LNWR 1054

Resource Type: Image | Posted on 21st November 2011 by Liam Physick

This image from Rocket 150 - Official Handbook shows London and North Western Railway No. 1054, a 0-6-2T locomotive belonging to the Webb Coal Tank class. The class was introduced by F W Webb in 1881, and got its name because it was a tank equivalent of his 17in Coal Engine design, a class of 0-6-0 tender locomotive used to pull slow goods trains: the Webb Coal Tank locomotives used the same cheap cast-iron wheels and H-section spokes. They were workmanlike and flexible, though they lacked power and their inadequate brake leverage could make them hard to stop. They originally pulled short-distance goods trains but later also local passenger services and were used all over the LNWR network. 300 Webb Coal Tanks were built between 1881 and 1897: they were numbered randomly based on vacant numbers. No. 1054 (the 250th to be built) entered service in 1888. Before the First World War, it worked in the Birmingham area, and then in Wales. Four Webb Tanks were withdrawn in January and February 1920, and four more in July and November 1922, so 292 were inherited in 1923 by the London, Midland and Scottish Railway, which numbered them in a solid block from 7550-7841 (1054 was renumbered 7799): in 1934, many of the surviving members had their numbers increased by 20,000. 1054 was withdrawn from service in January 1939: it was earmarked to be scrapped, but the outbreak of the Second World War led to its being overhauled and reinstated in December 1940 because of a shortage of locomotives for the war effort. It then worked in the Manchester area pulling local trains from Bolton, and the Liverpool area from Edge Hill: later, it pulled the passenger service from Bletchley to Dunstable. In 1948, 64 Webb Coal Tanks were taken over by British Railways: they were numbered 58880-58937, but not all survived long enough to carry their BR numbers: 1054 now carried the number 58926. By 1950, it was at Shrewsbury, hauling passenger trains to Craven Arms. In 1954, it moved to Abergavenny and was loaned to the National Coal Board for 12 months, where it worked alongside two of its class mates at Windsor Colliery in Ynysybwl near Pontypridd. After this, it returned to Abergavenny, by which time it was both the last surviving Webb Coal Tank and the last operational Webb-designed locomotive. It was kept as a spare locomotive and fitted with a snowplough during the winter months, but it is doubtful if it was ever utilised in this role. It pulled the last train on the Abergavenny to Merthyr Tydfil line, before being moved to Pontypool, from which, in 1958, it was withdrawn from service after covering over a million miles, and sent to the scrapyard. However, Max Dunn, former shedmaster at Bangor locomotive depot, was persuaded by friends to raise funds to buy the threatened locomotive: he restored it to its LNWR number and livery at Crewe. In 1963, Dunn arranged for 1054 to be transferred to the ownership of the National Trust to be displayed at Penrhyn Castle in north Wales (close to where it had worked in the 1920s). But Penrhyn had limited facilities for effectively exhibiting the locomotive and in 1972, with the railway preservation movement growing, some of its original trustees arranged for it to be displayed by the Bahamas Locomotive Society at its Dinting Railway Centre near Glossop. In 1980, 1054 was overhauled and restored to working order and its LNWR condition, in order to feature in the Grand Cavalcade. Since then, it has run on the Keighley and Worth Valley Railway in South Yorkshire, pulling vintage trains, as well as being used for brake van rides at the Dinting Railway Centre until its closure in 1990, and hauling trains on other heritage railways. In 1999, 1054 was taken out of service for another overhaul in the workshop of the Bahamas Locomotive Society at Ingrow Loco on the Keighley and Worth Valley Railway. On 15th November 2011 it was steamed on the Railway for the first time in 12 years, and returned to active service

Tagged under: steam locomotives, edge hill station, tender locomotives, rocket 150, goods, british rail, passengers, tank locomotives, freight, grand cavalcade

Categorised under: Landmarks, Landscapes & Locomotives