The SER R class was a class of
0-6-0T locomotives on the
South Eastern Railway.
History
For many years the
South Eastern Railway (SER) had possessed very few locomotives designed for
shunting. When trains were to be shunted, this was usually carried out any locomotive which happened to be idle at the time, which was often unsuitable; and sometimes this caused delays to other trains which should have been run using the commandeered locomotive.
Several other railways favoured the
0-6-0T wheel arrangement for shunting, and so in 1887 it was decided to introduce a class of 0-6-0T locomotives specifically for shunting and for hauling local goods trains. The R class locomotives were designed by
James Stirling as a new class, and 25 were built at
Ashford Works
Ashford railway works was in the town of Ashford in the county of Kent in England.
History South Eastern Railway
Ashford locomotive works was built by the South Eastern Railway on a new site in 1847, replacing an earlier locomotive repair fa ...
between 1888 and 1898. As was typical of Stirling's designs, several components were shared with existing designs; the domeless boilers were of the same type as was fitted to his
O class 0-6-0 and
Q class 0-4-4T.
Their SER numbers were scattered between 10 and 174, and in a continuous block from 335 to 342. These numbers were retained under the
South Eastern and Chatham Railway, although from 1900 the livery changed from black to green.
The three 1890 locomotives (nos. 10, 77, 147) were built with short chimneys giving an overall height of to give sufficient clearance for working the
Whitstable branch, which had a low tunnel. Normally, two would work the branch from Canterbury West shed whilst the third was spare at Ashford, but to provide relief for the 1890 locomotives when one was undergoing overhaul, no. 124 was also given a short chimney in March 1893.
Three of the 1892 locomotives were built for the
Folkestone Harbour Branch
Folkestone Harbour station was one of four railway stations in Folkestone, Kent. It served Folkestone Harbour with connecting boat train services across the English Channel to Calais and Boulogne.
The station was opened by the South Eastern ...
, where the existing locomotives,
Mansell 0-6-0T nos. 152–154, were only fourteen years old, but required several modifications in order to comply with
Board of Trade regulations regarding passenger trains. In particular they needed to be equipped with the automatic
vacuum brake
The vacuum brake is a braking system employed on trains and introduced in the mid-1860s. A variant, the automatic vacuum brake system, became almost universal in British train equipment and in countries influenced by British practice. Vacuum br ...
which would itself require the locomotives to have stronger frames. Their boilers would also become due for replacement soon, and it was decided that the provision of three new R class locomotives would be more economic, and these took the same numbers as the locomotives that they replaced, which were scrapped. R class nos. 152–154 were transferred to other parts of the SER system in 1898, and were replaced on the Folkestone Harbour Branch by newly-built nos. 69, 70 and 107.
R1 class
Between 1910 and 1922, 13 of the SER R class 0-6-0T were rebuilt by the SECR with
Wainwright-design domed boilers of the same type as were used on the
SECR H class
The South Eastern and Chatham Railway (SECR) H Class is a class of 0-4-4T steam locomotive originally designed for suburban passenger work, designed by Harry Wainwright in 1904. Most of the sixty-six members of the class were later equipped for ...
0-4-4T. These rebuilds were classified R1, but their capabilities and duties did not change substantially.
Renumbering
Many of the locomotives were renumbered up to three times: from 1924 the
Southern Railway (SR) applied the prefix "A", i.e. A10 etc., the work being completed in 1927; from 1931 the SR dropped the "A" and increased the numbers by 1000 (i.e. 1010 etc.); and from 1948, under
British Railways, the numbers were further increased by 30000, becoming 31010 etc.
Withdrawal
One R class locomotive (no. 341) was withdrawn in 1914 due to accident damage. The other 11 locomotives which had not been rebuilt to the R1 class were withdrawn between 1931 and 1943. Of the 13 R1 class rebuilds, one was withdrawn in 1949, two in 1955, three in 1958 and five in 1959; after August 1959, only nos. 31047 and 31337 were left, and these were withdrawn in March and February 1960 respectively.
Models
The
Hornby Dublo
Hornby Railways is a British model railways manufacturing company. Its roots date back to 1901 in Liverpool, when founder Frank Hornby received a patent for his Meccano construction toy. The first clockwork train was produced in 1920. In 1938, ...
range of
00 gauge model railways had been launched by
Meccano Ltd
Meccano Ltd was a British toy manufacturing company, established in 1908 by Frank Hornby in Liverpool, England, to manufacture and distribute Meccano and other model toys and kits created by the company. During the 1920s and 1930s it became th ...
in 1938 using a three-rail system to power the electric motors of the locomotives. After
World War II
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 opposing ...
, several of their rivals chose a two-rail system and by 1957 Hornby Dublo began to lose sales. Accordingly, they decided to develop a two-rail system, and this was launched in 1959. Among the new items designed especially for the two-rail launch was a model of the SECR R1 class 0-6-0T; this was moulded in polystyrene, which was coloured either black (with running number 31337) or green (as number 31340), both carrying the
contemporary BR emblem; it has been stated that the two running numbers were carefully chosen to match the numbers of the last two in service, but in fact at the time of the withdrawal of 31340, there were still six others in service. They were announced in ''Meccano Magazine'' in September 1960, and remained in production until the collapse of the Meccano group in 1964.
Notes
References
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Ser R Class
R
0-6-0T locomotives
Railway locomotives introduced in 1888
Standard gauge steam locomotives of Great Britain