The

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 ...

(BR) ex-WD Austerity 2-10-0 Class was a class of 25

2-10-0 Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, 2-10-0 represents the wheel arrangement of two leading wheels on one axle, ten powered and coupled driving wheels on five axles, and no trailing wheels. This arrangement was of ...

steam locomotives of the WD Austerity 2-10-0 type purchased in 1948 from the War Department.

Operational history

BR officially listed them in their running stock in 1948, though most were kept in store until 1949–1950. BR allocated them the numbers 90750–74. They were used to haul heavy freight trains and were mostly allocated to

Scottish Region The Scottish Region (ScR) was one of the six regions created on British Railways (BR) and consisted of ex-London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMS) and ex-London and North Eastern Railway (LNER) lines in Scotland. It existed from the creation o ...

ex-LMS (Caledonian) motive power depots in the Central Belt, Motherwell and Grangemouth always being their principal bases, where they were mixed with the much more widespread WD 2-8-0s. They were withdrawn after about 12 years service between 1961 and 1962. In addition to the above engines, another WD Austerity 2-10-0 Longmoor Military Railway 601 ''Kitchener'' (original WD No. 73797) was hired from the War Department between 1957 and 1959.

Names

Both 90773 and 90774 were named ''North British'' after the North British Locomotive Company which built them (the last of the BR ex-WD Austerity 2-8-0s No. 90732 was similarly named ''Vulcan'' after the Vulcan Foundry). As one of 49 LNER Peppercorn Class A1s, No. 60161, was also named ''North British'', BR had three locomotives with this name, though the A1 was named after the North British Railway rather than the engineering firm.

Classification

They were given the power classification 8F. BR considered them as standard locomotives, numbering them in the numbering series reserved for BR standard engines and assigning them the boiler No. BR11. The tenders were given the classification BR5.

Stock list

Withdrawal

Withdrawals started in 1961 and continued at a reasonable pace before the remaining 17 were withdrawn ''en masse'' in December 1962.

Preservation

None of the BR engines was preserved. However, there is a "90775" running in Great Britain which was repatriated from Greece, formerly being SEK Class Λβ, WD No.76352, SEK No. Lb951. It is based on the North Norfolk Railway. Ex-WD No. 3672 ''Dame Vera Lynn'', which is under overhaul at North Yorkshire Moors Railway, has been repatriated from Greece as well. There is also ex-WD LMR 600 Gordon which has survived and has been steamed on the Severn Valley Railway, though since 2008 it has been out of service, cosmetically restored and on display in Highley Engine House.

References

WD Austerity 2-10-0 Standard gauge steam locomotives of Great Britain Railway locomotives introduced in 1945 War Department locomotives NBL locomotives Vulcan Foundry locomotives Railway locomotives introduced in 1943 Steam locomotives of the Netherlands Steam locomotives of Sweden Standard gauge locomotives of the Netherlands Standard gauge locomotives of Sweden Scrapped locomotives {{Scotland-steam-loco-stub