‘Ironclads’, ‘Wigan Pigs’… or ‘Taffy Tender Engines’?
History has credited the ‘Ironclads’ to William Barton Wright, locomotive superintendent of the Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway from 1875 to 1886 – but in truth, they were an ‘off the shelf’ design originally conceived by Kitson & Co. of Leeds.
LYR historian John Marshall wrote that “few engineers since Daniel Gooch could have assumed responsibility for a more wretched collection of engines than that which greeted Barton Wright.” He was faced with the task of replacing a motley, largely outdated and run-down fleet, and doing so just after a disastrous fire had destroyed most of the company’s then locomotive works at Miles Platting in 1873.
Assisted by John Ramsbottom of the LNWR, he began the construction of the new works at Horwich, and standardised the locomotive fleet with four designs – an 0-6-0 (1876), 0-4-4T (1877), 4-4-0 (1880) and 0-6-2T (1881) – but the circumstances meant that most of the 280 0-6-0s came from outside builders.
The Kitson design was virtually identical to 0-6-0s that the firm was also supplying to the Taff Vale Railway; in fact, two of the TVR engines were delivered to the LYR by mistake and had to be returned! Perhaps No. 957 could one day ‘accidentally’ find its way to the Gwili Railway, to haul its planned ‘Welsh Train’ of Taff Vale coaches?
Although 40 of the Class ‘25’ 0-6-0s were constructed at Miles Platting (the last engines to be built there) the rest came from Kitson, the Vulcan Foundry, Beyer Peacock (which built No. 957) and Sharp Stewart.
Simple, robust and powerful machines, they quickly picked up the nickname ‘Ironclads’ after the Royal Navy warships of the period, although they were also affectionately known as ‘Wigan Pigs’ thanks to their work in that area’s coalfield.
Barton Wright’s successor, John Aspinall, rebuilt 230 ‘Ironclads’ into Class ‘23’ saddle tanks between 1891 and 1900. One of these, No. 752, is preserved and has recently returned to steam at the
East Lancashire Railway (SR502).
23 ‘Ironclads’ survived into BR service in original condition, and as detailed further in the main text, the last two survivors were Nos. 52016 (withdrawn on October 20 1956) and 52044 (LYR No. 957).