GCR Class 8K
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The
Great Central Railway The Great Central Railway in England was formed when the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway changed its name in 1897, anticipating the opening in 1899 of its London Extension. On 1 January 1923, the company was grouped into the ...
(GCR) Class 8K 2-8-0 is a class of steam locomotive designed for heavy freight. Introduced in 1911, and designed by John G. Robinson, 126 were built for the GCR prior to the First World War. Including wartime construction for the British Army ROD and the post-war GCR Class 8M, the class and its derivatives totalled 666 locomotives.


Great Central Railway

The first of the 8K class was outshopped from the GCR's
Gorton Gorton is an area of Manchester in North West England, southeast of the city centre. The population at the 2011 census was 36,055. Neighbouring areas include Levenshulme and Openshaw. A major landmark is Gorton Monastery, a 19th-century Hig ...
workshops in 1911. It was essentially a
superheated A superheater is a device used to convert saturated steam or wet steam into superheated steam or dry steam. Superheated steam is used in steam turbines for electricity generation, steam engines, and in processes such as steam reforming. There are ...
version of an earlier 0-8-0, the 8A class, with the addition of a
pony truck A Bissell or Bissel truck (also Bissel bogie or Pony truck) is a single-axle bogie which pivots towards the centre of a steam locomotive to enable it to negotiate curves more easily. Invented in 1857 by and usually then known as a ''pony truck'' ...
. This both supported the greater front end weight and gave a steadier ride. The 8K was introduced to anticipate the increased traffic from the GCR's vast new docks complex at Immingham in North East Lincolnshire and by June 1914 126 were in traffic. During the First World War there were experiments with oil burning 8Ks with larger bogie tenders. Post-war, a further 19 locomotives were built in 1918–21 to a modified design with a larger boiler (GCR class 8M). In 1922 the GCR rebuilt two Class 8M to Class 8K.


Railway Operating Division

Robust and straightforward, the Class 8K 2-8-0 steamed well and proved outstandingly reliable, qualities that commended the design to the
Ministry of Munitions The Minister of Munitions was a British government position created during the First World War to oversee and co-ordinate the production and distribution of munitions for the war effort. The position was created in response to the Shell Crisis o ...
. Sir Sam Fay ensured that it became the standard locomotive during the
First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
as the ROD 2-8-0, used by the
Railway Operating Division The Railway Operating Division (ROD) was a division of the Royal Engineers formed in 1915 to operate railways in the many theatres of the First World War. It was largely composed of railway employees and operated both standard gauge and narrow g ...
of the Royal Engineers. 521 ROD locomotives were built in 1917–19 to essentially the same design as the GCR's 8K locomotives, differing only in minor details, such as the fitting of Westinghouse Air Brakes and the use of steel for the boiler tubes and inner firebox. After the war, the surviving ROD locomotives were sold to various railway companies, with the GCR itself purchasing 3 in 1919, which were added to its indigenous 8K fleet. Other surplus ROD locomotives were sold to the London and North Western Railway (30 locomotives), its successor the London, Midland and Scottish Railway (75 locomotives, see LMS ex-ROD 2-8-0), the Great Western Railway (100 locomotives, see
GWR 3000 Class The Great Western Railway (GWR) 3000 Class was a class of 2-8-0 steam locomotive consisting of the ex- Railway Operating Division ROD 2-8-0. These were built by North British Locomotive Co. between 1917 and 1918. No examples have been preserve ...
), and to various purchasers in Australia and China. Many of these had short lives with their new owners – the LMS locomotives were all scrapped or sold by the 1930s, and half of the GWR fleet was gone by 1930. However, other GWR engines survived well into the 1950s. The last of 13 locomotives sold to
J & A Brown J & A Brown was an privately owned Australian coal family firm founded by James Brown (1816–1894) and Alexander Brown (1827–1877). Firm's Beginning at Four Mile Creek In 1843 James Brown leased eighty acres at Four Mile Creek, near E ...
for use on the
Richmond Vale railway line The Richmond Vale Railway was a colliery railway line in the Hunter Valley of New South Wales, Australia, servicing coal mines at Minmi, Stockrington, Pelaw Main and Richmond Main. It was over long and passed through three tunnels, and was ...
, in Australia, was retired in 1973, and 3 locomotives in China were only retired in 1990.


LNER and BR ownership

Upon its formation in 1923 the London and North Eastern Railway inherited a total of 131 class 8K and 17 class 8M locomotives from the Great Central Railway. Under the LNER's ownership the 8Ks became known as Class O4, and the 8Ms as Class O5, although all of the O5s were converted to Class O4s by 1946. They were joined by a further 273 former ROD locomotives purchased in 1923–27, bringing the total LNER O4 fleet to 421 locomotives. Some 92 of these were requisitioned by the War Department in 1941 for use in support of Commonwealth forces in the Middle East, none of which would return to Britain. The O4 locos served widely throughout the LNER system, many being modified to help extend their useful working life on heavy freight trains. Fifty-eight of the class were rebuilt into LNER Thompson Class O1s in 1944–49. 329 LNER O4 locomotives passed to British Railways ownership in 1948. Five locomotives were sold to the Government in 1952 for use in Egypt, and routine withdrawals of BR's class O4s commenced in December 1958. The last examples of the class were withdrawn from operations in the Doncaster area in April 1966, not long before the abandonment of steam altogether.


Preservation

One of the GCR-built 8Ks, BR number 63601 (originally GCR No. 102 built at Gorton in 1911), is preserved in
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where it runs on the preserved Great Central Railway at
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. There are also three ROD 2-8-0s (not used by the GCR or LNER) in
New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...
, Australia. Two are stored at the
Dorrigo Steam Railway and Museum The Dorrigo Steam Railway & Museum in Dorrigo, New South Wales, Australia is a large, privately owned collection of railway vehicles and equipment from the railways of New South Wales, covering both Government and private railways. The collect ...
and one is being restored on the Richmond Vale Railway.


Models

In 2009
Bachmann Branchline Bachmann Branchline is a British OO gauge model railway brand manufactured by Bachmann Europe PLC a subsidiary of Bachmann Industries, and is used for British outline OO scale model railways. Bachmann, a US company founded in 1835, was purchased ...
announced a ready-to-run ' 00' scale model of the Class 8K, marketing it under the LNER class name of O4. The models were of preserved 63601, and models of two scrapped examples (BR 63635 and LNER 6190) have since been released. In October 2012, RailSimulator.com released a payware add-on of the GCR 8K, again marketed under its LNER O4 classification, for '' Train Simulator 2013''. It was released as a companion to the Woodhead Line add-on, released earlier in the year, and features sounds from the preserved O4 63601 before its boiler ticket ran out, and includes four scenarios for the Woodhead Line and Quickdrive compatibility. In May 2019, a new payware version of the GCR 8K was released for ''Train Simulator'' by '' Caledonia Works''. It was released covering multiple variants of the locomotive. Including the GCR 8K, GWR 3000, LNER 04, LNWR ROD, CR ROD and the ROD version itself. The pack included a few Scenarios for the LNER 04 and GWR 3000 classes.


See also

* ROD 2-8-0 *
LNER Class O4 The London and North Eastern Railway (LNER) Class O4 initially consisted of the 131 ex-Great Central Railway (GCR) Class 8K 2-8-0 steam locomotives acquired on grouping in 1923. The engines were designed by John G. Robinson and built at the GCR' ...
* LNER Thompson Class O1 *
GWR 3000 Class The Great Western Railway (GWR) 3000 Class was a class of 2-8-0 steam locomotive consisting of the ex- Railway Operating Division ROD 2-8-0. These were built by North British Locomotive Co. between 1917 and 1918. No examples have been preserve ...
* LMS ex-ROD 2-8-0


References

*


External links


Class O4/1 Details
at ''Rail UK''
LNER Encyclopedia
{{DEFAULTSORT:GCR Class 08K 08K 2-8-0 locomotives Railway locomotives introduced in 1911 Freight locomotives Standard gauge steam locomotives of Great Britain 1′D h2 locomotives Railway Operating Division locomotives