Caledonian Railway 944 Class
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Caledonian Railway The Caledonian Railway (CR) was one of the two biggest of the five major Scottish railway companies prior to the 1923 Grouping. It was formed in 1845 with the objective of forming a link between English railways and Glasgow. It progressively ex ...
944 Class were
4-6-2 Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, represents the wheel arrangement of four leading wheels on two axles, six powered and coupled driving wheels on three axles and two trailing wheels on one axle. The locomoti ...
T passenger
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
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 Railways Act 1921, Grouping in 1923. He was appointed locomotive superintendent of the Nor ...
and built in 1917, at the
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 ...
's Hyde Park Works in Glasgow. They were the Caledonian Railway's only
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-type.


Overview

Although the Caledonian Railway built a long and successful series of small
0-4-4T 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 us ...
passenger tank engines, the twelve locomotives of the 944 Class were the only large passenger tanks operated by the company. They shared much of their design with the contemporary 60 Class 4-6-0s.Essery, Bob & Jenkinson, David (1986), ''An Illustrated History of L.M.S. Locomotives, Volume Three: Absorbed Pre-Group Classes, Northern Division'', OPC, p.61 They were originally used on the
Inverclyde Line The Inverclyde Line is a railway line running from Glasgow Central station through Paisley (Gilmour Street) and a series of stations to the south of the River Clyde and the Firth of Clyde, terminating at Gourock and Wemyss Bay, where it conn ...
and so gained the nickname 'Wemyss Bay
Pugs The Pug is a breed of dog with the physically distinctive features of a wrinkly, short-muzzled face, and curled tail. An ancient breed, with roots dating back to 400 B.C., they have a fine, glossy coat that comes in a variety of colors, most ...
' amongst enginemen. The locomotives passed into the ownership of 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) upon its formation in 1923, and were repainted from Caledonian blue into LMS crimson lake livery, although within a few years this gave way to lined black livery. They were later displaced from the Inverclyde line by LMS Fowler and Fairburn 2-6-4Ts and by the time of nationalisation in 1948, the surviving locomotives were all allocated to
Beattock Beattock is a village in Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland, approximately southwest of Moffat and north of Dumfries. Beattock was historically served by the A74 road and the West Coast Main Line, however the road has since been upgraded to the ...
shed, primarily for
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duties on
Beattock Summit Beattock Summit is the highest point of the West Coast Main Line (WCML) railway and of the A74(M) motorway as they cross between Dumfries and Galloway and South Lanarkshire in south west Scotland. The height of the summit reached by the A74(M) ...
. They were all withdrawn and scrapped between 1946 and 1953.


Numbering and locomotive histories

sources: BritishSteam, Longworth (2005) p167 Longworth, Hugh (2005), ''British Railways Steam Locomotives 1948-1968'', Oxford Publishing Co., p.167


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Caledonian Railway 944 Class 944 Class 4-6-2T locomotives 2′C1′ locomotives NBL locomotives Railway locomotives introduced in 1917 Standard-gauge steam locomotives of Great Britain Scrapped locomotives Passenger locomotives in the United Kingdom