The NER Class R1 (

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 D21) was a class of 4-4-0 steam locomotives of the North Eastern Railway. The class was designed by

Wilson Worsdell Wilson Worsdell (7 September 1850 – 14 April 1920) was an English locomotive engineer who was locomotive superintendent of the North Eastern Railway from 1890 to 1910. He was the younger brother of T.W. Worsdell. Wilson was born at Monks C ...

and built from 1908 to 1909.

Design

The design was similar to that of the

NER Class R The NER Class R (later, LNER Class D20) was a class of 4-4-0 steam locomotive, designed by Wilson Worsdell for the North Eastern Railway. They passed to the London and North Eastern Railway (LNER) in 1923. In 1936, some were rebuilt with l ...

(LNER Class D20) but a larger

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, centr ...

was used. Boiler pressure was initially . Towards the end of construction the work was to be moved from Gateshead to

Darlington Works Darlington Works was established in 1863 by the Stockton and Darlington Railway in the town of Darlington in the north east of England. The main part of the works, the North Road Shops was located on the northeast side of the Stockton and Darl ...

. However the initial locomotive assembled as Darlington was failed as unfit to drive and subsequent investigations established that the coupling rod centres were not equal, resuling in a change of Works Manager at Darlington.

Modifications

Boiler pressure was reduced to 180 psi (1.24 MPa) at an unknown date. Superheaters were fitted between 1912 and 1915 and, at the same time, boiler pressure was further reduced to . It was standard NER practice to reduce boiler pressure when fitting a superheater. At some time before the 1923

Grouping Grouping may refer to: * Muenchian grouping * Principles of grouping * Railways Act 1921, also known as Grouping Act, a reorganisation of the British railway system * Grouping (firearms), the pattern of multiple shots from a sidearm See also ...

, boiler pressure was increased to .

Use

The R1s were initially used on the Glasgow-Newcastle and York-Newcastle services. However, as loads increased, they were replaced by more powerful locomotive types (like the class Z) and relegated to secondary duties. By 1924, the Gresley A1s started to arrived in large numbers, which displaced the C7s to many of the secondary duties of the D21s, and in particular, York its entire allocation.

Withdrawal

They were withdrawn between 1942 and 1946 and none were preserved.

In fiction

Although ''

Edward the Blue Engine This article is about the characters that have appeared in the books of ''The Railway Series'' by the Rev. Wilbert Awdry and Christopher Awdry. Unless otherwise stated on this page, the technical notes come from actual notes laid out by Wilbert ...

'', from the

Railway Series ''The Railway Series'' is a series of British books about a railway known as the North Western Railway, located on the fictional Island of Sodor. There are 42 books in the series, the first published in May 1945 by the Rev. Wilbert Awdry. Twe ...

books and it's spin-off television series

Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends ''Thomas & Friends'' (originally known as ''Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends'' and later ''Thomas & Friends: Big World! Big Adventures!'') is a British children's television series that aired across 24 series from 1984 to 2021. Based on ''The ...

, is regularly described as bearing "a quite striking similarity" to the Furness Railway 'Larger Seagulls'. ''Edward'' is recognisable as an NER Class R1. The Edwardian 4-4-0 type is a fairly common

design pattern A design pattern is the re-usable form of a solution to a design problem. The idea was introduced by the architect Christopher Alexander and has been adapted for various other disciplines, particularly software engineering. The "Gang of Four" boo ...

in British steam locomotives, although at the time of the ''Seagulls'' they still had low-set small diameter boilers with tall chimneys. ''Edward'', in particular, differs in having a cab with dual glazed side windows, a much more characteristic feature of

North Eastern railway locomotives North is one of the four compass points or cardinal directions. It is the opposite of south and is perpendicular to east and west. ''North'' is a noun, adjective, or adverb indicating direction or geography. Etymology The word ''north'' i ...

, the tapered non-circular spectacle plate windows and also the larger boiler diameter and higher boiler line are distinctively those of the NER R1, by then the LNER D21.

References

{{LNER Locomotives R1 4-4-0 locomotives Railway locomotives introduced in 1908 Scrapped locomotives Standard gauge steam locomotives of Great Britain Passenger locomotives