The NER Class A (

LNER LNER or L.N.E.R. may refer to: *London and North Eastern Railway (1923–1947), a former railway company in the United Kingdom *London North Eastern Railway (2018–), a train operating company in the United Kingdom * Liquid neutral earthing resi ...

Class F8) was a class of

2-4-2 Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, represents the wheel arrangement of two leading wheels on one axle, four powered and coupled driving wheels on two axles and two trailing wheels on one axle. The type is somet ...

tank locomotive A tank locomotive is a steam locomotive which carries its water in one or more on-board water tanks, instead of a more traditional tender (rail), tender. Most tank engines also have Fuel bunker, bunkers (or fuel tanks) to hold fuel; in a #Tender ...

s designed by

Thomas William Worsdell Thomas William Worsdell (14 January 1838 – 28 June 1916) was an English locomotive engineer. He was born in Liverpool into a Quaker family. Family T. W. Worsdell – normally known as William – was the eldest son of Nathaniel Worsdell (18 ...

and built at

Gateshead works Gateshead TMD was a railway traction maintenance depot situated in Gateshead, England. The depot code was 52A during the steam era and GD later on. It was known, along with the adjacent locomotive works, as Greenesfield or Greensfield, after ...

for the North Eastern Railway (NER). Sixty locomotives were built between 1886 and 1892. At this time the class was designated class A by the NER and was the first class in the company to be given an alphabetical letter classification.

Design

Boiler

They were the first locomotives to use

steel Steel is an alloy of iron and carbon that demonstrates improved mechanical properties compared to the pure form of iron. Due to steel's high Young's modulus, elastic modulus, Yield (engineering), yield strength, Fracture, fracture strength a ...

instead of

iron Iron is a chemical element; it has symbol Fe () and atomic number 26. It is a metal that belongs to the first transition series and group 8 of the periodic table. It is, by mass, the most common element on Earth, forming much of Earth's o ...

for the

boiler A boiler is a closed vessel in which fluid (generally water) is heated. The fluid does not necessarily boil. The heated or vaporized fluid exits the boiler for use in various processes or heating applications, including water heating, centra ...

. At the time, the steel boiler was built to a non-standard design that could not be exchanged with any other class of locomotive. However, the design later evolved to become Diagram 69 under the LNER and was used on classes D23, G5, J24 and J73.

Fittings

Worsdell gave the Class A some design features that would become characteristic of most NER locos from then on. These included a tapered

chimney A chimney is an architectural ventilation structure made of masonry, clay or metal that isolates hot toxic exhaust gases or smoke produced by a boiler, stove, furnace, incinerator, or fireplace from human living areas. Chimneys are typical ...

, a

brass Brass is an alloy of copper and zinc, in proportions which can be varied to achieve different colours and mechanical, electrical, acoustic and chemical properties, but copper typically has the larger proportion, generally copper and zinc. I ...

cover for the

safety valve A safety valve is a valve that acts as a fail-safe. An example of safety valve is a pressure relief valve (PRV), which automatically releases a substance from a boiler, pressure vessel, or other system, when the pressure or temperature exceeds ...

s and a large protective cab.

Cylinders

The first forty of the class had 18 inch diameter cylinders, while last twenty had 17 inch cylinders. The 17 inch cylinders were enlarged to 18 inches during rebuilding in 1900,

Brakes

All 60 of the class were originally built with Westinghouse air brakes. Forty-two were fitted with vacuum ejectors in a programme during 1929 and 1930. However, withdrawal of the class had begun in 1928 and 18 of the class never received vacuum ejectors.

Use

During its working life the class could be found all over the NER system working on suburban lines and country branch lines. During their life with the LNER they were mostly kept around

Tyneside Tyneside is a List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, built-up area across the banks of the River Tyne, England, River Tyne in Northern England. The population of Tyneside as published in the United Kingdom Census 2011, 2011 census was 774,891 ...

Teesside Teesside () is an urban area around the River Tees in North East England. Straddling the border between County Durham and North Yorkshire, it spans the boroughs of Borough of Middlesbrough, Middlesbrough, Borough of Stockton-on-Tees, Stockton ...

Hull Hull may refer to: Structures * The hull of an armored fighting vehicle, housing the chassis * Fuselage, of an aircraft * Hull (botany), the outer covering of seeds * Hull (watercraft), the body or frame of a sea-going craft * Submarine hull Ma ...

and

Leeds Leeds is a city in West Yorkshire, England. It is the largest settlement in Yorkshire and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds Metropolitan Borough, which is the second most populous district in the United Kingdom. It is built aro ...

where they handled lightweight traffic. Withdrawals of the class began in 1928 and finished in 1938. The last loco was No. 420, working at

Tyne Dock Tyne Dock is a neighbourhood within the town of South Shields, Tyne and Wear, on the south bank of the River Tyne. It takes its name from the large dock on the river which was opened in 1859https://archive.today/20150416165316/http://www.sine.nc ...

. It was condemned on 22 April 1938 and the class slipped into history with none being preserved.

References

{{LNER Locomotives A Scrapped locomotives 2-4-2T locomotives 1′B1′ n2t locomotives Railway locomotives introduced in 1886 Standard-gauge steam locomotives of Great Britain Passenger locomotives in the United Kingdom