Great Central Railway
What operated GCR Class 9P from 1923 to Dec 1947?
GCR Class 9P GCR Class 9P was a design of four-cylinder steam locomotive of the 4-6-0 wheel arrangement built for hauling express passenger trains on the Great Central Railway in England . A total of six were built : one in 1917 , and five in 1920 . They were sometimes known as the Lord Faringdon class , from the name of the first one built . History . John G . Robinson served as Chief Mechanical Engineer of the Great Central Railway ( GCR ) from 1900 to 1922 . Towards the end of his period of office , he introduced two classes of 4-6-0 locomotive with four cylinders and large-diameter boilers . They differed primarily in the diameter of their driving wheels : the first design , Class 9P ( LNER Class B3 from September 1923 ) , had diameter wheels , for express passenger service ; and the second , Class 9Q ( LNER Class B7 ) , had wheels , for mixed-traffic work . The first locomotive of Class 9P to be built was costed at £5,871 . The four cylinders had a bore of and a stroke of . They were set in line ( like the LNWR Claughton Class ) , with the inside cylinders driving the front coupled axle , and the outside cylinders driving the middle coupled axle ( like the GWR Star Class ) . The piston valves were actuated by two sets of Stephenson valve gear , mounted inside the frames and operating the valves of the outside cylinders through rocking shafts placed behind the cylinders . These rocking shafts caused the two valves on each side to move forwards and backwards together , and since the inside and outside cylinders on each side were out of phase by 180° , the valves of the outside cylinders were arranged for outside admission , instead of the normal inside admission layout . The boiler was the Gorton No . 7 Standard , which was already used on two other GCR 4-6-0 classes : Class 1 ( LNER Class B2 ) and Class 1A ( LNER Class B8 ) ; it would later be used on Class 9Q as well . In July 1928 , this boiler was assigned to LNER Diagram 13 . Class B3/2 . The complicated cylinder castings , which involved tortuous narrow steam passages to provide inside admission for the inside cylinders and outside admission for the outside cylinders , resulted in poor steam flow ; this , together with leakages around the piston valves , led to a high coal consumption which became particularly apparent once the locomotives were being used on trains out of Kings Cross . Nigel Gresley , the Chief Mechanical Engineer of the LNER , decided to fit poppet valves , but instead of operating these by Lentz valve gear , as he had done with some of his other poppet valve fitments ( such as Class B12 ) , Gresley chose to use Caprotti valve gear . This was driven from the driving axle by a longitudinal shaft along the centre of the locomotive to a transverse shaft above the cylinders . No . 6168 Lord Stuart of Wortley was modified in September 1929 , followed by no . 6166 in December . In December 1929 , class B3 was subdivided into two parts , and the locomotives modified with Caprotti valve gear were given the classification B3/2 , and the unmodified locomotives became B3/1 . On test , they showed a 16% reduction in coal consumption , and as a result , a further two more were modified to B3/2 – no . 6167 in June 1938 , and no . 6164 Earl Beatty in June 1939 . These used steam to close the valves , instead of the springs fitted to nos . 6166/8 . It was intended to convert the remaining two Class B3/1 locomotives , but the outbreak of war meant that they were never modified , and retained Stephenson valve gear until withdrawal . Class B3/3 . In 1943 , no . 6166 Earl Haig of Class B3/2 was found to have cracked cylinders , and was selected by Edward Thompson for rebuilding with two outside cylinders , ten-inch piston valves actuated by Walschaerts valve gear and a round-top boiler of the same design ( known as Diagram 100A ) as was used on his Class B1 4-6-0 . The wheels , bogie and rear part of the main frames were retained , as was the tender , but all the other components were new . It was reclassified B3/3 , and returned to service in October 1943 , retaining its number but losing its name , since there was no suitable place to affix the nameplates . No further rebuilds followed ; the reconstruction weakened the frames , and although this locomotive was the sole member of the class to be inherited by British Railways , it survived only until 1949 . Numbers and names . No . 1169 was named after the GCR Chairman ( Class 11E locomotive no . 429 giving up its name Sir Alexander Henderson at this time – he had been raised to the peerage the previous year ) , and no . 1168 after another GCR Director . Nos . 1164 , 1166 and 1167 were named after significant British leaders of the First World War : Beatty was an Admiral in the Royal Navy ; Haig was a Field-Marshal in the Army ; and Lloyd George was Prime Minister . The remaining engine , no . 1165 , was designated as the war memorial locomotive : it carried an inscription below the name reading In memory of G.C.R . employees who gave their lives for their country 1914–1918 ; and on Armistice Day each year until the outbreak of the Second World War , it was decorated with poppies and hauled a train from to , carrying a party of railwaymen to a memorial service . The name was removed from no . 1167 on 30 August 1923 , on the instructions of Sir Frederick Banbury ; and from LNER no . 6166 ( formerly no . 1166 ) in October 1943 . One nameplate of LNER no . 1496 ( formerly GCR no . 1165 ) has been preserved at the National Railway Museum . After withdrawal , the name from LNER no . 1494 ( formerly GCR no . 1169 ) was transferred in March 1948 to LNER Class A4 4-6-2 no . 34 , which was given its British Railways number 60034 at the same time . After the Grouping , the LNER increased the GCR numbers by 5000 , this occurring in 1924–25 . Under the 1946 renumbering , they were allotted 1480–5 in order of construction , but these were not applied , being amended later that year to 1494–9 . No . 6168 was withdrawn before the number 1499 could be applied , but the others were renumbered in September and October 1946 . No . 1497 , the sole Class B3/3 rebuild , was the only one to survive nationalisation ; it was duly allotted no . 61497 , which was applied in April 1948 . External links . - The Robinson Class B3 ( GCR Class 9P ) Lord Faringdon 4-6-0s at The LNER Encyclopedia