GNR Class J23

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  • GNR Class J23
  • LNER Classes J50 & J51
Route Availability 6
LocaleEastern Region
Withdrawn1958–1965
DispositionAll scrapped.

The

T steam locomotive. They had long side tanks that came to the front of the smokebox, which sloped forwards to improve visibility and had a recess cut in to aid maintenance. Forty were built by the Great Northern Railway (GNR) between 1913 and 1922, with a further 62 being added by the London and North Eastern Railway (LNER) between 1924 and 1939. They were given the nickname "Submarines" due to their long tanks.[1]

History

For shunting and local goods work, the Great Northern Railway (GNR) had traditionally used saddle-tank engines of the 0-6-0 wheel arrangement; the last of these, of GNR Class J13, having been built in 1909 to the designs of Henry Ivatt, the GNR Locomotive Superintendent.[2][3]

T locomotives with larger boilers, 4 feet 8 inches (1.42 m) in diameter,[6] which left a number of 4-foot-2-inch (1.27 m) diameter boilers spare. Thirty of these were used in the construction of the new goods tank engines between 1913 and 1919;[5] when ten more were built in 1922, these again used secondhand boilers, but 4 feet 5 inches (1.35 m) in diameter.[7] On the GNR, both varieties were classified J23, but the LNER divided them into J51 with smaller boilers, and J50 with larger boilers.[5] The LNER continued the construction of Class J50, building a further 62 up to 1939,[8] only the first ten of which were given secondhand boilers.[9] Class J51 were rebuilt to class J50 between 1929 and 1935.[5]

J50/1 No. 68896 leading J50/3 No. 68975 at Harringay 9 April 1960.

Each of the two main classes exhibited variations: locomotive brakes could be operated by vacuum or steam pressure; the driving position could be on the right- or the left-hand side of the cab; and there were three sizes of coal bunker. These variations were recognised by class subdivisions:[8]

  • J51/1 10 built 1913–14, 4 ft 2 in boiler, vacuum brake, right-hand drive, short bunker
  • J51/2 20 built 1914–19, as J51/1 but long bunker
  • J50/1 10 rebuilt 1929–35 from J51/1 with 4 ft 5 in boiler
  • J50/2 20 built 1922–24, as J51/2 but 4 ft 5 in boiler, plus 20 rebuilt 1929–34 from J51/1 with 4 ft 5 in boiler
  • J50/3 38 built 1926–30, 4 ft 5 in boiler, steam brake, left-hand drive, long bunker
  • J50/4 14 built 1938–39, 4 ft 5 in boiler, vacuum brake, left-hand drive, long bunker with hopper

All were built at

Gorton.[10] Further orders were placed in 1939 and 1941 totalling 25 more locomotives, but these were cancelled in 1942 after a number of components had been manufactured.[11] Withdrawals began in 1958 with the arrival of diesel shunters and ended in 1963 for the normal stock. 7 of them survived as departmental stock until 1965. The class became extinct in September 1965 when Departmental No. 14 (ex-68961) was withdrawn and scrapped. None of them survived into preservation.[12]

Numbering

On the GNR, the numbers were 157–164, 166–176, 178, 211–230; these were increased by 3000 by the LNER.[13] The first ten engines built by the LNER were numbered 3231–40, following on from the GNR engines;[14] but those built from 1926 were given scattered numbers between 583 and 636, between 1037 and 1086, and 2789–94.[15]

In 1943, new numbers were allotted in a continuous block from 8890 to 8991; these numbers were applied between January and December 1946,[16] but before this could be done, the oldest ten, nos. 3157–64/6/7 were temporarily renumbered 3180–9 in May and June 1945. They duly received their permanent numbers 8890–9 between June and December 1946.[17] Under British Railways, the 1946 numbers were increased by 60000.[18]

Notes

  1. ^ "The Gresley J50 & J51 (GNR J23) 0-6-0T Locomotives". LNER. Retrieved 31 January 2019.
  2. ^ Groves 1987, pp. 260–2.
  3. ^ Allen et al. 1970, pp. 25–26.
  4. ^ Groves 1992, p. 3.
  5. ^ a b c d Groves 1992, p. 65.
  6. ^ Groves 1990, pp. 75–76.
  7. ^ Groves 1992, p. 70.
  8. ^ a b Allen et al. 1970, p. 7.
  9. ^ Groves 1992, pp. 71, 72.
  10. ^ Allen et al. 1970, pp. 8, 11, 12.
  11. ^ Allen et al. 1970, p. 13.
  12. ^ "The Gresley J50 & J51 (GNR J23) 0-6-0T Locomotives". LNER Encyclopedia. Retrieved 23 October 2020.
  13. ^ Allen et al. 1970, pp. 7, 8, 11.
  14. ^ Allen et al. 1970, p. 11.
  15. ^ Allen et al. 1970, p. 12.
  16. ^ Allen et al. 1970, p. 8.
  17. ^ Allen et al. 1970, p. 19.
  18. ^ Allen et al. 1970, p. 16.

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to GNR Class J23 / LNER Class J50.
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