The GER Class 527 was a class of fifteen

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 ...

steam Steam is water vapor, often mixed with air or an aerosol of liquid water droplets. This may occur due to evaporation or due to boiling, where heat is applied until water reaches the enthalpy of vaporization. Saturated or superheated steam is inv ...

tender locomotive A tender is a special railroad car, rail vehicle hauled by a steam locomotive containing its fuel (wood fuel, wood, coal, fuel oil, oil or torrefaction, torrefied biomass) and water. Steam locomotives consume large quantities of water compared ...

s designed by William Adams for the

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 ...

(GER). This was the last design that Adams prepared for the GER, although they did not enter service until his successor Massey Bromley had taken office and incorporated some modifications to the design.

Overview

In order to haul heavier trains and compete for the coal traffic into

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

, the GER asked William Adams to design a locomotive capable of hauling a train of 400 long tons net (700 tons gross).

Prototype

Tests were carried out with 265 class

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 ...

s to ensure that such trailing loads were feasible, followed by a prototype

number 527. Number 527 was the first locomotive in Britain to use the 2-6-0 wheel arrangement, and was named ''Mogul'' after the Great Moguls of Delhi, the epithet becoming the generic name for locomotives with that wheel arrangement.

Numbering

As was the GER's practice for locomotives built by outside contractors, the class was referred to by the number of the first locomotive, subsequent locomotives being numbered sequentially up to 541.

Performance

They were used on coal trains from

Peterborough Peterborough ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city in the City of Peterborough district in the Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county of Cambridgeshire, England. The city is north of London, on the River Nene. A ...

to London, but were found uneconomic, and so had short lives, being withdrawn between 1885 and 1887. As the design was novel, unexpected problems were encountered; the steam pipes to the cylinders constantly worked loose and were inaccessible for repair, condensation occurred in the cylinders, and these combined with a relatively small grate area and boiler barrel diameter with a long barrel led to poor steaming and high coal consumption. The pony truck also gave problems. Hence, the earlier Johnson 0-6-0s were preferred.

Belgian State 512

In order to compete with the quite archaic Type 28 and Type 29 locomotives,

Belgian State Railways The Belgian State Railways ( ; ) was the original state-owned railway of Belgium. Established by an organic law of 1 May 1834, it began construction of its first line, between Brussels and Mechelen on 1 June 1834. This line, which was opened on 5 ...

ordered a copy of the 527 class, built by Neilson & Co. in 1881. This lone engine, used on heavy trains between Jemelle and

Arlon Arlon (; ; ; ) is a City status in Belgium, city and Municipalities in Belgium, municipality of Wallonia, and the capital of the Luxembourg (Belgium), province of Luxembourg in the Ardennes, Belgium. With a population of just over 28,000, it ...

on the Luxembourg line, performed poorly. In 1894, it was used as a test bed for a new kind of boiler designed by the Belgian engineer Mr. Docteur. It featured a steam reservoir perched atop the boiler and a firebox made of refractory brick and surrounded by air instead of water. The original cylinders were kept but the Wilson safety valves were replaced by Ramsbottom valves and a second-hand two-axle tender replaced the 3-axle tender. However, this prototype was quickly withdrawn and sent for breaking up in 1906.

References

{{Great Eastern Railway locomotives 527 2-6-0 locomotives 1′C n2 locomotives Railway locomotives introduced in 1878 Neilson locomotives Scrapped locomotives Standard-gauge steam locomotives of Great Britain Freight locomotives