The

Caledonian Railway The Caledonian Railway (CR) was a major Scottish railway company. It was formed in the early 19th century with the objective of forming a link between English railways and Glasgow. It progressively extended its network and reached Edinburgh an ...

944 Class were

4-6-2 Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, represents the wheel arrangement of four leading wheels on two axles, six powered and coupled driving wheels on three axles and two trailing wheels on one axle. The locomo ...

T passenger

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 loc ...

s designed by

William Pickersgill William Pickersgill (1861 – 2 May 1928) was an English railway engineer, and was chief mechanical engineer of the Caledonian Railway from 1914 until Grouping in 1923. He was appointed locomotive superintendent of the Northern Division of t ...

and built in 1917, at the

North British Locomotive Company The North British Locomotive Company (NBL, NB Loco or North British) was created in 1903 through the merger of three Glasgow locomotive manufacturing companies; Sharp, Stewart and Company (Atlas Works), Neilson, Reid and Company (Hyde Park Wo ...

's Hyde Park Works in Glasgow. They were the Caledonian Railway's only pacific-type.

Overview

Although the Caledonian Railway built a long and successful series of small

0-4-4T Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, 0-4-4 represents the wheel arrangement of no leading wheels, four powered and coupled driving wheels on two axles, and four trailing wheels on two axles. This type was only used ...

passenger tank engines, the twelve locomotives of the 944 Class were the only large passenger tanks operated by the company. They shared much of their design with the contemporary 60 Class 4-6-0s.Essery, Bob & Jenkinson, David (1986), ''An Illustrated History of L.M.S. Locomotives, Volume Three: Absorbed Pre-Group Classes, Northern Division'', OPC, p.61 They were originally used on the

Inverclyde Line The Inverclyde Line is a railway line running from Glasgow Central station through Paisley (Gilmour Street) and a series of stations to the south of the River Clyde and the Firth of Clyde, terminating at Gourock and Wemyss Bay, where it connec ...

and so gained the nickname 'Wemyss Bay

Pugs The Pug is a breed of dog originally from China, with physically distinctive features of a wrinkly, short-muzzled face and curled tail. The breed has a fine, glossy coat that comes in a variety of colors, most often light brown (fawn) or bla ...

' amongst enginemen. The locomotives passed into the ownership of the

London, Midland and Scottish Railway The London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMSIt has been argued that the initials LMSR should be used to be consistent with LNER, GWR and SR. The London, Midland and Scottish Railway's corporate image used LMS, and this is what is generally ...

(LMS) upon its formation in 1923, and were repainted from Caledonian blue into LMS crimson lake livery, although within a few years this gave way to lined black livery. They were later displaced from the Inverclyde line by LMS Fowler and Fairburn 2-6-4Ts and by the time of nationalisation in 1948, the surviving locomotives were all allocated to

Beattock Beattock is a village in Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland, approximately southwest of Moffat and north of Dumfries. Beattock was historically served by the A74 road and the West Coast Main Line, however the road has since been upgraded to the ...

shed, primarily for

banking A bank is a financial institution that accepts deposits from the public and creates a demand deposit while simultaneously making loans. Lending activities can be directly performed by the bank or indirectly through capital markets. Because ...

duties on

Beattock Summit Beattock Summit is the highest point of the West Coast Main Line (WCML) railway and of the A74(M) motorway as they cross between Dumfries and Galloway and South Lanarkshire in south west Scotland. Railway history The highest point on the Cal ...

. They were all withdrawn and scrapped between 1946 and 1953.

Numbering and Locomotive Histories

sources: BritishSteam, Longworth (2005) p167 Longworth, Hugh (2005), ''British Railways Steam Locomotives 1948-1968'', Oxford Publishing Co., p.167

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Caledonian Railway 944 Class 944 Class 4-6-2T locomotives NBL locomotives Railway locomotives introduced in 1917 Standard gauge steam locomotives of Great Britain Scrapped locomotives