The London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMS) Fairburn Tank

2-6-4T Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, a locomotive has two leading wheels, six coupled driving wheels and four trailing wheels. This arrangement is commonly called Adriatic. Overview With only a few known excep ...

is a class of steam locomotive. They were designed by Charles E. Fairburn for the LMS. 277 of these locomotives were built between 1945 and 1951, numbered in the range 42050–42186, (4)2187–(4)2299, (4)2673–(4)2699.

Overview

This design was based on the earlier Stanier LMS Stanier 2-6-4T, which was derived from Henry Fowler's

LMS Fowler 2-6-4T The London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMS) Fowler 2-6-4T was a class of steam locomotive passenger tank engine designed by Henry Fowler. Construction 125 examples of the class were built. The last 30 numbered 2395 to 2424 were fitted wi ...

engine. Fairburn modified the design to have a shorter wheelbase, reduced from to allowing curves of 5 chains to be negotiated; to reduce the locomotives mass per unit length the overall weight was reduced by . It was also the basis for the later British Railways Standard Class 4 tank. They were used mainly for suburban passenger trains. Forty-one examples of the class were constructed by

Brighton railway works Brighton railway works (also known as Brighton locomotive works, or just the Brighton works) was one of the earliest railway-owned locomotive repair works, founded in 1840 by the London and Brighton Railway in Brighton, England, and thus pre-da ...

for service on the

Southern Region of British Railways The Southern Region was a region of British Railways from 1948 until 1992 when railways were re-privatised. The region ceased to be an operating unit in its own right in the 1980s. The region covered south London, southern England and the south ...

in 1950 and 1951, replacing earlier designs. Of these, seven were transferred to the North Eastern Region between Spring 1952 and the end of 1954; the other 34 were exchanged for a like number of

London Midland Region The London Midland Region (LMR) was one of the six regions created on the formation of the nationalised British Railways (BR), and initially consisted of ex-London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMS) lines in England, Wales and Northern Irelan ...

BR Standard Class 4 2-6-4T locomotives at the end of 1959.

Accidents and incidents

*On 19 April 1955, locomotive No. 42073 was in collision with V2 No. 60968 at station,

Northumberland Northumberland () is a county in Northern England, one of two counties in England which border with Scotland. Notable landmarks in the county include Alnwick Castle, Bamburgh Castle, Hadrian's Wall and Hexham Abbey. It is bordered by land ...

. Both locomotives were derailed.

Withdrawal

The class was withdrawn between 1961 and 1967.

Preservation

Two of the Brighton-built locomotives have survived in preservation. In its early days, 2085 carried

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 ...

blue livery, complete with an oval brass Caledonian number plate. This attractive livery was popular with the public, but strongly divided opinions in the preservation movement for its inaccuracy. At the same time, 2073 was painted in LNWR blackberry black, which was comparably anachronistic but generated less hostility as it did at least resemble the original livery.

Models

Bachmann Bachmann is a surname of Switzerland and Germany. It originates as a description of the bearer as dwelling near a brook (''Bach''), such as a farm "Hofstatt am Bach" also called "Bachmanns Hofstatt" near Hinwil or Dürnten (recorded 1387), or the ...

produces a 00 Gauge model of the Fairburn 4MT in LMS Black as well as early and late BR, numbered as 42073. Bachmann (Graham Farish) also produces several N gauge variants: 2691 in LMS black, 42096 (early BR black), and 42073 (late BR black). ACE Trains have produced an O-gauge model of 2085 in its early-preservation Caledonian Railway blue livery, although the model is actually of a Stanier designed 2-6-4T.

Images

References

Sources

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External links

{{commons category, LMS Fairburn Class 4 2-6-4T,
LMS Fairburn Class 4 2-6-4T 4 Fairburn 2-6-4T 2-6-4T locomotives Railway locomotives introduced in 1945 Standard gauge steam locomotives of Great Britain Passenger locomotives