The GER Class D81 was a class of twenty-five
0-6-0 steam locomotives designed by
A. J. Hill for the
Great Eastern Railway. The all passed to the
London and North Eastern Railway at the
1923 grouping
The Railways Act 1921 (c. 55), also known as the Grouping Act, was an Act of Parliament enacted by the British government and intended to stem the losses being made by many of the country's 120 railway companies, by "grouping" them into four la ...
and received the classification J20.
History
These locomotives were fitted with cylinders and wheels, while the
Belpaire firebox
The Belpaire firebox is a type of firebox used on steam locomotives. It was invented by Alfred Belpaire of Belgium in 1864. Today it generally refers to the shape of the outer shell of the firebox which is approximately flat at the top and sq ...
-fitted boiler was identical to that fitted to the
Class S69 4-6-0s. They were the most powerful 0-6-0 tender locomotive in Britain until the arrival of
Oliver Bulleid
Oliver Vaughan Snell Bulleid CBE (19 September 1882 – 25 April 1970) was a British railway and mechanical engineer best known as the Chief Mechanical Engineer (CME) of the Southern Railway between 1937 and the 1948 nationalisation, d ...
's
Q1 class for the
Southern Railway in 1942.
All were still in service at the 1923 grouping, the LNER adding 7000 to the numbers of nearly all the ex-Great Eastern locomotives, including the Class D81 locomotives. Between 1943 and 1956 the class was rebuilt with round-top fireboxes, and reclassified as J20/1.
At nationalisation in 1948,
British Railways added 60000 to their LNER numbers. They all continued in service until 1959, when the first was withdrawn; all were gone by the end of 1962.
References
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External links
– Great Eastern Railway Society
The Hill J20 (GER Class D81) 0-6-0 Locomotives– LNER Encyclopedia
{{LNER Locomotives
Great Eastern Railway locomotives, D81
0-6-0 locomotives
Railway locomotives introduced in 1920
Standard gauge steam locomotives of Great Britain
Freight locomotives