The GER Classes S46, D56 and H88 (classified Classes D14, D15, and D16 by the

London and North Eastern Railway The London and North Eastern Railway (LNER) was the second largest (after London, Midland and Scottish Railway, LMS) of the "Big Four (British railway companies), Big Four" railway companies created by the Railways Act 1921 in Britain. It ope ...

) were three classes of similar

4-4-0 4-4-0, in the Whyte notation, denotes a steam locomotive with a wheel arrangement of four leading wheels on two axles (usually in a leading bogie), four powered and coupled driving wheels on two axles, and no trailing wheels. First built in the ...

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 ...

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 were given the nickname ''Claud Hamilton'' after the pioneer engine of the class, named after Lord Claud Hamilton (1843–1925) the chairman of the Great Eastern Railway. The D56 class of 1903-4 evolved the design to include a square-topped Belpaire firebox. The H88 class of 1923 featured a larger superheated boiler, leading them to be known as ''Super Clauds''. Many earlier members of the class were rebuilt during their working life. During the

Edwardian era In the United Kingdom, the Edwardian era was a period in the early 20th century that spanned the reign of King Edward VII from 1901 to 1910. It is commonly extended to the start of the First World War in 1914, during the early reign of King Ge ...

, they were the flagship express locomotive on the

Great Eastern Main Line The Great Eastern Main Line (GEML, sometimes referred to as the East Anglia Main Line) is a major railway line on the British railway system which connects Liverpool Street station in central London with destinations in east London and t ...

, and although displaced on the heaviest express trains by the larger S69 class from 1911 (itself a 4-6-0 development of the ''Claud'' design), members of the class were used on passenger and goods services throughout the

Eastern Region Eastern Region or East Region may refer to: * Eastern Region (Abu Dhabi): Al Ain *Eastern Region, Ghana *Eastern Region (Iceland) *Eastern Region, Malta *Eastern Region, Nepal *Eastern Region, Nigeria * Eastern Region, Serbia *Eastern Region, Ugand ...

until 1960. No locomotives of the three classes survived to preservation.

Design

The ''Claud Hamilton'', particularly in its original GER blue livery, is widely considered one of the most elegant locomotive designs of the pre-grouping era. In his 1955 history of the Great Eastern Railway,

Cecil J. Allen Cecil John Allen (1886 – 5 February 1973) was a British railway engineer and technical journalist and writer. Work Allen qualified as a civil engineer and joined the Great Eastern Railway in 1903, later working for the London & North Eastern ...

devotes a whole chapter to the class and noted that

Of all the
locomotive A locomotive is a rail transport, rail vehicle that provides the motive power for a train. Traditionally, locomotives pulled trains from the front. However, Push–pull train, push–pull operation has become common, and in the pursuit for ...
designs that emerged from
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 r ...
during the reign of James Holden, the one destined to achieve the greatest fame, beyond question, was his Claud Hamilton type 4-4-0, of which the pioneer example, No. 1900 ''Claud Hamilton'', took the rails in 1900.

Although credited to James Holden, the

Locomotive Superintendent Chief mechanical engineer and locomotive superintendent are titles applied by British, Australian, and New Zealand railway companies to the person ultimately responsible to the board of the company for the building and maintaining of the locomotive ...

of the Great Eastern, Frederick Vernon Russell (Holden's Chief Designer) is thought to have contributed substantially to the design of the Claud Hamiltons; while researching his ''Some Classic Locomotives'' of 1949, C.H. Ellis was informed by Russell that during the process of designing the locomotive "Mr Holden, by then a

valetudinarian {{Short pages monitor 4-4-0 locomotives 2′B h2 locomotives 2′B n2 locomotives Railway locomotives introduced in 1900 Scrapped locomotives Standard-gauge steam locomotives of Great Britain Passenger locomotives Passenger locomotives in the United Kingdom