The Midland Railway 483 Class
4-4-0 was a class of
steam locomotive designed by
Henry Fowler for passenger work on the
Midland Railway
The Midland Railway (MR) was a railway company in the United Kingdom from 1844. The Midland was one of the largest railway companies in Britain in the early 20th century, and the largest employer in Derby, where it had its headquarters. It ama ...
. The class were nominally "rebuilds" of various earlier classes designed by
Samuel W. Johnson, although
the '483' class engines were, unquestionably, 'accountancy rebuilds' (effectively new locos 'disguised' to gain routine expenditure approval from the board)
. This design formed the basis for the later
LMS Class 2P 4-4-0
The London Midland and Scottish Railway Class 2P 4-4-0 was a class of steam locomotive designed for light passenger work.
Overview
The class was introduced in 1928 and was a post-grouping development of the Midland Railway 483 Class with mo ...
.
Construction of the first batch of this class was authorised by Midland Railway Order O/3942 dated 21 June 1911:
'Please put your work in hand in connection with rebuilding engines 483–522 with new frames, new cylinders and G7 boilers fitted with Schmidt's superheaters.' Apart from the savings made by using the parts that were salvaged from the old engines, there was an added benefit in referring to them as rebuilt since the royalties due to the superheater company were lower for modified locomotives than for new ones.
This first batch of locomotives previously formed the 150 class. Their rebuilding to Class 483 took place 1912-1913.
Four more batches of rebuilds were authorised; in 1912, 1913, 1914 and 1922. The
London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMS) inherited these locomotives at the Grouping of the railways in 1923, completing the last of these rebuilds in 1924.
Some of them duly passed into
British Railways (BR) ownership in 1948.
Numbering
* BR numbers 40332-40397 (17 locomotives) originally built 1882–1891, some rebuilt from 1910 onwards
* BR numbers 40400-40562 (143 locomotives) originally built 1891–1901, all rebuilt between 1912 and 1923
* BR numbers 40322-40326 (5 locomotives) built for
Somerset and Dorset Joint Railway
The Somerset and Dorset Joint Railway, also known as the S&D, SDJR or S&DJR, was an English railway line connecting Bath (in north-east Somerset) and Bournemouth (now in south-east Dorset but then in Hampshire), with a branch from Evercreech ...
1914-1921 and taken into LMS stock in 1930
Note: two of the above number series contain gaps so the totals do not tally.
Rebuilding
On rebuilding, the
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.
...
was retained but the following changes were made:
* cylinders with
slide valves were replaced by cylinders with
piston valves.
* driving wheels were replaced by driving wheels.
* A
superheater was fitted.
References
External links
Class 2P-AB Detailsat ''Rail UK'', Older locos
Class 2P-AC Detailsat ''Rail UK'', Newer locos
Class 2P-AA Detailsat ''Rail UK'', Somerset and Dorset locos
{{DEFAULTSORT:Midland Railway 0483 Class
0483
Somerset and Dorset Joint Railway locomotives
4-4-0 locomotives
Railway locomotives introduced in 1882
Standard gauge steam locomotives of Great Britain
2′B h2 locomotives
Scrapped locomotives
Passenger locomotives