The steam locomotives of British Railways were used by British Railways over the period 1948–1968. The vast majority of these were inherited from its four constituent companies, the "Big Four".
In addition, BR built 2,537 steam locomotives in the period 1948–1960, 1,538 to pre-nationalisation designs and 999 to its own standard designs. These locomotives had short working lives, some as little as five years, because of the decision to end the use of steam traction by 1968, against a design life of over 30 years and a theoretical final withdrawal date of between 1990 and 2000.
Background British Railways was created on 1 January 1948 principally by the merger of the "Big Four" grouped railway companies: the Great Western Railway (GWR), the London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMS), the London and North Eastern Railway (LNER) and the Southern Railway (SR). It inherited a wide legacy of locomotives and rolling stock, much of which needed replacing due to the ravages of World War II.
Locomotives inherited from constituent companies A wide variety of locomotives was acquired from the four major constituent companies. These had generally standardised their own designs. See: Locomotives of the Great Western Railway specifically List of GWR locomotives as of 31 December 1947See Patrick Whitehouse and David St John Thomas Great Western Railway: 150 Glorious Years Locomotives of the Southern Railway specifically List of Southern Railway locomotives as of 31 December 1947See Patrick Whitehouse and David St John Thomas SR 150: A Century and a Half of the Southern Railway Locomotives of the London, Midland and Scottish Railway specifically List of LMS locomotives as of 31 December 1947See Patrick Whitehouse and David St John Thomas LMS 150 The London Midland and Scottish Railway – A Century and a Half of Progress Locomotives of the London and North Eastern Railway specifically List of LNER locomotives as of 31 December 1947See Patrick Whitehouse and David St John Thomas LNER 150: The London and North Eastern – A Century and a Half of Progress
In addition, a handful of locomotives were inherited from minor constituents.
The 1948 Locomotive Exchange Trials compared locomotives from each company against each other.
Classification
After initially using letter prefixes (E for ex-LNER, M for ex-LMS, S for ex-SR, and W for ex-GWR locomotives, as used for other inherited rolling stock), a numbering scheme was decided on in March 1948. Generally ex-GWR locomotives retained their numbers (and hence were able to retain their cast brass number plates) and it was decided to add 30000 to the Southern numbers, 40000 to the LMS numbers and 60000 to the LNER numbers. There were some exceptions though.
BR adopted a slightly modified version of the LMS classification system, itself based on the Midland Railway's system. Each locomotive class was given a number 0–9 that signified its power, 0 for the least powerful and 9 for the most, with a suffix of F or P, indicating freight and passenger roles respectively. Freight power ranged from 0–9, passenger from 0–8. Many locomotives were used for both roles, in which case they were given two class numbers, the P-rating first e.g. 3P4F or 6P5F. A slight change from the LMS system saw those where the freight classification (x) equalled the passenger classification (also x) reclassified as xMT, MT standing for mixed-traffic, e.g. for the LMS Black Five locomotives, LMS 5P5F became BR 5MT. Mixed traffic locomotives had power in the range of classes 2–6.
Locomotives acquired from the War Department
In addition to the inherited and new-build locomotives, B.R. also purchased 620 locomotives of three types from the War Department. These had been in use on railways in Great Britain and elsewhere in Europe during the Second World War. For two of these types, BR was adding to two classes it already had. BR had inherited 556 ex-LMS Stanier Class 8F 2-8-0s, and added 39 in 1949 and an additional three in 1957, bringing the class total to 666. Additionally, it had acquired 200 ex-LNER Class O7 2-8-0s of the WD Austerity 2-8-0 type, to which it added another 533 examples.
The ex-LNER locomotives were later renumbered from the ex-LNER 6xxxx series into the BR series as 90000-90100, 90422-90520. The third type, of which it had no other examples, were the 25 of the WD Austerity 2-10-0s. Of the eight WD ex-LMS Fowler Class 3F 0-6-0Ts exported to France, the five survivors were repatriated in 1948, and resumed their original numbers in the sequence of LMS Fowler Class 3F locomotives (albeit with the additional 40000 that identified ex-LMS locomotives under BR ownership). The ex-WD Hunslet Austerity 0-6-0STs were ex-LNER Class J94 locomotives and are included in the total of LNER locomotives inherited.
Numbers BR Class WD type Number acquired Dates acquired Power class Wheel arrangement Notes47589/607/11/59/60ex-LMS Fowler Class 3FWD ex-LMS Fowler Class 3F519483F48012 etc., 48773–5BR Stanier Class 8FWD / LMS Stanier Class 8F 421949, 19578F90101-421,521-732BR ex-WD Austerity 2-8-0 WD Austerity 2-8-053319488FPlus another 200 examples of LNER Class O7, later renumbered 90000-100,422-52090750–74BR ex-WD Austerity 2-10-0 WD Austerity 2-10-02519488F
Locomotives built by BR to Big Four designs Initially, the newly nationalised network continued to be run as four different concerns, and pursued the policy of building of well-established designs. Some of these were already quite old, one class (the J72 tank engines) being a Pre-Grouping design.
GWR designs
Great Western management was opposed to nationalisation and built many pannier tanks, resulting in a surplus of them. 452 locomotives were built to ex-GWR designs, of which 341 were pannier tanks. ClassNumbersPowerClassificationWheelArrangementNumberBuiltDatesBuilt15001500–94F10194916001600–692F701949–51, 195494003400–9, 8400–99, 9410–994F2001949–5622513218–93MT2194851014160–794MT201948–957006760–79, 9662–823F411948–506959 "Modified Hall"6981–99, 7900–295MT491948–504073 "Castle"7008–377P301948–5074007430–492F201948, 19507800 "Manor"7820–95MT101950Total4521948–56
SR designs The SR designs built by BR included 50 Bulleid Pacifics. Many of these were later rebuilt in an un-streamlined form. BR also completed and steamed one of the experimental SR Leader class, but did not take it into stock, and cancelled the remaining orders in various states of completeness.
ClassNumbersPowerClassificationWheelArrangementNumberBuiltDatesBuiltWest Country/Battle of Britain34071–1107P5F401948–51Merchant Navy35021–308P101948–9Total501948–51
LMS designs 640 locomotives were built to LMS designs. They were built at various BR works, not just at the ex-LMS works at Crewe, Derby and Horwich. Many of the later BR standard designs were based on the LMS designs.
ClassNumbersPowerClassificationWheelArrangementNumberBuiltDatesBuiltIvatt 2MT 2-6-2T41210–3292MT1201948–52LMS Fairburn 2-6-4T42050–186, 42190–94MT1471948–51Ivatt 4MT 2-6-043003–1614MT1591948–52Stanier "Black Five"44658–7575MT1001948–51Stanier "Coronation"462578P11948Ivatt 2MT 2-6-046420–5272MT1081948–53Kitson saddle tank47005–90F51953–4Total6401948–54
LNER designs
BR built 396 locomotives to LNER designs. The J72 Class was a North Eastern Railway design, dating from 1898.
ClassNumbersPower classificationWheel arrangementNumber builtDates builtA1Peppercorn A160114–628P6F491948–49A2Peppercorn A260526–398P7F141948B1Thompson B161273–4095MT1361948–52J72J7269001–282F281949–51K1Thompson/Peppercorn K162001–706MT701949–50L1Thompson L167702–8004MT991948–50Total3961948–52
BR 'Standard' classes
From 1951, BR started to build steam locomotives to its own standard designs intended to succeed a disparate number of pre-grouping engines. They were largely based on LMS practice but incorporating ideas and modifications from the other constituent companies and America. Their design was overseen by Robert Riddles.
Characteristic features were taper boilers, high running plates, two cylinders and streamlined cabs.
Although more were ordered, 999 BR "Standards" were constructed: the last, 92220 Evening Star, was built in 1960. Most never achieved their potential service life and were withdrawn in working order.
Riddles put his case for continuing to build steam locomotives in his presidential address to the Institution of Locomotive Engineers in November 1950. He compared capital costs to show that steam was cheaper than the alternatives, though he didn't mention productivity differences, except to say fuel costs did not rank very high relative to total costs. For example, a Class 5 cost £16,000, compared to £78,100 for a 1,600 h. p. diesel, £138,700 for a gas turbine, or £37,400 for electric. He calculated the costs per drawbar horse power as £13 6s (steam), £65 (diesel), £69 7s (turbine) and £17 13s (electric).Railway Magazine January 1951 pp. 60–61 Standardisation and Comparative Costs of Motive Power on B.R.
Class Numbers Powerclassification Wheelarrangement Quantitybuilt Yearsbuilt RA Tender types Image Class 7 (Britannia) 70000–054 7P6F 55 1951–54 8 BR1, BR1A, BR1D Class 8 (Duke of Gloucester) 71000 8P 1 1954 8 BR1E until 1957, BR1J thereafter Class 6 (Clan) 72000–009 6P5F 10 1952 8 BR1 Class 5 73000–171 5MT 172 1951–57 7 BR1, BR1B, BR1C, BR1F, BR1G, BR1H Class 4 4-6-0 75000–079 4MT 80 1951–57 4 BR2, BR2A Class 4 2-6-0 76000–114 4MT 115 1952–57 4 BR2, BR2A, BR1B Class 3 77000–019 3MT 20 1953 4 BR2A Class 2 78000–064 2MT 65 1952–56 3 BR3 Class 4 Tank 80000–154 4MT 155 1951–57 5 — Class 3 Tank 82000–044 3MT 45 1951–53 4 — Class 2 Tank 84000–029 2MT 30 1953–57 3 — Class 9F 92000–250 9F 251 1954–60 9 BR1B, BR1C, BD1F, BR1G Total 9991951–60
Liveries Initially, BR decided upon blue for the largest passenger types, with GWR-style Brunswick green for passenger locomotives, and LNWR-style lined black for mixed-traffic locomotives. The blue however was quickly dropped and passenger livery for all locomotive classes reverted to green. Towards the end locomotives tended to be painted in lesser liveries, and often this was covered in a layer of grime.Brian Haresnape Railway Liveries. BR Steam 1948–1968
Two logos (or crests) were used during the period. The first logo (1948–1956) was the "Lion and Wheel" (sometimes nicknamed the "Cycling Lion"), showing a lion standing over a spoked wheel upon which the words "British Railways" were displayed.Photo of early British Railways logo – in the form of an enamel badge The second logo (1956–1965) featured a lion holding a wheel (which gave rise to the nickname "ferret and dartboard"), sitting in a crown, with the words "British" and "Railways" to left and right. (Passenger stock and certain diesel locomotives used a roundel variant, where the words "British Railways" were in a ring surrounding the crest.)Photo of later British Railways logo – in the form of an enamel badge From 1965, the BR Corporate Image and "Double Arrow" logo was adopted, but this logo was not applied to steam locomotives (except on the Vale of Rheidol line).
Certain classes of steam locomotives were barred from working south of Crewe with effect from 1 September 1964 due to clearance issues with the new overhead electrification. Those locomotives affected had a broad yellow band painted diagonally across their cabsides to denote this prohibition.
Withdrawal
The 1955 Modernisation Plan called for the phasing out of steam traction. Major withdrawals occurred during 1962–1966, and steam traction ended in August 1968, coinciding with the Beeching Axe.
Some tank engines were sold to London Transport, where steam traction remained in use until 1971. Steam on industrial lines remained until the 1980s.