The London and South Western Railway L11 class was a class of

4-4-0 4-4-0 is a locomotive type with a classification that uses the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives by wheel arrangement and represents the arrangement: four leading wheels on two axles (usually in a leading bogie), four po ...

steam locomotive A steam locomotive is a locomotive that provides the force to move itself and other vehicles by means of the expansion of steam. It is fuelled by burning combustible material (usually coal, oil or, rarely, wood) to heat water in the locomot ...

s designed for

mixed traffic Mixed traffic is a term that may refer to: *A mixed-traffic locomotive. *A street running train A street running train is a train which runs on a track built on public streets. The rails are embedded in the roadway, and the train shares the str ...

work. They were introduced in

1903 Events January * January 1 – Edward VII is proclaimed Emperor of India. * January 19 – The first west–east transatlantic radio broadcast is made from the United States to England (the first east–west broadcast having been ...

and were

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d "Large Hoppers". As with most other Drummond productions, the locomotive had two inside cylinders and

Stephenson link 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. ...

valve gear The valve gear of a steam engine is the mechanism that operates the inlet and exhaust valves to admit steam into the cylinder and allow exhaust steam to escape, respectively, at the correct points in the cycle. It can also serve as a reversing g ...

Background

The L11 class was one of a number of designs by

Dugald Drummond Dugald Drummond (1 January 1840 – 8 November 1912) was a Scottish steam locomotive engineer. He had a career with the North British Railway, LB&SCR, Caledonian Railway and London and South Western Railway. He was the older brother of the eng ...

incorporating a large proportion of standard parts that could be interchanged with other classes of locomotive. The

boiler A boiler is a closed vessel in which fluid (generally water) is heated. The fluid does not necessarily boil. The heated or vaporized fluid exits the boiler for use in various processes or heating applications, including water heating, central h ...

was interchangeable with the T9 class, and likewise was equipped with water tubes fitted across the

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combustion space, with the aim of increasing heating surface whilst facilitating water circulation; this device however also increased maintenance costs and was soon removed by Drummond's successor, Robert Urie.

Later history

The L11 class was never equipped with a

superheater 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 ar ...

as was applied to other Drummond types. The class was coupled to a six-wheeled tender as standard, although from time to time they had the Drummond eight-wheeled 'watercart' by way of tender interchange. Eight locomotives were converted to oil firing as part of government trials in 1947 to 1948. No examples have been preserved.

Construction table

Livery and numbering

LSWR and Southern

Under the LSWR, the L11s were outshopped in the LSWR Passenger Sage Green livery with purple-brown edging, creating panels of green. This was further lined in white and black with 'LSWR' in gilt on the tender tank sides. When transferred to Southern Railway ownership after 1923, the locomotives were outshopped in Richard Maunsell's darker version of the LSWR livery.Swift (2006). The LSWR standard gilt lettering was changed to yellow with 'Southern' on the water tank sides. The locomotives also featured black and white lining.Haresnape & Rowledge (1982).

Post-1948 (nationalisation)

Livery after Nationalisation was initially Southern freight livery with 'British Railways' on the tender, and an 'S' prefix on the number. The class was subsequently outshopped in BR Mixed Traffic Black with red and white lining, with the BR crest on the tender.Longworth (2005). Locomotive numbering was per BR standard practice, with 40 locomotives passing into

British Railways British Railways (BR), which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was a state-owned company that operated most of the overground rail transport in Great Britain from 1948 to 1997. It was formed from the nationalisation of the Big Four British rai ...

ownership in 1948 and they were numbered randomly (with other LSWR classes) in the ranges 30134-30175, 30405-30414, 30435-30442. Numbering was based upon the batches built. However, thirteen of the locomotives had been withdrawn by the end of 1948, resulting in gaps in the sequence.

Comparison with K10

According to Dendy Marshall, Dendy Marshall & Kidner (1963), p. 176 the main differences between the K10 "Small Hoppers" and the L11 "Large Hoppers" were: * K10, 9 foot coupling rods and C8 type boiler * L11, 10 foot coupling rods and T9 type boiler

References

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External links

SEMG gallery
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lswr L11 Class L11 4-4-0 locomotives Railway locomotives introduced in 1903 Scrapped locomotives Standard gauge steam locomotives of Great Britain