The British Rail Class 98 is a Total Operations Processing System (TOPS) classification that has been used to cover all steam locomotives used on the mainline in Britain, but also has a particular usage for the three

Vale of Rheidol Railway The Vale of Rheidol Railway ( cy, Rheilffordd Cwm Rheidol) is a narrow gauge heritage railway in Ceredigion, Wales, between Aberystwyth and Devil's Bridge; a journey of . It opened in 1902, and from the withdrawal of main line steam on Briti ...

-design locomotives that remained in the ownership of British Rail (BR) after the end of mainline steam traction in August 1968. The locomotives on the Vale of Rheidol Railway were the only steam locomotives ever officially to carry the British Rail corporate blue and the double arrow logo. The number 98010 was assigned to an locomotive acquired by BR in 1987. This locomotive also worked the Vale of Rheidol and was sold along with the steam locomotives. 98010 was built by the Brecon Mountain Railway, using parts supplied by Baguley-Drewry.

Vale of Rheidol locomotives

These three steam locomotives, numbered 7-9 by the

Great Western Railway The Great Western Railway (GWR) was a British railway company that linked London with the southwest, west and West Midlands of England and most of Wales. It was founded in 1833, received its enabling Act of Parliament on 31 August 1835 and ran ...

and

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 ...

, were the only ones to survive in BR's ownership after the end of mainline steam traction in August 1968. Under TOPS they were allocated Class 98 and were nominally numbered 98007-98009, but these numbers were never actually carried on the locomotives.

Registered steam locomotives

The Class 98 series has also been used for privately owned steam locomotives registered to run on the mainline since 1971. The first two digits are the class designation, in this case 98, the remaining three digits are allocated as follows: The third digit represents the

power classification A number of different numbering and classification schemes were used for the locomotives owned by the London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMS) and its constituent companies; this page explains the principal systems that were used. The followi ...

, which was assigned (with a few exceptions) to all British Railways locomotives. The

narrow gauge A narrow-gauge railway (narrow-gauge railroad in the US) is a railway with a track gauge narrower than standard . Most narrow-gauge railways are between and . Since narrow-gauge railways are usually built with tighter curves, smaller structu ...

VoRR locomotives were not assigned a power class, but for TOPS purposes were allocated to power class 0. Three standard gauge locomotives have run on the mainline that were not previously in BR stock; ''Lady Armaghdale'' (

Hunslet Hunslet () is an inner-city area in south Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It is southeast of the city centre and has an industrial past. It is situated in the Hunslet and Riverside ward of Leeds City Council and Leeds Central parliamenta ...

works No. 686 of 1898) was assigned power class 1F on the basis of its

tractive effort As used in mechanical engineering, the term tractive force can either refer to the total traction a vehicle exerts on a surface, or the amount of the total traction that is parallel to the direction of motion. In railway engineering, the term t ...

, ''Barbara'', a

Hunslet Austerity 0-6-0ST The Hunslet Austerity 0-6-0ST is a class of steam locomotive designed by Hunslet Engine Company for shunting. The class became the standard British shunting locomotive during the Second World War, and production continued until 1964 at vari ...

(works No. 2890 of 1943/rebuilt 1962 as 3882), assigned power class 4F on the basis of the classification given to

LNER Class J94 The London and North Eastern Railway (LNER) J94 Class is a class of steam locomotive that was formed when 75 former "Austerity" 0-6-0STs were purchased by the LNER in 1946 from the War Department. __TOC__ Overview The LNER had had trials wi ...

of the same design, and the new-build A1 Pacific locomotive ''

Tornado A tornado is a violently rotating column of air that is in contact with both the surface of the Earth and a cumulonimbus cloud or, in rare cases, the base of a cumulus cloud. It is often referred to as a twister, whirlwind or cyclone, alt ...

'' assigned power class 8P on the basis of the power class assigned to the

LNER Peppercorn Class A1 The London and North Eastern Railway (LNER) Peppercorn Class A1 is a type of express passenger steam locomotive. Forty-nine original Peppercorn Class A1s were built to the design of Arthur Peppercorn (who was the last Chief Mechanical Eng ...

on which it was based. Additionally, two engines in LMS stock but not BR stock were given their LMS power classification 1P. The fourth and fifth digits usually represent the locomotive's BR number, with a few exceptions. Some ex-LNER locomotives have numbers based on their LNER pre-1946 numbers, these being Class A3 ''Flying Scotsman'' (4472), Class A4s ''Mallard'' (4468) and ''Sir Nigel Gresley'' (4498),

LNER Class J36 The NBR C Class (London and North Eastern Railway, LNER Class J36) is a class of 0-6-0 steam locomotives designed by Matthew Holmes (engineer), Matthew Holmes for freight work on the North British Railway (NBR). They were introduced in 1888 with ...

''Maude'' (NBR 673, LNER pre-1946 9673) and Class V2 ''Green Arrow'' (4771). Furthermore, the aforementioned locomotives not of BR origin obviously cannot have numbers based on non-existent BR numbers, so ''Lady Armaghdale'' number is based on the works number 686, ''Barbara'' on the works number of its 1962 rebuild, and ''Tornado'' is assigned the number it carries, 60163, being one greater than the last of the previous Peppercorn A1s. In a few cases, this process results in the duplication of an existing number, so another is assigned. SR Class U 31625 is TOPS 98426 as it would otherwise duplicate GWR 7325 (TOPS 98425), BR Standard Class 8 71000 ''Duke of Gloucester'' (TOPS No. 98802) as it would otherwise duplicate

GWR King Class The Great Western Railway (GWR) 6000 Class or King Class is a class of 4-6-0 steam locomotives designed for express passenger work and introduced in 1927. They were the largest locomotives built by the GWR, apart from the unique Pacific ( ''T ...

6000 ''King George V'' (TOPS No. 98800).

List of locomotives assigned TOPS numbers

The following is a list of locomotives assigned TOPS numbers. In the power class column, * denotes that this locomotive was not ex-BR and therefore was not assigned a power class by BR. In some cases the names indicated have only been applied during the preservation period. The given power classes are based on the ones used in the locomotive's TOPS number. BR changed the rating of a few classes e.g. LNER V2 were classified as 6MT, but this was later changed to 7P6F. An up-to-date list of active mainline locomotives is maintained her

References

External links

* {{British Rail Locomotives British Rail locomotives Vale of Rheidol Railway Steam locomotives of Great Britain Standard gauge locomotives of Great Britain Narrow gauge locomotives of the United Kingdom