The North Eastern Railway Class E1, classified as Class J72 by the London and North Eastern Railway (LNER), is a class of small 0-6-0T steam locomotives designed by

Wilson Worsdell Wilson Worsdell (7 September 1850 – 14 April 1920) was an English locomotive engineer who was locomotive superintendent of the North Eastern Railway from 1890 to 1910. He was the younger brother of T.W. Worsdell. Wilson was born at Monks C ...

for shunting. They had inside cylinders and

Stephenson valve gear The Stephenson valve gear or Stephenson link or shifting link is a simple design of valve gear that was widely used throughout the world for various kinds of steam engines. It is named after Robert Stephenson but was invented by his employees. ...

. They were a development of the earlier NER Class E (LNER Class J71) 0-6-0 T designed by T.W. Worsdell who was Wilson Worsdell's brother.

History

Build dates

A total of 113 locomotives were built: * 1898–1899, 20 locos built by NER at

Darlington Works Darlington Works was established in 1863 by the Stockton and Darlington Railway in the town of Darlington in the north east of England. The main part of the works, the North Road Shops was located on the northeast side of the Stockton and Darl ...

* 1914, 20 locos built by NER at Darlington Works * 1920, 10 locos built by NER at Darlington Works * 1922, 25 locos built for NER by Armstrong Whitworth & Co * 1925, 10 locos built by LNER at

Doncaster Works Doncaster Railway Works is a railway workshop located in Doncaster, England. Also referred to as The Plant''", it was established by the Great Northern Railway in 1853, replacing the previous works in Boston and Peterborough. Until 1867 it u ...

* 1949–1951, 28 locos built by British Railways at Darlington Works This is a rare, possibly unique, example of a locomotive class which was built, completely unchanged, under pre-grouping, post-grouping and British Railways administration. York Layerthorpe 9 77

Numbering

British Railways numbers were: * 68670-68754 (pre-nationalisation locos) * 69001-69028 (new locos)

Preservation

No. 69023 (Departmental No. 59) was purchased by Mr. R. Ainsworth. It is owned by the

North Eastern Locomotive Preservation Group The North Eastern Locomotive Preservation Group (NELPG) was formed in 1966 with the intention of preserving some of the steam locomotives then still working on regular goods or passenger trains in North East England. At the time of its formation, ...

. It has worked on several

preserved railway A heritage railway or heritage railroad (US usage) is a railway operated as living history to re-create or preserve railway scenes of the past. Heritage railways are often old railway lines preserved in a state depicting a period (or periods) i ...

s. In contrast to the normal black paint finish, this loco operates in a hybrid NER/LNER/BR apple green paint scheme. It re-entered service in 2010 and visited many heritage railways. No. 69023 is now based on the Wensleydale Railway but returns to the NELPG's base at Hopetown Carriage Works, Darlington for winter maintenance. Steam Locomotive 69023 (7074556801)

References

External links