LMS 43106
Resource Type: Image | Posted on 21st November 2011 by Liam Physick
No. 43106 is the only surviving example of the London, Midland and Scottish Railway’s Ivatt Class 4, a class of Mogul locomotives designed by H G Ivatt mainly to haul medium freight but also frequently used to pull passenger trains. 162 were built by the LMS between 1947 and 1952, although only three were built prior to nationalisation in 1948: these three were originally numbered 3000-3002, but were renumbered 43000-43002 by British Railways, in keeping with its practice of adding 4000 to the numbers of LMS locomotives: the remaining members of the Class, including the one seen here, were numbered 43003-43161 from the outset. They had an American-style appearance, with their running plates at a high level and a gap ahead of the cylinders, and were therefore seen as being Britain’s ugliest ever locomotives: this view was especially applied to the first 50 in the Class, which had double chimneys - however, these chimneys performed poorly and were replaced by single ones. Additionally, the Ivatt Class 4 incorporated other mechanical features to reduce maintenance costs. They were nicknamed “mucky ducks”, “doodle-bugs” and “Flying Pigs”. BR used Ivatt engines mainly on its London Midland Region, but also on the Midland and Great Northern Joint Railway. They were used briefly on the Somerset and Dorset Joint Railway, but soon transferred as their steaming was poor on the long, steep gradients they had to deal with - this was before their design was modified to improve their steaming. No. 43106 was the last Ivatt Class locomotive in service: based at Lostock Hall, near Preston, it was steamed by BR for the last time on 1st August 1968 (10 days before the end of steam traction on BR) and departed initially towards Bescot MPD and then to the Severn Valley Railway, where it has worked ever since, and is known as the Flying Pig
Categorised under: Landmarks, Landscapes & Locomotives
Comments
Ugly duckling it is not. As one of those who put in what amounted to 10 weeks salary back in 1968, I prefer the description ‘Rugged’ interesting looks. It is a good steamer, a pleasure to fire and an ideal locomotive to cope with the high season on our popular heritage railways. And I was the fortunate soul who made that trip from Lostock Hall to Stourbridge Jct on 1 August 1968, and had the pleasure of part of the trip from Bridgnorth to Urlay Nook in August 1975. 57mph through Church Fenton, not bad .....