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 ...

Fowler Class 7F was a class of

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 ...

s. They were a Midlandised version of the

London and North Western Railway The London and North Western Railway (LNWR, L&NWR) was a British railway company between 1846 and 1922. In the late 19th century, the LNWR was the largest joint stock company in the world. Dubbed the "Premier Line", the LNWR's main line connec ...

(LNWR) Class G2 and Class G2A s. They were also classified as Class G3 under the former LNWR system. The class were sometimes known as ''Baby Austins'', or ''

Austin 7 The Austin 7 is an economy car that was produced from 1922 until 1939 in the United Kingdom by Austin. It was nicknamed the "Baby Austin" and was at that time one of the most popular cars produced for the British market and sold well abroad. ...

s'', after a motor car that was becoming popular at the time.

Overview

Mirfield eastbound empties geograph-2785124-by-Ben-Brooksbank

It featured a

Belpaire firebox The Belpaire firebox is a type of firebox used on steam locomotives. It was invented by Alfred Belpaire of Belgium in 1864. Today it generally refers to the shape of the outer shell of the firebox which is approximately flat at the top and s ...

and increased boiler pressure over its predecessor but had the same power rating of 7F. Because the design had been done at the old Midland Railway's

Derby Works The Derby Works comprised a number of British manufacturing facilities designing and building locomotives and rolling stock in Derby, England. The first of these was a group of three maintenance sheds opened around 1840 behind Derby railway sta ...

, the drawing office staff insisted on using Midland practice. Among other things this meant that the

axle An axle or axletree is a central shaft for a rotation, rotating wheel and axle, wheel or gear. On wheeled vehicles, the axle may be fixed to the wheels, rotating with them, or fixed to the vehicle, with the wheels rotating around the axle. In ...

bearings were too small for the loads they had to carry. E.S. Cox, writing in a series of articles in Trains Illustrated c. 1957, suggests that they had a sufficiently modern and effective front end that, for steady slogging, some drivers preferred them to an

LMS Stanier Class 8F The London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMS) Stanier Class 8F is a class of steam locomotives designed for hauling heavy freight. 852 were built between 1935 and 1946 (not all to LMS order), as a freight version of William Stanier's successful ...

. However, this also meant that, with bearings comparable to an

LMS Fowler Class 4F The London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMS) Fowler Class 4F is a class of 0-6-0 steam locomotive designed for medium freight work. They represent the ultimate development of the Midland Railway's six-coupled tender engines. Many Trainspotter ...

and already inadequate for the lower powered engine, the bearings broke up rapidly.

Numbering

Equipment

Numbers 9672–74 were fitted with ACFI feedwater heaters when built but these were removed during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. After the war, five were briefly converted to oil burning.

British Railways

All members of the class entered

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 in 1948, but 122 had been withdrawn by the end of 1951; fifty were withdrawn without receiving their BR number. They had a fairly short life, and all were withdrawn and scrapped between 1949 and 1962, some time before the final G2s were withdrawn in 1964.

Accidents and incidents

*On 13 March 1935, a milk train hauled by

LMS Compound 4-4-0 The London, Midland and Scottish Railway Compound 4-4-0 was a class of steam locomotive designed for passenger work. Overview One hundred and ninety five engines were built by the LMS, adding to the 45 Midland Railway 1000 Class, to which ...

No. 1165 had a rear-end collision with an express freight train hauled by LNWR Claughton Class

4-6-0 A 4-6-0 steam locomotive, under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives by wheel arrangement, has four leading wheels on two axles in a leading bogie and six powered and coupled driving wheels on three axles with the abs ...

No. 5946 at King's Langley,

Hertfordshire Hertfordshire ( or ; often abbreviated Herts) is a ceremonial county in the East of England and one of the home counties. It borders Bedfordshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the north-east, Essex to the east, Greater London to the ...

due to a signalman's error. Another freight train, hauled by LMS Patriot Class

No. 5511, collided with the wreckage. Locomotive No. 9598 was hauling a coal train that ran into the wreckage. One person was killed. *On 14 May 1948, a locomotive of the class was hauling a freight train that ran away and was in collision with an empty stock train at Battyeford,

Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ) is an area of Northern England which was History of Yorkshire, historically a county. Despite no longer being used for administration, Yorkshire retains a strong regional identity. The county was named after its county town, the ...

Withdrawal

All engines were withdrawn between 1949 and 1962.

References

*Ian Allan ABC of British Railways Locomotives, summer 1961 edition, part 3, page 52 *

External links

Class 7F-B Details
at ''Rail UK''
1935 photo from the late Alan Whitehead collection
{{LMS Locomotives 7 Class 7F 0-8-0 0-8-0 locomotives Railway locomotives introduced in 1929 Freight locomotives Scrapped locomotives Standard-gauge steam locomotives of Great Britain D h2 locomotives