STANIER’S SUPER SMOOTHIE – THE TURBOMOTIVE

WILLIAM Stanier’s contribution to the LMS could not have been forged in a better place than the GWR’s Swindon Works where, as principal assistant to Chief Mechanical Engineer Charles Collett, his work had concentrated on the steady refinement of the GWR’s well-proven fleet of advanced and efficient standard locomotive designs.

While the Grouping of January 1, 1923 hardly altered the GWR at all, the LMS – by far the biggest of the ‘big four’ companies – inherited a huge and ill-assorted legacy of locomotive stock, and an intense rivalry between Derby and Crewe did little to facilitate the massive shakeup that was needed from the start.

A succession of CMEs including George Hughes, of the former Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway, and Sir Henry Fowler, of the former Midland Railway, made important contributions to the newly-formed company, but these were never enough to satisfy the seismic changes in both locomotive stock