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) Class J39 was a class of medium powered

0-6-0 is the Whyte notation designation for steam locomotives with a wheel arrangement of no leading wheels, six powered and coupled driving wheels on three axles, and no trailing wheels. Historically, this was the most common wheel arrangement used o ...

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 ...

designed for mixed-traffic work throughout the former LNER system between London and the north of Scotland.

History

The class was introduced by Nigel Gresley in July 1926, based on his previous Class J38 (introduced in January 1926) but with larger

driving wheel On a steam locomotive, a driving wheel is a powered wheel which is driven by the locomotive's pistons (or turbine, in the case of a steam turbine locomotive). On a conventional, non-articulated locomotive, the driving wheels are all coupled t ...

s. The larger wheels enabled them to be used on both passenger and freight trains, although at the expense of a lower

tractive effort In railway engineering, the term tractive effort describes the pulling or pushing capability of a locomotive. The published tractive force value for any vehicle may be theoretical—that is, calculated from known or implied mechanical proper ...

. As a result they were given the BR

power classification A number of different numbering and classification schemes were used for the locomotives owned by the London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMS) and its constituent companies. The LMS, formed on 1 January 1923 from many smaller companies include ...

4P/5F, rather than the 6F of the earlier class. A total of 289 examples were built over the next fifteen years, mostly built by the LNER's

Darlington Works Darlington Works was established in 1863 by the Stockton and Darlington Railway in the town of Darlington in the north east of England. The main part of the works, the North Road Shops was located on the northeast side of the Stockton and Darli ...

although 28 were built by Beyer, Peacock and Co. in 1935. The larger wheels necessitated the provision of low

splasher A footplate provides the structure on which a locomotive driver and fireman stand in the cab to operate a British or continental European steam locomotive. It comprises a large metal plate that rests on top of the locomotive frame, usually it is ...

s over the front two wheels, which is the main means of differentiating between the two classes. However the increased speed afforded by the larger wheels caused the big end bearings to overheat, something that was aggravated by their use on passenger trains, and reliability suffered as a result. The locomotives were all fitted with

superheater A superheater is a device used to convert saturated steam or wet steam into superheated steam or dry steam. Superheated steam is used in steam turbines for electricity generation, in some steam engines, and in processes such as steam reforming. ...

s and Ross 'Pop' safety valves. All passed 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 in 1948 and they were numbered 64700-64988. They began to be withdrawn from service in 1959 and all examples had been scrapped by the end of 1962. No. 64747 served out the remainder of its days as a stationary boiler at the Woodford shed until October 1964.

Sub-classes

Immingham Locomotive Depot with J39 geograph-2875921-by-Ben-Brooksbank

The class was divided into three sub-classes depending on the type of tender fitted. * J39/1 Standard LNER 3500 gallon tender. * J39/2 Standard LNER 4200 gallon tender. * J39/3 Various former North Eastern Railway tenders 3940-4125 gallons.

Accidents and incidents

*Circa 1930, locomotive No. 1448 was derailed by trap points at Lumpsey Colliery,

Brotton Brotton is a village in the civil parish of Skelton and Brotton, in the Redcar and Cleveland district, in the ceremonial county of North Yorkshire, England It is situated approximately south-east of Saltburn-by-the-Sea, 9 miles from Redcar, ea ...

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 ...

. *On 28 August 1950, the connecting rod of a locomotive of this class became detached and consequently pierced the firebox, scalding the driver. *On 23 October 1950, locomotive No. 64880 was hauling a passenger train that was derailed at

Drumburgh Drumburgh ( ) is a small settlement in Cumbria, England. It is northwest of the city of Carlisle and is on the course of Hadrian's Wall, near to Burgh by Sands. The village is sited on a gentle hill with a good view in all directions over the s ...

Cumberland Cumberland ( ) is an area of North West England which was historically a county. The county was bordered by Northumberland to the north-east, County Durham to the east, Westmorland to the south-east, Lancashire to the south, and the Scottish ...

due to the condition of the track. Two people were killed and three were injured.

In model form

Bachmann Bachmann is a surname of Switzerland and Germany. It originates as a description of the bearer as dwelling near a brook (''Bach''), such as a farm "Hofstatt am Bach" also called "Bachmanns Hofstatt" near Hinwil or Dürnten (recorded 1387), or the " ...

manufactures the J39/2 version in

00 gauge OO gauge or OO scale (also, 00 gauge and 00 scale) is the most popular Standard-gauge railway, standard gauge model railway standard in the United Kingdom, outside of which it is virtually unknown. OO gauge is one of several 4 mm scale, 4 mm-sca ...

model form.

Bassett-Lowke Bassett-Lowke was an English toy manufacturing company based in Northampton. Founded by Wenman Joseph Bassett-Lowke in 1898 or 1899, the company specialized in model railways, boats and ships, and construction sets. Bassett-Lowke started as a ...

manufactures the J39/2 version in

0 gauge O scale (or O gauge) is a scale commonly used for toy trains and rail transport modelling. Introduced by German toy manufacturer Märklin around 1900, by the 1930s three-rail alternating current O gauge was the most common model railroad sca ...

model form. Union Mills manufactures the J39 in British N-Scale.

Graham Farish {{Use dmy dates, date=April 2022 Graham Farish is a Chinese-owned brand of N scale, N gauge British railway models. The Graham Farish Ltd company was founded in 1928 in the UK and Kader Group of Hong Kong bought the firm in 2001. Kader's subsidia ...

-Bachmann manufactures the J39 in

N scale N scale is a popular model railway scale. Depending upon the manufacturer (or country), the scale ranges from 1:148 to 1:160. Effectively the scale is 1:159, 9 mm to , which is the width of standard gauge railway. However the scale may ...

History

Sub-classes

Accidents and incidents

In model form

References

Citations

References

External links