The

Glasgow and South Western Railway The Glasgow and South Western Railway (G&SWR) was the third biggest of the five major Scottish railway companies prior to the 1923 Grouping. It served a triangular area of south-west Scotland between Glasgow, Stranraer and Carlisle, Cumbria, Ca ...

(G&SWR) 403 (or 'Austrian Goods') Class was a class of

2-6-0 Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, represents the wheel arrangement of two leading wheels on one axle, usually in a leading truck, six powered and coupled driving wheels on three axles and no trailing wheels. T ...

(mogul)

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, Fuel oil, oil or, rarely, Wood fuel, wood) to heat ...

North British Locomotive Company The North British Locomotive Company (NBL, NB Loco or North British) was created in 1903 through the merger of three Glasgow locomotive manufacturing companies; Sharp, Stewart and Company (Atlas Works), Neilson, Reid and Company (Hyde Park W ...

at its Queens Park works. Originally built as the 403 class, as a result of renumbering they became known as the 33 Class in 1916 and then 51 Class in 1919, before passing to the

London, Midland and Scottish Railway The London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMSIt has been argued that the initials LMSR should be used to be consistent with London and North Eastern Railway, LNER, Great Western Railway, GWR and Southern Railway (UK), SR. The London, Midland an ...

(LMS) on its formation in 1923, where they were given power classification 4F. These freight-traffic locomotives were given the nickname ''Austrian Goods''. The nickname was acquired because when the locomotives were delivered it was rumoured that they had been built from materials that NBL had gathered for a contract for

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

which was cancelled when

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

broke out. However, this rumour was unfounded as the design was entirely Drummond's and there is no evidence of any Austrian contract.

History

The class was a development of Drummond's earlier 279 Class 0-6-0, fitted with

superheating In thermodynamics, superheating (sometimes referred to as boiling retardation, or boiling delay) is the phenomenon in which a liquid is heated to a temperature higher than its boiling point, without boiling. This is a so-called ''metastable state ...

pony truck A Bissell or Bissel truck (also Bissel bogie or pony truck) is a single-axle bogie which pivots towards the centre of a steam locomotive to enable it to negotiate curves more easily. Invented in 1857 by and usually then known as a ''pony truck'' ...

s and numerous other improvements. They were far more successful than the 279s, being free-running and remarkably economical in coal and water. However, there were some reliability problems, notably with the design of the big ends and they were not considered suitable for passenger duties except in emergencies at reduced speed. The locomotives were initially allocated to the G&SWR's Carlisle Currock shed for goods trains to Glasgow, Greenock, and Ayrshire. Under LMS ownership they were transferred to the former Caledonian Railway shed at Carlisle Kingmoor, after which they were also used on runs over the

Caledonian main line The Caledonian Railway main line in Scotland connected Glasgow and Edinburgh with Carlisle, Cumbria, Carlisle, via Carstairs and Beattock. It was opened in 1847 by the Caledonian Railway. The approach to Glasgow used railways already built, pr ...

and occasionally the Settle-Carlisle Line. As new LMS 'Crab' 2-6-0s took over their duties in the early 1930s, most were displaced from Kingmoor to various LMS sheds throughout Scotland, with some even operating from Inverness for a time. In addition to their fuel economy, the type had the significant advantage that unlike most G&SWR locomotives, it was possible to fit a Caledonian Railway type boiler. This stopped the LMS from withdrawing them as non-standard as soon as their boilers became due for replacement. The class, therefore, outlived all other G&SWR tender locomotive types, being withdrawn and scrapped between 1935 and 1947.

Numbering

References

* * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Gandswr 403 class 2-6-0 locomotives

403 Year 403 ( CDIII) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Theodosius and Rumoridus (or, less frequently, year 1156 ''Ab urbe condita''). The denomination 403 fo ...

NBL locomotives Railway locomotives introduced in 1915 Scrapped locomotives Standard-gauge steam locomotives of Great Britain Freight locomotives 1′C h2 locomotives