The Northern Counties Committee (NCC) Class S2 was a solitary two-cylinder

compound Compound may refer to: Architecture and built environments * Compound (enclosure), a cluster of buildings having a shared purpose, usually inside a fence or wall ** Compound (fortification), a version of the above fortified with defensive struc ...

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 ...

that was introduced for service on the

narrow gauge A narrow-gauge railway (narrow-gauge railroad in the US) is a railway with a track gauge (distance between the rails) narrower than . Most narrow-gauge railways are between and . Since narrow-gauge railways are usually built with Minimum railw ...

railways of

County Antrim County Antrim (named after the town of Antrim, County Antrim, Antrim, ) is one of the six counties of Northern Ireland, located within the historic Provinces of Ireland, province of Ulster. Adjoined to the north-east shore of Lough Neagh, the c ...

in north-east

Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...

. It was heavily rebuilt from a

BNCR Class S The Belfast and Northern Counties Railway (BNCR) Class S was a class of two-cylinder compound steam locomotives that was introduced for service on the narrow gauge railways of County Antrim in north-east Ireland. History The Class S was ...

locomotive by the addition of a

standard gauge A standard-gauge railway is a railway with a track gauge of . The standard gauge is also called Stephenson gauge (after George Stephenson), international gauge, UIC gauge, uniform gauge, normal gauge in Europe, and SGR in East Africa. It is the ...

boiler A boiler is a closed vessel in which fluid (generally water) is heated. The fluid does not necessarily boil. The heated or vaporized fluid exits the boiler for use in various processes or heating applications, including water heating, centra ...

History

There was only one member of Class S2, No.110. It was an extensive rebuild by the

NCC NCC may refer to: Biology *Neural correlates of consciousness, neuronal events and mechanisms relating to perception phenomena *Sodium-chloride symporter, abbreviated as NCC Companies * National Certification Corporation, a nursing specialty ce ...

of a

Worsdell- von Borries two-cylinder

compound locomotive A compound locomotive is a steam locomotive which is powered by a compound steam engine, compound engine, a type of steam engine where steam is expanded in two or more stages. The locomotive was only one application of compounding. Two and three ...

that had been built in 1892. It had outside cylinders and

Walschaerts valve gear The Walschaerts valve gear is a type of valve gear used to regulate the flow of steam to the pistons in steam locomotives, invented by Belgium, Belgian railway mechanical engineering, engineer Egide Walschaerts in 1844. The gear is sometimes name ...

with the smaller diameter high-pressure cylinder on the left and the larger low-pressure one on the right. During rebuilding in 1931, a modified standard gauge G6S boiler was installed; this was longer and greater in diameter than the original and had a working pressure of 200psi. To accommodate this, the overall length of the locomotive was increased by slightly less than four feet. The trailing radial truck was replaced by four-wheel bogie and a rear bunker was fitted which held one and a half tons of coal. The weight was increased by tons. The modification, which was carried out at York Road works in Belfast, was not a success. No. 110 was too rigid on curves and derailed frequently. It slipped badly and although the tractive effort had been raised from , the extra power could not be fully utilised. As a result, the locomotive saw little use, running only in 1934. It was briefly pressed into service during

World War II 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 ...

but was not used after 1941 and was withdrawn in February 1946.

Technical details

When starting the locomotive from rest, a simpling valve was opened which admitted steam directly from the boiler to the low-pressure cylinder as well as the high-pressure one. Not only did this provide maximum tractive effort when starting but also avoided problems that might arise if the high-pressure piston was in a dead centre position. Once moving, the simpling valve was closed and the locomotive continued in compound operation.

Livery

After being rebuilt to Class S2, No.110 was painted in LMS maroon. The smokebox was black and the

buffer beam A headstock of a rail vehicle is a transverse structural member located at the extreme end of the vehicle's underframe. The headstock supports the coupling at that end of the vehicle, and may also support buffers, in which case it may also be ...

was red. The LMS (NCC) crest was carried on the cab side-sheet. The initials "NCC" in shaded serif gold capital letters were sited on the side tanks, ahead of the number plates which had red backgrounds. The lining was as follows: * Panel: maroon * line: yellow ochre, square corners * band: black, square corners * Edge During the BNCR renumbering of 1897, No.110 had received number plates in the series which had "BNCR" in small block capitals above the digits. When it was rebuilt to Class S2, instructions were given that the letters "BNCR" were to be milled off the number plates and in consequence the numbers appeared offset towards the bottom of the plate.

References

* * * {{Ireland Steam Locomotives S2 2-4-4T locomotives Steam locomotives of Ireland Steam locomotives of Northern Ireland 3 ft gauge locomotives Compound locomotives Railway locomotives introduced in 1892 Scrapped locomotives Individual locomotives of Ireland