The

London and North Eastern Railway The London and North Eastern Railway (LNER) was the second largest (after LMS) of the " Big Four" railway companies created by the Railways Act 1921 in Britain. It operated from 1 January 1923 until nationalisation on 1 January 1948. At th ...

Class V4 was a class of 2-6-2

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 ...

Nigel Gresley Sir Herbert Nigel Gresley (19 June 1876 – 5 April 1941) was a British railway engineer. He was one of Britain's most famous steam locomotive engineers, who rose to become Chief Mechanical Engineer (CME) of the London and North Eastern Rai ...

for mixed-traffic use. It was Gresley's last design for the LNER before he died in 1941. The V4s had similarities in their appearance and mechanical layout to the V2 "Green Arrow" class. The V2s, introduced some years before, were large and heavy locomotives, with very limited route availability. The V4 was a lightweight alternative, suitable for use over the whole of the LNER network.

Features

Two locomotives were built at the LNER's

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 un ...

in 1941. The first engine, 3401 ''Bantam Cock'', had a scaled-down version of the Gresley Pacific boiler with a grate area of 28.5 sq ft. Its tractive effort of 27,000 lbs was produced by boiler pressure of 250

psi Psi, PSI or Ψ may refer to: Alphabetic letters * Psi (Greek) (Ψ, ψ), the 23rd letter of the Greek alphabet * Psi (Cyrillic) (Ѱ, ѱ), letter of the early Cyrillic alphabet, adopted from Greek Arts and entertainment * "Psi" as an abbreviatio ...

and three cylinders of 15-inch diameter. The second locomotive, 3402, incorporated a fully welded steel

firebox Firebox may refer to: *Firebox (steam engine), the area where the fuel is burned in a steam engine *Firebox (architecture), the part of a fireplace where fuel is combusted *Firebox Records Firebox Records was a Finnish record label based in S ...

and a single

thermic syphon Thermic siphons (alt. thermic syphons) are Heat-exchanger, heat-exchanging elements in the Firebox (steam engine), firebox or Combustion chamber#Steam engine, combustion chamber of some steam boiler and steam locomotive designs. As they are dire ...

for water circulation. It was not named, but was known unofficially as "Bantam Hen".

Performance

The type was tried on the Great Eastern section of the LNER, and was well received, with more power than the existing B17s and better riding qualities. It was anticipated that many more would be produced, but after the death of Gresley and his succession by Edward Thompson, no more were built. Instead, the

LNER Thompson Class B1 The London and North Eastern Railway (LNER) Thompson Class B1 is a class of steam locomotive designed by Edward Thompson for medium mixed traffic work. Overview It was the LNER's equivalent to the highly successful GWR Hall Class and t ...

was adopted as the LNER's standard mixed-traffic locomotive.

Service in Scotland

The two locomotives were sent to Scotland for use on the

West Highland Line The West Highland Line ( gd, Rathad Iarainn nan Eilean - "Iron Road to the Isles") is a railway line linking the ports of Mallaig and Oban in the Scottish Highlands to Glasgow in Central Scotland. The line was voted the top rail journey in th ...

, although their wheel arrangement was not particularly suitable for the steep gradients on the line. They were renumbered 1700 and 1701 in 1946, and later became

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 ...

61700 and 61701.

Withdrawal

Both were scrapped in 1957 when their boilers became due for renewal.

New Build V4

At the A1 Steam Locomotive Trust Silver Jubilee Convention, it was announced that after the completion of no. 2007 "Prince of Wales", they would begin construction on a new V4 which will be number 3403 (61702) Anon. On the 6th of September, 2018, the A1 Trust officially announced that it had started the pre-launch stage for project, with a projected cost of £3 million, and an estimated starting date of 2021. The project is estimated to take around 5 years. There are already parts for the V4 at Darlington Locomotive Works, including a complete set of tyres (originally made for a group in the 1990s who planned to build a V4), a chimney, and the speedometer drives from a

British Rail Class 08 The British Rail Class 08 is a class of diesel-electric shunting locomotive built by British Railways (BR). As the standard BR general-purpose diesel shunter, the class became a familiar sight at major stations and freight yards. Since their ...

. In October of 2022, the A1 Steam Locomotive Trust announced that No. 3403 will be named ''Highlander''. Chimney of 3403

References

* * * {{LNER Locomotives V4 2-6-2 locomotives 1′C1′ h3 locomotives Railway locomotives introduced in 1941 Scrapped locomotives Standard gauge steam locomotives of Great Britain Mixed traffic locomotives