THE name Sarah Siddons is notable in three ways. Historians, or those interested in the arts, may reference the 18th century Welsh actress. Those with an interest in ghosts may refer to her apparition, the ‘Grey Lady’, which allegedly haunts the Grand Theatre in Lancaster. But railway enthusiasts will refer to Metropolitan Railway locomotive No. 12 that carries her name. The loco is the sole example from the former fleet of 20 to remain in working condition – but, arguably, it should not even exist today, having been recommended for scrapping in 1964.
This edition of The RM marks exactly a century since our first article about these locomotives, but it is also midway between the centenaries of the surviving two examples: No. 5 John Hampden being completed on July 1, 1922, with Sarah Siddons similarly leaving the works on November 1 that year.
“As part of the publicity campaign for the urbanisation of the ‘Metro-land’ suburbs, the Metropolitan Railway decided to name all the locos after people associated with the route into Buckinghamshire”
As the Metropolitan Railway’s traction moved away from steam to electric during the first few years of the 20th century, an initial batch of 10 locomotives entered service in 1906. These 860hp ‘Camel-back’ locomotives, so called due to the central position of the cab, were built by Metropolitan Amalgamated with British Westinghouse Electric traction. They were initially unpopular with drivers, as they used a single controller that they found awkward to use, so a second controller was installed swiftly. All 20 locos had traction upgrades between 1911 and 1913.
Just a year after the introduction of these first-generation electric locos, 10 more 800hp examples were constructed by Metropolitan Amalgamated and, with cabs at both ends, they were referred to as ‘box’ locos.
As passenger numbers increased and trains became heavier, traction power remained an issue and so in September 1919 Metropolitan Vickers
