Midland Railway and L M S 4-4-0 Locomotives: Their Design, Operation and Performance

By David Maidment

David Maidment has unravelled the complex history of the Johnson, Deeley and Fowler 4-4-0 locomotives of the Midland Railway and its LMS successor, covering their design, construction, operation and performance in this book with over 400 black and white photographs. It recounts their working on the Midland main lines from St Pancras to Derby, Manchester, Leeds and Carlisle, the latter via the celebrated Settle & Carlisle line, and the later work of the Fowler LMS engines on the West Coast main line. The book also describes the history of the Midland 4-4-0s built for the Somerset & Dorset and Midland & Great Northern Railways. The book covers the period from the first Midland 4-4-0 built in 1876 to the last LMS 2P withdrawn in 1962 and includes performance logs, weight diagrams and dimensions and statistical details of each locomotive.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Open Road Integrated Media
• Release date: Dec 30, 2021
• ISBN: 9781526772510

David Maidment

David Maidment was a senior manager with British Railways, with widespread experience of railway operating on the Western and London Midland Regions culminating in the role of Head of Safety Policy for the BRB after the Clapham Junction train accident.He retired in 1996, was a Principal Railway Safety Consultant with International Risk Management Services from 1996 to 2001 and founded the Railway Children charity (www.railwaychildren.co.uk) in 1995. He was awarded the OBE for services to the rail industry in 1996 and is now a frequent speaker on both the charity.

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INTRODUCTION

I’ve been persuaded once more to write a book about locomotives from other than the Great Western or Southern railways. I have hitherto insisted on writing about locomotives I knew and travelled behind in leisure or work and could therefore incorporate some of my own personal experiences. I did indeed work on the London Midland Region of British Rail, but not until the 1980s and then only in the lofty position of Chief Operating Manager, which did at least provide me the opportunity to savour a few footplate runs allegedly in the course of my duties to check on the safety of the steam specials on the Settle & Carlisle where I was guest on the footplate of 46229 Duchess of Hamilton and on Southern and Eastern pacifics on the Banbury-Marylebone route. I also remembered my responsibility for the service run by BR’s last three steam engines in operating stock – the Vale of Rheidol’s narrow-gauge GW 2-6-2 tanks on which I rode No 7 Owain Glyndwr.

My experience of the Midland and LMS 4-4-0s is, however, regrettably sparse. My first encounter was a distinct surprise. I was with my family on our fortnight’s summer holiday in Bournemouth and took a few hours off from the beach to trainspot at Bournemouth Central. I paid just one visit to Bournemouth West which I found somewhat underwhelming until the apparition of 40601 backing onto the three Southern corridor coaches standing in the otherwise empty station. My knowledge of the Somerset & Dorset Railway advanced from nil to 1 per cent and I took a photograph of it with my simple Kodak camera, pictured here.

My introduction to its larger companion, the LMS Compound, took place during train spotting trips to the capital – at St Pancras in 1950 when I encountered 41049 that had piloted a ‘Black 5’ on an incoming express and in 1951 at the end of platforms 12 and 13 at Euston, when between two ‘Royal Scots’ protruding from the ends of the platforms at the head of the summer Saturday Welshman and its relief, I spied a very clean 41144 arriving on the far side. My fellow spotters explained to the ignorant twelve-year-old what this was and the fact that it was said by them to be shedded at Nottingham. I’ve since confirmed they were right, though what it was doing at Euston I have no idea.

LMS 2P 40601 based at Bath Green Park on an afternoon stopping train to Bath, 13 May 1951. This was (although I certainly didn’t know it at the time) the 2P that received double port exhaust valves. (David Maidment)

On later London spotting trips, I ventured out to suburban stations like Willesden Junction and Hendon where I saw both class 2Ps and LMS Compounds piloting Black 5s and Jubilees on expresses. My sympathies lay with the crews of these 4-4-0s which seemed to be swinging wildly as the expresses sped London-wards. I remember in particular an LMS 2P in front of a Jubilee tearing through Willesden Junction appearing to lurch to the right as the train and train engine took the left hand curve at an estimated 80mph+.

In the later 1950s, my experiences were more mundane. After a week on a Western Region ‘short works experience’ course at Bristol when I was in the Sixth Form, I spent a couple of days visiting an elderly great aunt in Wickwar on the Midland Bristol-Gloucester line, and found my four-coach stopping train standing in the old Brunel part of Temple Meads steaming gently behind Bourneville’s 41073 which made a great fuss of hauling its light load up the 1 in 69 of Fishponds bank, steam oozing from all orifices. Visits with the Charterhouse Railway Society to Kentish Town in 1956 produced a couple of Compounds dead on shed, and I remember a number of us clambering over the footplate of rusting 41103, although back at St Pancras a smarter 41199 was blowing off steam at the head of a semi-fast late afternoon train to Bedford.

Then in 1957, between school and college, I worked at Old Oak Common, travelling daily from my home in Woking. The quickest way from Waterloo to Willesden Junction, the nearest station to Old Oak, was via the Bakerloo line direct, but I soon discovered that my finish time coincided with a Rugby-Euston semi-fast train, connecting there with the Northern Line. During the winter and spring of 1957 the train was invariably hauled by one of Rugby’s Black 5s, but from the beginning of the summer timetable, they were utilised on higher priority turns and several of Rugby’s Compounds were taken out of store and one was diagrammed to my train home. I soon discovered that I had to be very patient to enjoy this privilege, for the train was rarely on time, anything from 10 to 25 minutes late. No 41093, recently transferred from Llandudno Junction, was one of the better ones and turned up four times. 41162 was a regular, and 41105, 41113, 41122 and 41172 turned up from time to time. Occasionally, the Compound was replaced by a Camden Jubilee and I soon established that Fisher or Anson had been 1B’s standby engine the previous night covering for the Rugby Compound’s return trip failure. I can vividly remember the one night 41122 surprised everyone by appearing on time and actually ran into platform 7 at Euston half a minute early. The platform was festooned with flags which seemed a little over the top, until I found out that a royal train had departed from that platform half an hour earlier! The last home run I had that summer was a role reversal. An express limped into Willesden Junction’s up slow platform with a Longsight Compound, 41168, coming to the rescue of ailing Jubilee, 45678, De Robeck, which I boarded hurriedly for the five mile run to Euston.

Rugby Compound 41113 pauses at Willesden Junction on the 6.09pm to Euston semi-fast from Rugby, where it will stand for ten minutes to allow ticket inspection as the train will run into an open platform at Euston, 1 August 1957. (David Maidment)

Compound 41162 heads a semi-fast train from Rugby to Euston via Northampton, passing 45187 on a Rugby-Euston stopping passenger train routed via Weedon and the direct line, c1957. (Author’s Collection)

By the following summer they’d gone, and my only other experience was in 1980 with the restored 1000 double-heading the preserved V2, 4771 Green Arrow, on a railtour between Hellifield and Carnforth (see page 194). Beautiful though this engine is, albeit now just a static exhibit, I have to admit to a grudging affection for the run-down Compounds. In those days, I happily accepted the uncertainty of the long wait at Willesden Junction in the hope of a Compound rather than 44712 or 44716 yet again (but on time)!

I did see some of the old Midland engines. Back in 1950, on a three week vacation with a Yorkshire school friend at Doncaster, we made bus trips to trainspot in various South Yorkshire locations. One outing took us to Sheffield and after a wasted visit to Sheffield Victoria where we saw one B1 (not even a ‘cop’), we hastened to the Midland station, where we noted two of the Midland Compounds, 41015 and 41019, though their comparative rarity at that time was lost on us. Many years later, passing through Derby, I took a photo of one of the much-rebuilt Johnson 2P 4-4-0s, 40412 (Midland 2183 class of 1892).

I did not discover then the complex history of 40412 and its sisters and it is only now that I am trying to unravel their development and differences – wheel diameters, boiler renewals, superheating – and try to help those of you that are modellers as well as enthusiasts to identify the right details and liveries for the various periods of their existence. In addition to the 2Ps and 4P Compounds and their LMS successors, I also describe the history and operation of the less well known 3P Midland 700 class and the ten ‘simple’ 4P 4-4-0s (990 class) which spent most of their operating activity on the Settle & Carlisle route. In addition to the history of the designs, construction and rebuilding, I have researched the archives of the Rail Performance Society and back numbers of the Railway Magazine and Trains Illustrated to give an idea of their performance in the halcyon days of the Midland Railway, the early ‘small engine’ days of the LMS, and a few remnants of their main line work in the 1940s and ’50s as well as an account of 1000 in the preservation era. Two other railways built or acquired Johnson or Fowler class 2 4-4-0s or locomotives developed from them – the Somerset & Dorset Railway and the Midland & Great Northern Railway and I also cover a brief history of these engines and their subsequent acquisition by the LMS and LNER.

Midland rebuilt Johnson ‘2’ 40412 of the ‘2183’ class, alongside 4F 0-6-0 44420, at Derby station, 7 September 1957. It was withdrawn from Derby shed in May 1959. (David Maidment)

Chapter 1

THE ENGINEERS

S.W. Johnson, 1873-1903

Samuel Waite Johnson was born in Bramley, Leeds, on 14 October 1831, the son of James Johnson, an engineer who later worked for the Great Northern Railway. Samuel was educated at Leeds Grammar School and became an engineering pupil of James Fenton at the Leeds firm of E.B. Wilson where, amongst other things, he assisted David Joy in producing the drawings of the famous Jenny Lind steam locomotive. He was also involved in the construction of the ‘Bloomer’ 0-6-0 locomotives for the London & North Western Railway. His first appointment was as Assistant District Locomotive Superintendent of the Southern Area of the GNR, then Works Manager at Peterborough and in 1859 he became Acting Locomotive Superintendent of the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway, one of the companies that later formed the Great Central. In 1864, he moved to Cowlairs, Glasgow, as Locomotive Superintendent of the Edinburgh & Glasgow Railway which was amalgamated with the North British Railway in 1865. For his service of training pupils for the Egyptian railways at Cowlairs, the Viceroy of Egypt made him a Commander of the Order of Medjidie and an Officer of the Order of Osmanie. In 1866, he went south to Stratford as Locomotive Superintendent of the Great Eastern Railway after the resignation for health reasons of Robert Sinclair. The GER Board Meeting of 16 July 1873 recorded:

Resolved: that Mr Samuel Waite Johnson having been engaged as Locomotive Superintendent of the Great Eastern Railway for a period of upwards of seven years, the Directors desire to testify their complete satisfaction with his Engineering abilities and with the manner in which he has discharged the duties of his office.

With this glowing testimonial, he was chosen from twenty-six applicants by the Directors of the Midland Railway to be appointed as Locomotive Superintendent after the death of Matthew Kirtley, at an initial salary of £2,000 a year (compared with £750 on the GER) raised to £2,500 a couple of years later in 1875. He remained in charge of locomotive matters for over thirty years.

His initial designs for the Midland were 2-4-0s based on Kirtley’s engines but with inside frames. He designed and built numerous classes of 0-6-0s, 0-4-4 tank engines and the famous Midland ‘Singles’, 4-2-2s, one of which is displayed at the York National Railway Museum. He produced his first 4-4-0 design in 1876 and numerous developments of this throughout his period of office, which are the subject of this book.

Not a lot is known about the character of the man. He is said to have been reserved, though he must have been strong enough to command a Works like Derby. He combined his engineering knowledge with an eye for artistry as his locomotive lines and liveries generated great admiration. Samuel Johnson retired at the end of 1903, aged 72, and lived at Nottingham out of the limelight where he was a Justice of the Peace and was very involved with St Peter’s Church there. He became a Member of the Institute of Mechanical Engineers in 1861, the Institute of Civil Engineers in 1867, a Council Member of the IMechE in 1884, Vice President in 1895 and President in 1898. His son, James, followed in his father’s footsteps, becoming Locomotive Superintendent of the Great North of Scotland Railway in 1890. Samuel died in 1912, aged 80.

R.M. Deeley, 1904-1909

Richard Mountford Deeley was born in Chester on 24 October 1855 and was educated at the Chester Cathedral Grammar School. In 1873, he became an engineering pupil of Edward Ellington, the Managing Director of the Hydraulic Engineering Company, Chester, and was sent in 1874 to work on hydraulic engines with Brotherhood & Hardingham, a London company. He left to become a pupil of Samuel Johnson at Derby in 1875 and on the completion of his apprenticeship there in 1880 was appointed Chief of Testing. In 1893, he was appointed as Inspector of Locomotives and in 1899 supervised the design and maintenance of all electrical plant on the Midland Railway. He was appointed Derby Locomotive Works Manager in 1902 and became Locomotive Superintendent at the beginning of 1904 on Samuel Johnson’s retirement. The Midland Board decided on a reorganisation of the Locomotive Department in 1909, creating a separate Locomotive Running Department under the Traffic Department. Some internal politicking is hinted at, and Deeley consequently resigned, although he was clearly highly regarded by the Directors, who minuted at their Board Meeting of August 1909:

‘Owing to certain contemplated changes in the Locomotive Department, Mr Deeley had placed his resignation in his (the Chairman’s) hands. It was resolved that Mr Deeley’s resignation be accepted from 30 November 1909 and that he be granted a retirement allowance of £1,200 per annum during the pleasure of the Directors. Also that Mr Deeley be requested to retain his gold pass over the Company system for life.’

He became a Member of the Institute of Mechanical Engineers in 1890 and the Institute of Civil Engineers in 1906. After his resignation, he wrote books on aspects of engineering, meteorology and genealogy. He died in Isleworth, London, on 19 June 1944, aged 88.

Sir Henry Fowler

Midland Railway, 1910-1922

Henry Fowler was born at Evesham in Worcestershire on 29 July 1870 and was educated at Evesham Grammar School. Between 1885 and 1887, he attended the Mason Science College in Birmingham and for the following four years was apprenticed under John Aspinall at Horwich Works of the Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway Company. He was awarded the first Whitworth Exhibition at the Horwich Mechanics Institute in 1891 and became a teacher there. He became at the same time Assistant to George Hughes in the Locomotive Testing Department, succeeding him when the latter was promoted. In 1895, he was appointed to be the L&Y’s Gas Engineer. He was also engaged in automobile engineering (much later in 1920 he was elected President of the Institute of Automobile Engineers).

He moved from Horwich in 1900 to become Gas Engineer of the Midland Railway at Derby, and in 1905 was appointed Assistant Works Manager there, becoming Works Manager in 1907. When Deeley resigned in 1909, Fowler was appointed as Chief Mechanical Engineer in charge of locomotive design, construction and maintenance but now stripped of the locomotive running management which had been passed to the Traffic Department. Fowler was basically an all-round Engineering Manager rather than a locomotive designer, the detailed drawings and development carried on very much by the design staff in the Drawing Office at Derby.

In 1915, he was appointed as Director of Production to the Ministry of Munitions and in 1917, Assistant Director General of aircraft production. In consequence of his wartime service, he was awarded the CBE in 1917 and was knighted in 1918.

LMS, 1923-1931

He became deputy Chief Mechanical Engineer to the LMS in 1923 under George Hughes, who retired after two years. Fowler therefore succeeded him in 1925 and moved the LMS motive power headquarters from Horwich to Derby, continuing the ‘small engine’ policy of the former Midland’s Traffic supremo, Anderson, no doubt to the indignation and resentment of the Crewe based ex-LNWR staff. Fowler’s strengths were in engineering production management and he reorganised Derby Works with many economic benefits. Locomotive design was left to Herbert Chambers, Chief Draughtsman at Derby, and Anderson who was Motive Power Superintendent overseeing all locomotive running and performance matters.

However, the LMS needed more powerful express locomotives, especially for the heavy loaded trains on the West Coast main line, resulting in the LMS Board testing a GWR ‘Castle’, then requesting fifty of the class, which regrettably the GWR declined. Fowler then obtained drawings of the Southern Railway’s new ‘Lord Nelson’ class and contracted the North British Company to design a similar powered engine, though of three rather than four cylinders. The resultant ‘Royal Scot’ class was delivered in 1927, though the lessons from the GWR ‘Castle’ exchange had not been fully learned as the new engines suffered from the Midland Railway small bearing design