The

Highland Railway The Highland Railway (HR) was one of the two smallest of the five major Scottish railway companies prior to the 1923 Grouping, operating north of Perth railway station, Scotland, Perth railway station in Scotland and serving the farthest north o ...

Ben Class were small

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 ...

passenger

steam locomotives 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 locomot ...

. There were actually two separate 'Ben' classes, usually referred to as the 'Small Bens' and the 'Large Bens'.

Introduction

Despite the large and small tags, there was actually little difference between the two groups, the most crucial being larger boilers with an increase in tube heating surface. Cylinder and wheel dimensions were identical. The class was originally designed by Peter Drummond, whose elder (and better known) brother Dugald had been in the company's locomotive department in earlier years and was at that time

Chief Mechanical Engineer 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

London and South Western Railway The London and South Western Railway (LSWR, sometimes written L&SWR) was a railway company in England from 1838 to 1922. Originating as the London and Southampton Railway, its network extended to Dorchester and Weymouth, to Salisbury, Exete ...

. In appearance they were fairly typical Drummond family products with the stiffener across the cab roof. They were also inside cylindered, almost uniquely among HR bogie locomotives.

Build details

First batch

The first 8 locomotives were of the Small Ben type and were built by

Dübs and Company Dübs & Co. was a locomotive manufacturer in Glasgow, Scotland, founded by Henry Dübs in 1863 and based at the Queens Park Works in Polmadie. In 1903 it amalgamated with two other Glasgow locomotive manufacturers to create the North British Loc ...

Glasgow Glasgow is the Cities of Scotland, most populous city in Scotland, located on the banks of the River Clyde in Strathclyde, west central Scotland. It is the List of cities in the United Kingdom, third-most-populous city in the United Kingdom ...

in the period 1898 to 1899. They were: No. 1 was originally named

Ben Nevis Ben Nevis ( ; , ) is the highest mountain in Scotland, the United Kingdom, and the British Isles. Ben Nevis stands at the western end of the Grampian Mountains in the Highland region of Lochaber, close to the town of Fort William. The mount ...

for its works portrait, an action that attracted the ire of the board as it was in the territory of a competitor (the

North British Railway The North British Railway was one of the two biggest of the five major Scottish railway companies prior to the 1923 Grouping. It was established in 1844, with the intention of linking with English railways at Berwick. The line opened in 1846, ...

). It was renamed before entering service.

Second batch

The Highland Railway built another nine during 1899–1900 at their own Lochgorm works:

Third batch

Finally, three more were built by 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 ...

of Glasgow in 1906.

Large Bens

In 1908 a larger version appeared, initially four examples from North British Locomotive, with two more the following year

Grouping and Nationalisation

Inverness Locomotive Depot geograph-2748319-by-Ben-Brooksbank

All of these locomotives survived to be taken over by the LMS at the

Grouping Grouping generally refers to the creation of one or more groups, or to the groups themselves. More specifically, grouping may refer to: * Shot grouping in shooting sports and other uses of firearms * the use of symbols of grouping in mathemati ...

in 1923. The Large Bens were all withdrawn between 1932 and 1937. The first of the Small Bens was withdrawn in 1931, but ten survived into

British Railways British Railways (BR), which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was a state-owned company that operated most rail transport in Great Britain from 1948 to 1997. Originally a trading brand of the Railway Executive of the British Transport Commis ...

ownership. The last of these, 54398 ''Ben Alder'', was withdrawn in 1953 and placed in storage in the hope that it would be preserved.

Preservation attempts and revival

Unfortunately, the hopes for 54398 – which included the intention to restore the locomotive to Highland Railway condition – came to nothing, and following storage at various locations (including Boat of Garten) it was eventually cut up on 05/1966; and so, none were preserved. However, a charitable organisation has been formed with the aim of building a working replica of 54398 ''Ben Alder''.

References

* * * * *

External links

Rail UK database no. 54398
{{Highland Railway locomotives Ben Class 4-4-0 locomotives 2′B n2 locomotives Dübs locomotives NBL locomotives Railway locomotives introduced in 1898 Scrapped locomotives Standard-gauge steam locomotives of Great Britain Passenger locomotives Passenger locomotives in the United Kingdom