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LMS Black 5's 4-6-0

Specifications: LMS and BR 4-6-0 5MT, Built at Crewe, Derby, Horwich Works; Armstrong Whitworth & Co of Newcastle Upon Tyne; Vulcan Foundary, Newton Le Willows, Lancs between 1934 and 1951.

BR numbers: 44658-45499 (LMS 5000)

Tractive effort: 25,455lbs

Driving wheels: 6 ft

Bogie wheels: 3 ft 3 1/2 in     

Length: 63 ft 7 3/4 in    

Total weight: 125tons 5cwt

Fuel capacity: 9tons

Water capacity: 4000gals

Cylinders: (2) 18 1/2 in dia x 28 in stroke

Boiler pressure: 225lbs sq in

BR power classification: 5 MT

Purpose: Mixed Traffic

Designed by: Sir William Stanier

 

This class of locomotive was one of the largest classes of locomotive on the Railways of Britain. Between 1934 and 1951 842 of this class that were to become as the Black 5's were built at a variety of works not all LMS. When Stanier joined the LMS from the GWR in 1932 he brought with him many principles towards locomotive design that he had learnt there, one of which was the taper boiler capable of improving steaming and economy of operation. At the time the LMS was suffering with old locomotives some from the pre-grouping days many to specialist for specific routes that they were limited use. Stanier's first job was to design and build a class of locomotive that would truly be Mixed traffic allowing the engine to cover most of the companies routes an duties. The first batch of locomotives came straight from the drawing board rather than having a prototype built first due to the desperate need for new locomotives, even though this was risky despite Stanier's reputation having preceded him, the first engines rolling out of production at Crewe works and Vulcan Foundry at Newton Le Willows. Unlike its similarly designed predeccor the Jubillee's the Balck 5's were an immediate success the boilers containing 'low degree' superheaters using just 14 elements and also no dome the regulator being in the smokebox rather than the conventional inside the boiler dome and said to be heavily based on the GWR 'Hall' class. The Black 5's were so well designed with mixed traffic in mind that the weight allowed them access to most of the LMS region hauling loose fitted and fitted goods as well as stopping, semi fast and express passenger services with a top speed of 90mph. The nickname 'Black Five' stems from the LMS days as the engines were turned out of the works in black to denote their mixed traffic status.

 

The first to be rolled out of the first 75 strong order was LMS number 5020 from the Vulcan foundry that had actually started work before Crewe, the locomotive outshopped in the August of 1934 the actual 'Class Leader' number 5000 not appearing from Crewe works until the following February. The engines were such a success that another 227(!) were ordered from the Armstrong Whitworth works on Tyneside which were delivered in the December of 1938 making it the biggest ever British record for new locomotives. With the start of the war and restrictions on production work on building the class was stopped until the April of 1943 when the LMS works at Crewe, Derby and Horwich built new engines until 1951. In the end Crewe built 241 of the class with Horwich building 120, Derby 24, Whitworth and co 327 and Vulcan Foundary 100. When George Ivatt took the reigns as Chief Mechanical engineer he started to experiment with the design producing 11 variations for testing.

 

One of the major changes he made was the replacement of the valve gear on engines 44738 to 44757 which were introduced from 1948 from the Walschaerts design to Caprotti which also saw them receive lower running plates with splashers over the driving wheels. The change in design to these engines resulted in the steam pipes between the smokebox and cylinders being more prominent. The bearings were also changed to roller type rather than the original brass, Nos.44755-44757 fitted with double blastpipes and double chimneys, one engine even receiving a steel smokebox. One of the now preserved of the class was given Stephenson outside link motion valve gear. With these tests in mind the later builds of the class had slight design changes to their predecessors with self-cleaning smoke-boxes, rocking grates and self-emptying ashpans, all of which features were to become part of the BR standards that had much of their design based on Stanier's Black 5's. Nos. 44686 and 44687 were also fitted with Caprotti valve gear but looked different to the standard Balck 5 apperance as they had very high running plates and were similar to the Ivatt 2-6-0 LMS Mogul's of 1947 BR Nos.4300-43161.

 

The first of the class to be withdrawn was BR No.45401 in 1961 after an accident with the rest of the class withdrawn over the next few years though by early 1968 there were still 150 of the class in use, with the last three BR Nos.44781, 44871 and 45110 withdrawn a week after the last steam hauled passenger train was run, on the 4^th of August 1968, hauled by BR 45212. 45110 hauled some special services to say goodbye to steam called the 15 guinea specials before its withdrawl. 18 of the class entered preservation only five of which by 2004 not having not re-entered traffic, LMS No.5000 is now in the national collection. When in service the engines could be found all over the LMS ranging from Bournemouth to Wick and Swansea to York, though the BR engines numbered 44736-44757 were usually seen around Manchester and Liverpool , on the west coast route between London Euston and Manchester or in North Wales.

The Sherwood Foresters No.45231: This locomotive was one of the middle batch of the class and worked until the end of BR steam being one of the 150 class 5's in service in 1968 its last duty was to take a ballast train along the Furness line which runs from Barrow in Furness to Ulverston and Grange over sands. The engine was one of the tyneside builds by Whitworth and Co. rolling out of the works in 1936 and was allocated to patricroft shed near Manchester where it appears to have spent most of its working life on North Wales and Leeds runs. From 1954 the engine was allocated to several other sheds including Northampton and Birmingham before arriving at Carnforth in the April of 1967 where it was withdrawn form BR service but fortunately went straight to preservation and residing at Carnforth shed where it was painted in to LMS black. On the 30^th October 1973 the engine hauled the opening train of the Great Central railway between Loughborough and Quorn and woodhouse now Leicester North becoming one of the lines main operating engines.

 

When in LMS and BR service it never carried a name as with many of the mixed traffic and freight engines and also quite a few passenger engines this privilege mostly going to the locomotives that hauled the more prestigious services. However on the 9^th of May 1976 it was named the '3rd (Volunteer) Battalion The Worcestershire and Sherwood Foresters Regiment' in a ceremony at Quorn before running for another year when it needed a full overhaul which saw its boiler sent to Cornwall and the engine not returning to traffic until the 20^th July 1988 on the Great Central. Today the engine regularly tours other preserved railways and even carries out main line runs on specials.