Heritagerailway.co.uk 85
Right:Builtin1 902,MidlandRailw ay compound
4-4-0No. 1000isse enat SteamtownCarnforthin
May1980.BRIAN SHARPEA
tthe turn of thecenturytherewere
locomotive superintendents who
had beenintheir jobsfor over30
years. Born soonafter thedawnofthe steam
age, theseengineers had designed engines
that were modern andsuccess ful in their
day, but 1870s-st yle4-2-2 sand 2-4-0s were
nowlooking decidedlyancient beside the
latest designsfromthe newgener atio nof
locomotive engineers.
Francis Webb had beenthe chiefmechanical
engineerofthe London &North Western
Railwaysince 1871 andhad expe rimented
withtwo-cylinder compound 2-2-2-2s but
hadbuilt some effective2-4-0s and, later,
compound 0-8-0s .Healsobuilt some
four-cyl inder compound 4-4-0sand 4-6-0s.
Afterhis stintaschief mechanical engineer
on theLancashire&YorkshireRailway from
1886,JohnAspinallhad becomeits gene ral
managerin1899. In this capacityhewas to
introduceelectrif icationand greatlyexpand
thetransport of coal. Aspinall wastoreceive
aknighthood in 1917 for hiscontributio ns to
thewar effortand national transportsystem.
Aspinall wasreplaced as CMEbyHenry
Hoy,who had beenHorwich works manager.
Hoyremained in hispostonlyuntil 1904
when he left to becomeworks managerof
Beyer Peacock in Manchester.During histime
as CME, he introduced only onenew class of
locomotivebut he washeavily involvedinthe
design andbuildingofthe electric stockfor
theLiver pool-Southport electrification,which
becameoperational in 1904.
GeorgeHughes wasbornin1865in
Benwick, Cambridgeshireand becamechief
mechanical engineerofthe Lancashi re and
YorkshireRailway in 1904.His locomotive
designswerelargely developmentsofexisting
types, such as theClass 6, asuperheated
development of theClass 52-4-2T,the Class
28 0-6-0 andvarious 0-8-0s,plussomesmall
Railmotor 0-2-2Tsand 0-4-0Ts–butincluded
theClass 8Dreadnought 4-6-0 and4-6-4T
Dreadnoughttank.
Hughes’mainclaim to fame duringhis
career with theL&Y wasfor designinga
locomotivethatunfortunatelywas never
builtbecause of theoutbreakofthe First
WorldWar;a2-10-0 for heavymineral trains.
Hughes’L&Y designsnever found favour with
theLMS afterthe 1923 Groupingand none
have survived.
DuringHughes’ time at theL&Y,an
expe rimental electric locomotive,rebuilt
from a2-4-2T,was introduced in 1912 for
goodstraffic.Thishad four150hpmotors
andcould pick up currentfromthe thirdrail
on themainlineorfromoverheadlines in
theAintree andNorth Mersey yards. It was
scrapped in 1919.
Wilson Worsdellsucceededhis brother
as locomotive superintendent on theNorth
Eastern Railwayin1890. With arapid growth
in mineraltraffic at thebeginning of the20th
century, theNER urgently requ ired powerful
locomotives. Wilson Worsdellhad produced
a4-6-0 forpassengerservices in 1899 and
followed this with an 0-8-0version forheavy
freight traffic.
TheTclass 0-8-0was strong,simpleand
reliable,withpistonvalvesthatwereproving
to be reliable by thetimeofconstructionin1962.Itiscurrently on displa yafter afurther
period of operatio nin1980-83.GreatEastern
JamesHolden’stimeatStratford onthe
GreatEastern Railwayhad provedextremely
productive andthe popularand successful S46
ClaudHamil ton4-4-0s areusually credited to
him, as he wasthe chiefmechanical engineer
when No.1900was builtin1900. However,
Holden wasactually out ofthecountry at
thetimeand Stratford’s chiefdraughtsman
FrederickRussell wasresponsible for most of
thedesignwork.
ClaudHamil tonwas thelargest express
locomotive on theGER.Averyattractive
locomotive in itsroyal blue livery,itq uickly
wonagoldmedal at the1900Paris Exhibition.
Initially41werebuilt,but thenextbatch
wasfittedwithBelpa irefireboxes–70 were
constructed andclassifiedD56.The last four
were builtwithsuperheat ers.
However, JamesHoldenwould be
best-remembered foranunorthodox
one-offlocomotive.Therewasaschemefor
an electrifiedrailway outofLondontothe
suburbs served by theGER andthe proposers
of theschemeclaimed that theirelectric
trai ns would accelerate to 30mphin30
seconds. Holden resolved to obtain thesame
performancewithsteam traction to tryto
fightoff th is unwanted competition.
Theunique‘Decapod’0-10-0T developed
mainly underHolden’schief draughtsman
FrederickRussell,was builtin1902witha
massiveboile rwithWootten firebox, three
cylinderseach, withitsown blastpipecone,
and10small drivingwheels. Itsacceleration
waslivel y; excee ding the30mph in 30
secondstarget. Holden knew that thecivil
engineer wouldnever allowthe enginetorun
in service, but itserved itspurposeandthe
electric railwaywas neverbuilt.
Holden held of fice from 1885 to 1907 and
wassucceededby hisson Stephenin1908,
whoenlar gedthe ClaudHamil ton4-4-0 into“DuringHughes’ time at theL&Y,anexperimentalelectric
locomotive,rebuilt from a2-4-2T, wasintrodu cedin1912for
goodstraffic.Thishad four 150hpmotorsand couldpickup
currentfromthe thir drail on themainlineorfromoverhead
lines in th eAintree andNorth Mersey yards. It wasscrapped
in 1919 .”
1901,altho ugh50werebuilt withslidevalves
andclassifiedT1. Theengines provedhighly
successful andwerethe forerunners of the
laterwell-knownNER 0-8-0classes.
Worsdellwas also involved in theNER’s first
electrificationproject;the North Tyneside
suburbanroute,which wasathirdrailsystem
at 600v DC andwas inauguratedin1904.Midlandcompounds
TheNER WilliamWorsdell/vonBorries
two-cylinder compound 4-4-0formedthe
basisfor an initialbatch of five Midland
Railway1000 class 4-4-0s designed by Samuel
Johnsonin1902. These were followed from
1905 onwardsby40ofanenlargedproduction
version, whereall theSmith fittings were
replaced by asimplifiedstartingarrangement
incorporat ed into theregulator ,designed
by Johnson’ssuccessor, RichardDeeley,
making theengines simplertodrive.They
had alayoutofone high-pressurecylinder
inside theframes, andtwo low-pressure
cylindersoutside.
In 1875,Richard Deeley had become a
pupi lofSamuelJohnsonatDerbyworks.He
succeededJohnsonin1903and progressed
withthecompany’s useofcompound4-4-0s
startedbyJohnsonbut disagreed with the
MR boardoverits smallenginepolicyand
resignedatthe endof1909tobesucceededby
HenryFowler.
TheoriginalJohnsonlocomotiveswereall
subseq uently rebuiltasDeeleycompounds,
includingthe now-preservedNo. 1000,which
wasrebuilt withasuperheat er in 1914.
Despitebeingsignificantlyrebuilt,when
No.41000 waswithd rawn in 1951,itwas
retained at Derbyfor preservation,eventually
beingrestored to MR livery in 1914 condition
as No.1000.
It even becameone of averyselectnumber
of BR’s preservedengines to be returned to
steam, working occasionalrailtou rs from
1959 unti litwas putonstaticdisplay in the
Museum of BritishTransport at Claphamin