steel is an alloy made up of iron with added carbon to improve its strength and fracture resistance compared to other forms of iron. Many other elements may be present or added. Stainless steels that are corrosion- and oxidation-resistant ty ...

instead of

iron Iron () is a chemical element with symbol Fe (from la, ferrum) and atomic number 26. It is a metal that belongs to the first transition series and group 8 of the periodic table. It is, by mass, the most common element on Earth, right in f ...

for the

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 ...

. At the time, the steel boiler was built to a non-standard design that could not be exchanged with any other class of locomotive. However, the design later evolved to become Diagram 69 under the LNER and was used on classes D23, G5, J24 and J73.

Fittings

Worsdell gave the Class A some design features that would become characteristic of most NER locos from then on. These included a tapered

chimney A chimney is an architectural ventilation structure made of masonry, clay or metal that isolates hot toxic exhaust gases or smoke produced by a boiler, stove, furnace, incinerator, or fireplace from human living areas. Chimneys are typic ...

, a

brass Brass is an alloy of copper (Cu) and zinc (Zn), in proportions which can be varied to achieve different mechanical, electrical, and chemical properties. It is a substitutional alloy: atoms of the two constituents may replace each other with ...

cover for the

safety valve A safety valve is a valve that acts as a fail-safe. An example of safety valve is a pressure relief valve (PRV), which automatically releases a substance from a boiler, pressure vessel, or other system, when the pressure or temperature exceeds ...

s and a large protective cab.

Cylinders

The first forty of the class had 18 inch diameter cylinders, while last twenty had 17 inch cylinders. The 17 inch cylinders were enlarged to 18 inches during rebuilding in 1900,

Brakes

All 60 of the class were originally built with Westinghouse air brakes. Forty-two were fitted with vacuum ejectors in a programme during 1929 and 1930. However, withdrawal of the class had begun in 1928 and 18 of the class never received vacuum ejectors.

Use

During its working life the class could be found all over the NER system working on suburban lines and country branch lines. During their life with the LNER they were mostly kept around

Tyneside Tyneside is a built-up area across the banks of the River Tyne in northern England. Residents of the area are commonly referred to as Geordies. The whole area is surrounded by the North East Green Belt. The population of Tyneside as published i ...

Teesside Teesside () is a built-up area around the River Tees in the north of England, split between County Durham and North Yorkshire. The name was initially used as a county borough in the North Riding of Yorkshire. Historically a hub for heavy manu ...

, Hull and

Leeds Leeds () is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds district in West Yorkshire, England. It is built around the River Aire and is in the eastern foothills of the Pennines. It is also the third-largest settlement (by populati ...

where they handled lightweight traffic. Withdrawals of the class began in 1928 and finished in 1938. The last loco was No. 420, working at

Tyne Dock Tyne Dock is a neighbourhood within the town of South Shields, North East England, on the south bank of the River Tyne. It takes its name from the large dock on the river which was opened in 1859 by the North Eastern Railway (and acquired by th ...

. It was condemned on 22 April 1938 and the class slipped into history with none being preserved.

References

{{LNER Locomotives A Scrapped locomotives 2-4-2T locomotives Railway locomotives introduced in 1886 Standard gauge steam locomotives of Great Britain Passenger locomotives