The

Caledonian Railway The Caledonian Railway (CR) was a major Scottish railway company. It was formed in the early 19th century with the objective of forming a link between English railways and Glasgow. It progressively extended its network and reached Edinburgh an ...

439 Class is a class of

0-4-4 Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, 0-4-4 represents the wheel arrangement of no leading wheels, four powered and coupled driving wheels on two axles, and four trailing wheels on two axles. This type was only ...

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 loco ...

. It was a development of earlier

Caledonian Railway 0-4-4T Caledonian Railway 0-4-4T steam locomotives were built for the Caledonian Railway, in Scotland, over many years. Most survived into London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMS) ownership in 1923 and some into British Railways (BR) ownership in ...

locomotives, including the 19 Class and 92 Class, and predecessor of the 431 Class. The 439 Class was introduced by John F. McIntosh in 1900 and a modified version was introduced by

William Pickersgill William Pickersgill (1861 – 2 May 1928) was an English railway engineer, and was chief mechanical engineer of the Caledonian Railway from 1914 until Grouping in 1923. He was appointed locomotive superintendent of the Northern Division of ...

in 1915.

Introduction

Ninety-two engines of the class were built between 1900 and 1925, a few under

LMS LMS may refer to: Science and technology * Labeled magnitude scale, a scaling technique * Learning management system, education software * Least mean squares filter, producing least mean square error * Leiomyosarcoma, a rare form of cancer * Lenz ...

auspices. Seventy-four Class 439s passed into British Railways ownership in 1948 and they were numbered 55159-55236 (with gaps).

Earlier versions

* 19 Class Introduced 1895 * 92 Class Introduced 1897, developed from 29 Class

0-6-0 Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, represents the wheel arrangement of no leading wheels, six powered and coupled driving wheels on three axles and no trailing wheels. This was the most common wheel arrangement ...

T The 19 and 92 Classes were originally fitted with condensing apparatus for use on Glasgow Central Low Level lines. Twenty-four of them passed into British Railways ownership and they were numbered 55119-55146 (with gaps).

Later versions

In 1922 Pickersgill introduced the 431 Class with larger cylinders and cast-iron front

buffer beam A headstock of a rail vehicle is a transverse structural member located at the extreme end of the vehicle's underframe. The headstock supports the coupling at that end of the vehicle, and may also support buffers, in which case it may also be ...

for

banking A bank is a financial institution that accepts Deposit account, deposits from the public and creates a demand deposit while simultaneously making loans. Lending activities can be directly performed by the bank or indirectly through capital m ...

. The idea was, presumably, to move the centre of gravity forwards and put more weight on the driving wheels. However, it seems strange to use a large-wheeled 0-4-4T (rather than a small-wheeled 0-6-0T) for banking. The 431 Class was numbered 431–434 by the Caledonian, 15237–15240 by the LMS, and 55237–55240 by British Railways. In 1925 the LMS introduced their own version of the 439 Class and these were numbered 55260-55269 by British Railways. In the 431 and LMS classes, the cylinder bore was increased to 18¼" and this increased the tractive effort to .

Preservation

One example, CR 419, (later LMS number 15189, BR 55189) has been preserved and is the flagship locomotive of the Scottish Railway Preservation Society.

References

Sources

* Ian Allan ABC of British Railways Locomotives, 1948 edition, part 3, pages 45-46 and 1961 edition, part 3, page 54

External links

Photos of 55189

Class 2P-H Details
at ''Rail UK'' {{Caledonian Railway locomotives 439 0-4-4T locomotives Railway locomotives introduced in 1895 Standard gauge steam locomotives of Great Britain Passenger locomotives