The GER Class C72 was a class of thirty

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 ...

s designed by A. J. Hill for the

Great Eastern Railway The Great Eastern Railway (GER) was a pre-grouping British railway company, whose main line linked London Liverpool Street to Norwich and which had other lines through East Anglia. The company was grouped into the London and North Eastern R ...

. They passed to 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 ...

(LNER) at the

1923 grouping The Railways Act 1921 (c. 55), also known as the Grouping Act, was an Act of Parliament enacted by the British government and intended to stem the losses being made by many of the country's 120 railway companies, by "grouping" them into four la ...

and received the LNER classification J68.

History

These locomotives were an improved version of the Class S56 tanks, and the final development of James Holden's Class T18 tank locomotives, sharing the same cylinders, driving wheels, and wheelbase. There were three orders, each of ten locomotives, all built at

Stratford Works Stratford Works was the locomotive-building works of the Great Eastern Railway situated at Stratford, London, England. The original site of the works was located in the 'V' between the Great Eastern Main Line and the Stratford to Lea Bridge rou ...

between 1912 and 1923. The first batch were built as suburban passenger tanks and were fitted with Westinghouse air brakes. The second and third batches were built as shunting tanks and were fitted with steam locomotive brakes and vacuum train brakes. The last batch did not emerge from Stratford until after the grouping. One locomotive was lent to the War Department in October 1939, and sold 12 months later,. It was used on the

Longmoor Military Railway The Longmoor Military Railway (LMR) was a British military railway in Hampshire, built by the Royal Engineers from 1903 in order to train soldiers on railway construction and operations. The railway ceased operation on 31 October 1969. Route ...

before being moved to the Bicester Central Ordnance Depot, and then the Military Port No. 1, Faslane. The remaining locomotives were renumbered 8638–8666 in order of construction. At nationalisation in 1948 they passed to

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 ra ...

, who added 60000 to their numbers. Post war withdrawals started in 1958, and all were gone by 1961.

References

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External links

— Great Eastern Railway Society
The Hill J68 (GER Class C72) 0-6-0T Locomotives
— LNER Encyclopedia {{LNER Locomotives Great Eastern Railway locomotives, C72 0-6-0T locomotives Railway locomotives introduced in 1912 War Department locomotives Scrapped locomotives Standard gauge steam locomotives of Great Britain Mixed traffic locomotives