The

Great Central Railway The Great Central Railway in England was formed when the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway changed its name in 1897, anticipating the opening in 1899 of its Great Central Main Line, London Extension. On 1 January 1923, the company ...

(GCR) Class 9F was a class of

0-6-2T T, or t, is the twentieth letter of the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''tee'' (pronounced ), plural ''tees''. It is d ...

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 ...

built between 1891 and 1901. From 1923 the locomotives were redesignated Class N5.

Design and construction

Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway The Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway (MS&LR) was formed in 1847 when the Sheffield, Ashton-under-Lyne and Manchester Railway joined with authorised but unbuilt railway companies, forming a proposed network from Manchester to Grims ...

(MS&LR), the prototype 9F was built in 1891. A total of 12 batches were constructed up to 1901, with 131 locos being completed. The MS&LR changed its name to the GCR in 1897. The GCR 9F locos were reclassified as N5 under the

LNER locomotive numbering and classification A number of different numbering and classification schemes were used for the locomotives owned by the London and North Eastern Railway (LNER) and its constituent companies. This page explains the principal systems that were used. The following ab ...

system when the GCR was absorbed into the

London & North Eastern Railway The London and North Eastern Railway (LNER) was the second largest (after LMS) of the " Big Four" railway companies created by the Railways Act 1921 in Britain. It operated from 1 January 1923 until nationalisation on 1 January 1948. At tha ...

after the 1923 grouping. It was the first design for a British railway to use the

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 ...

Operation and use

The 9F, later N5, locos were utilised for a variety of purposes including goods shunting, short goods train trips and local passenger train duties. Some locos acted as station pilots at larger termini. The N5 class was widely spread over the ex-GCR rail system and elsewhere. During July 1952, there were N5s based at Neasden (London), Immingham, Lincoln, Darnall (Sheffield), Gorton (Manchester), and Northwich, Chester and Wrexham, plus several other loco depots.

Locomotive numbering

The GCR locos had 5000 added to their original numbers when the line was absorbed by the LNER in 1923, resulting in numbers ranging between 5021 and 5946. As part of the LNER's numbering rationalisation scheme introduced in 1946, the surviving 121 N5s were renumbered between 9250 and 9370 with the earliest built receiving the lowest number, and so on. British Railways, formed on 1 January 1948, added 60000 to all LNER loco numbers.

Withdrawal and scrapping

All 131 9F locos survived to be absorbed by the LNER in 1923. 121 N5 locos remained in service at the creation of British Railways in 1948. 117 survived at 24 April 1954, reducing to 46 at 8 March 1958 as diesel-electric shunters were delivered. The last N5 was withdrawn for scrapping in 1961.

References

;Notes ;Bibliography * * *

External links

LNER encyclopedia
{{DEFAULTSORT:GCR Class 09F 09F 0-6-2T locomotives Railway locomotives introduced in 1891 Beyer, Peacock locomotives Scrapped locomotives Standard-gauge steam locomotives of Great Britain C1′ n2t locomotives