North British Railway Study Group Journal Number
145
Editorial, cover photograph, feedback Journal Team 3
Euan Cameron. The Reid 18½" Goods 0-6-0 Locomotives: Part 1.
4-
In previous issues one can find articles on
Reid’s 0-6-0T dock tanks (issue 133)
the Intermediate 4-4-0s and Glens (issues 116,
120), the 0-4-4Ts (issue 123) the ‘Scotts’ (issue 41) the 0-6-2Ts
(issue 111) the saturated 4-4-2Ts (issue 130) and a recent brief article
on the last two Atlantics (issue 143). There remain to be covered only the
superheated 4-4-2Ts, the full story of the big Atlantics, and the topic of
this issue’s article, the goods 0-6-0s. This article is devoted to the
0-6-0s which Reid designed and built as saturated locomotives, and which
became L. N. E. R. class J35, by which identifier they are best known. As
the class included multiple variants and had a complicated rebuilding history,
this article will be presented in two parts. This first part is devoted to
the locomotives’ careers with saturated boilers; their story after fitting
with superheated boilers will be discussed in a following issue.
It is, by the way, misleading to use the power class letters (in this case
‘B’) devised for the train control system, to describe a class,
as though it were a unique identifier of a design. Power class letters were
just that: they gave a rough sense of relative power for assigning loads.
Sometimes the same letter was assigned to a range of different designs, with
differing wheel sizes and even with different wheel arrangements. Reid ’s
design polic y f or big locomotives followed a broad pattern. First, in the
1900s, there came saturated locomotives with very large boilers, some of
which had piston valves feeding the cylinders, and some of which had steam
reversers. Around 1912 or thereabouts Reid, and his Board, finally became
convinced of the benefits of flue-tube superheaters running alongside the
firetubes, and built a whole series of new engines with superheating designed
in from the start. Later, generally speaking after the N. B. had been swallowed
up in the L.N.E.R., the earlier big-boilered saturated engines were given
superheated boilers, in some cases greatly improving their performance in
the process. By the time that Reid took over from Matthew Holmes at Cowlairs,
the N. B. already had 168 18" goods 0-6-0s built since 1888, and a further
32 rebuilds of the Drummond ‘Big Goods’ 0-6-0s which, in rebuilt
form, were mechanically identical to the Holmes ‘eighteen-inchers’.
These 200 goods engines might have been assumed to be sufficient for main
line Euan Cameron reviews a twentieth century design that lasted until almost
the end of steam NRM/OPC number Cowlairs Drawing Office number Subject 12777
2231 Piston Valve locomotives as first built with 6’ 4” firebo
| Works photograph of No. 848, taken at the North British Locomotive Company’s Atlas Works in June 1906. Note initials ‘N.B.R.’ placed closer together than usual for locomotives with this type of tender | 4 |
| NBR 0-6-0 No. 330 as first built at Cowlairs. Note deeper lower section to the chimney cap, straight reach rod from cab to reversing gear, and cab 4-inch longer at the front compared to other examples. On 329-30 only he reversing lever was partly visible through cab side window (Euan Cameron coloured side elevaion) | 5 |
| NBR 0-6-0 No. 330 as built at Cowlairs with deeper lower section to the chimney cap, straight reach rod from cab to reversing gear, and cab 4-inch longer at front compared to other membe rs of class. On Nos. 329-30 reversing lever partly visible through cab side window (Euan Cameron coloured side elevaion) | 6 |
| Offside of first series, No. 855, at Dunfermline in NBR livery, with control number on tender. Appears to show locomotive in unlined black, style adopted in last months before Grouping (R.D. Stephen) | 7 |
| No. 330 at Carlisle Canal Shed in NBR livery: broadside view shows longer front section to cab which distinguished 329 and 330 from others in class. | 7 |
| No. 191 with 12.0 Newcastle - Stobs Camp goods train at Wylam Junction on 16 September 1919. The first of the slide valve engines, it worked in the borders at Tweedmouth and then Carlisle until after nationalisation, ending its days in Fife. (KACRNunn Collection) | 8 |
| LNER. No. 9124, former No. 124, at Inverkeithing Central Junction on an up goods, on 26 July 1926: one of final series of class, built without Westinghouse brake, and with a wider dome. (R.D. Stephen) | 8 |
| NBR No. 366, built NBL Atlas works 1909: drawing shows locomotive after application of control numbers c. 1915, and in slightly greener body colour typical of mid-1910 period. Front overhang of frames is slightly longer than on the other drawings, and the piano cover below (Euan Cameron coloured side elevation) | 9 |
| No. 9329 at Eastfield on 25 May 1946, showing non-standard cab and cab handrail. Engine had been superheated and fitted with vacuum brake by this date, but retains some of its former distinctive J35/2 features. (G.C. Train Collection) | 10 |
| No. 330 at Carlisle Canal shed. Lining is particularly clearly visible in this view, as are the piston valves below cylinders, with tail rod covers projecting forwards. In this photograph the tender tank appears to have been recently filled and has created a film of condensation over the tank sides, except for the coal space at the front. (Alamy) | 11 |
| No.9368 at Burntisland coaling stage on 2 July 1927. (J.M. Gibb) | 11 |
Grant Cullen. The North British Railway and the Great War: Part 5. 16
From our Archives - a few period shots at Ladybank. 23
Douglas Yuill. The South Leith Branch: Part 2. 24-
| 1998 view of the Shore, Leith, where the first wharves were first erected and were genesis of dock development. Rails are successors to those first laid by E&DR and relaid by the NBR along Eastern Quay towards first rail connection across Inner Harbour on drawbridge in 1860. (Bill Roberton) | 24 |
Alan Simpson West Fife Collieries & The NBR: Part 11 – The Saline Valley and Lethans Pits 36
Richard Copson. An uncommon track formation at Waverley. 48
Graham Dick An Illustrated Interview With Matthew Holmes 50
Routes and lines The Resurrection Of Reston Andrew Boyd 56
Book Review: Railway Reflectons by Stuart Sellar
reviewed by John Wilson. 62
"Presents a photographic record of the highest historical value",
but the captions are the subject of criticism for being printed in faint
grey and for some relatively minor errors.
Book Review ‘No Way Through, Great Glen Railway Schemes’ by John McGregor Andrew Jones 63
Stations Ladybank – OS Map