The North Eastern Railway (

NER The Ner is a river in central Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Ru ...

) Bogie Tank Passenger (BTP) locomotives were designed by Edward Fletcher in 1873. The locomotives were for hauling passenger services on branch lines. They had an

0-4-4 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 u ...

wheel layout and a total of 124 locomotives were built. They were designated G6 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 ...

(LNER).

Rebuilds

With the introduction of the

NER Class O The NER Class O (LNER Class G5) was a class of 0-4-4T steam locomotives of the North Eastern Railway, designed by the company's Chief Engineer, Wilson Worsdell. They all survived into British Railways ownership in 1948 and their BR numbers were ...

(LNER G5), BTP locomotives started to become redundant. Fifty of the redundant BTPs were rebuilt between 1899 and 1908 as NER Class 290 (later LNER Class J77) 0-6-0T locomotives. In 1903, locomotive No. 957 was rebuilt as a

2-2-4T In Whyte notation, a 2-2-4T is a steam locomotive that has two leading wheels followed by two coupled driving wheels and four trailing wheels. This was an unusual wheel arrangement, only used on a few specialised locomotives. This wheel arrangem ...

(later designated LNER Class X2) specifically for hauling an officer's saloon. With the reduction in passenger services towards the end of

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

, many of the BTPs became redundant. In 1921, ten BTPs were rebuilt to create further Class 290 locomotives.

Steam autocars

Many class BTPs gained a further lease of life in the early 1900s by being converted to work the ''Steam Autocars'' (

push–pull train Push–pull is a configuration for locomotive-hauled trains, allowing them to be driven from either end of the train, whether having a locomotive at each end or not. A push–pull train has a locomotive at one end of the train, connected vi ...

s) then being introduced. A Steam Autocar consisted of a BTP with one or two coaches (in which case the engine was in the middle), the train was driven from a driving compartment in the leading coach, leaving the fireman on the footplate. The driver had control of the regulator and reverser by means of a mechanical connection running under the coach and connecting to the engine using a form of universal joints. The driver also had full (Westinghouse) brake control via a second air pipe connection to the engine. This high pressure air supply also worked a whistle mounted above the driving compartment. Finally there was

speaking tube A speaking tube or voicepipe is a device based on two cones connected by an air pipe through which speech can be transmitted over an extended distance. Use of pipes was suggested by Francis Bacon in the ''New Atlantis'' (1672). The usage for te ...

communication between the driver and fireman - although there is evidence that this was little used. Steam autocars were gradually withdrawn as the LNER introduced

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steam railcars. The coaches were converted back to normal coaches but the BTPs were withdrawn.

Withdrawal

Withdrawals of the G6 took place between 1920 and 1929, and none were preserved.

References

BTP 0-4-4T locomotives Railway locomotives introduced in 1873 Hawthorn locomotives Neilson locomotives Scrapped locomotives {{England-steam-loco-stub Passenger locomotives