Stanier's evergreen ' Black Fives'
Adding a OO- scale model of a ' Black Five' 4- 6- 0 to his collection, Pete Kelly shares some of his many memories of these ' do- anything, go- anywhere' locomotives.
Addinga OO- scalem odelo f a ' BlackF ive' 4 - 6- 0 to hisc ollectionP, ete Kellys haress ome of hism anym emorieso f these' do- anythingg, o- anywherel'o comotives.
THE Christmas Day screening on Quest TV of the two- hour- long programme'The West Highland Railway- Fort William to Mallaig'took viewers on an armchair journey with ' The Jacobite' along the stunningly beautiful 42.8- mile route with ' Black Rve' 4- 6- 0 No. 45407 The Lancashire Fusiliera, nd provided a master classi n the efficient and economical handling of one of these legendary do- anything locomotives at the hands of owner/ driver Ian Riley and his fireman.
It brought back an unforgettable footplate experience during the late 1980s on the same Armstrong Whitworth- built locomotive when it was owned by Paddy Smith from Cheshire and known universally as ' Paddy's Engine'. It was returning south after completing a summer season on the West Highland line extension, and every time the train stopped, those on board who had helped during the season were each given a cab ride in turn.
Paddy had invited me to join the trip as a railway magazine editor, and although I was offered a footplate ride several times, I declined until every helper had taken his or her well- deserved turn - which meant it was pitch dark by the time I finally took my stint along the main line between Glasgow and Edinburgh - but I'll never forget the drama as the ' Black Five' raced through the night with the almost unbroken roar from the chimney leaving a horizontal stream of sparks in its wake.
' Black Fives' have always been close to my heart because I spent my childhood only about four miles from The Vulcan Foundry that built the first 40 of these ubiquitous locomotives in 1934/ 5.1 well remember the proud ' Vulcan Locomotives'sign painted in bold white lettering on one of the factory's large roofs that was clearly visible from passing West Coast Main Line trains as they negotiated the sharp right- hand curve just beyond WinwickJunction.
Loco- spotting days
A little later in life, I used to cycle past Vulcan's main gates to and from my first job as a trainee reporter on a local newspaper in 1961, often noticing brand- new Class 37 diesel- electrics waiting for dispatch. It's hard to believe that, like so many other British firms that once built locomotives for the whole world, the memories are all that now remain of that hallowed complex where even the fabled production ' Deities' were built.
When mum wanted my younger brother and me'out from under her feet' on rainy summer holiday mornings, she'd sometimes find enough money for us to buy two half cheap- day returns to Chester or Crewe for well- remembered loco- spotting days. On the bus into town we'd ponder about what might be heading our train, but we soon learned that it would always be a ' Black Five' no matter which destination we chose.
The prefabricated building in which
fellow classmates and I spent much of our first year of secondary education in 1956 nestled at the foot of a high embankment taking the line from Warrington Arpleyto Manchester over the Manchester Ship Canal on the impressive Latchford Viaduct. The frequent goods trains were often handled by'Black Fives; but on bitterly cold wintry days, the ever- willing
4- 6- 0s would sometimes lose their footing and stall on the hard climb towards the bridge despite their sanding gear, and eventually a banker would be called from Arpley, an exchange of whistles announcing the resumption of the journey.
The line was closed to the commuter passenger traffic, usually in the hands ofthe nimble lvatt
2- 6- 2 Class 2 tank engines, on September 10, 1962, and although the line remained quite a busy artery for freight traffic, that too came to an end on July 7, 1985 - the overriding factor being the cost of repairs that had become necessary for the line.
On family caravan holidays at Winkup's Camp, between Rhyl and Abergele, our notebooks would soon be crammed with new locomotive numbers - the vast majority being ' Black Fives' and their BR counterparts, the Standard Class 5 4- 6- 0s, heading excursion trains from crowded cities to Llandudno and beyond - so many, in fact, that I clearly recall seeing two ' Black Fives' seemingly ' racing' each other as they ran side
by- side on adjacent lines out of Rhyl.
For the past 19 years, I've lived in the heart of former Great Northern Railway territory in Lincolnshire, and although most of the lines that once criss- crossed England's second largest county by area disappeared before and during the Beeching era, the remains of many of the often ornatelystyled stations, and accompanying goods yards and other items of infrastructure can still be found.
Clean slate
It came as a great surprise, then, that when I visited a local garden railway open day last summer and asked the owner what his favourite class of steam engine was, he replied unhesitatingly: "The Black Five!" I'd expected him to choose a Gresley locomotive, but even among the ranks of mixed traffic locomotives there are many worthy contenders, including GWR'Hall'and ' Grange' 4- 6- 0s, the LNER K3 2- 6- 0s, B1 4- 6- 0s and V2 2- 6- 2s ( the latter being my own particular favourite) and LMS'Crab' 2- 6- 0s to name but a few.
When the LMS, the biggest by far ofthe ' Big Four' railway companies formed at the 1923 Grouping, with more than 7000 route miles and stretching effectively from Bournemouth to Wick and Thurso, it inherited more than 10,000 steam locomotives of various antiquities and classes ( many built in very small numbers) from the London & North Western and Lancashire &
Yorkshire Railways which had already amalgamated on January 1, 1922, the Midland Railway, North Staffordshire Railway, Furness Railway, Glasgow & South Western Railway, Caledonian Railway and Highland Railway.
A huge brush was clearly needed to sweep the slate clean and bring the sprawling new railway up to date with a huge fleet of modern and efficient locomotives. However, the best part of a decade went by before the much- needed revolution began under William Arthur Stanier, who moved from his post of principal assistant to GWR Chief Mechanical Engineer ( CME) Charles Collett at Swindon to become CME of the LMS on January 1, 1932, and took the sound engineering principles of the GWR with him.
Although there was plenty of'if
it works, why change it?' behind the thinking of the new CME, the locomotives his design team produced certainly were not Great Western engines, and the suggestion that they were sometimes irritated him. When he took over, rivalry between the Crewe and Derby design offices remained intense, and his skills in making everything work and getting everyone to start singing from the same hymn sheet are often overlooked by historians.
Even the LNER's legendary CME Herbert Nigel Gresley, who was knighted in 1936, wasn't too proud to learn from the GWR. After a series of comparative locomotive trials between one of his three- cylinder A 1 Pacifies, No. 4474 Victor Wild and fourcylinder GWR ' Castle' 4- 6- 0 No. 4079 Pendennis Costle between King's
"Onf amilyc aravanh olidaysa t Winkup'sC amp, betweenR hyla nd Abergeleo, ur notebooks woulds oonb e crammedw ith new locomotive numbers- the vastm ajorityb eing' BlackF ives' andt heir BRc ounterpartsth, e StandardC lass5 4- 6- 0s, h eadinge xcursiontr ainsf romc rowded citiest o Llandudnoa nd beyond- so many, i n fact, t hat I clearlyr ecalls eeingt wo ' BlackF ives' seemingly'r acinge' acho thera st hey rans ide- bysideo n adjacentli neso ut of Rhyl."
Cross and Doncaster during the spring of 1925, he happily embraced the GWR's principle of increased lap and longer- travel valve- gear for his swift and beautiful three- cylinder locomotives to give them even better performance and economy.
Born in Edinburgh in 1876 and raised in Derbyshire, Gresley himself started his brilliant career under two constituent companies of the LMS, serving his apprenticeship with the London & North Western Railway at Crewe Works before working under John Aspinall at the Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway's Horwich Works.
Before his 30th birthday, though, he moved to the Great Northern Railway as carriage and wagon superintendent in 1905, and during the autumn of 1911 succeeded Henry A lvatt as the GNR's CME.
Up- to- date
In stark contrast to the LNER, in to which Gresley- whose graceful early Pacifies had already set the standard for the fabulous express passenger locomotives to come - moved across seamlessly from the GNR at the 1923 Grouping, the LMS had started the new era under George Hughes from the Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway ( 1923- 25), followed by Sir Henry Fowler from the Midland Railway ( 1925- 31) and, briefly, Sir Ernest Lemon ( 1931- 32) before Stanier and his team finally got down to work to bring the railway up- to- date.
Despite the Princess Royals, Jubilees, Duchesses and rebuilt Royal Scots, the most important Stanier classes by far were the 842 two- cylinder'Black Five' 4- 6- 0s that were built between 1934 and 1951 and their even more numerous freight- only counterparts, the 852 BF 2- 8- 0s that were built between 1935 and 1945. Sheer numbers and an urgent timescale necessitated the ' Black Fives' being constructed at Crewe, Derby and Horwich Works, Vulcan Foundry, North British and Armstrong Whitworth.
The 8Fs were so important to wartime operations that they had an even wider range of constructors - Crewe, Horwich, Swindon, Brighton, Darlington, Doncaster, Eastleigh and Ashford Works as well as Vulcan Foundry, North British and Beyer Peacock- and as an aside the Riddles WD 2- 8- 0s, which were based on the 8Fs but had parallel boilers, roundtopped steel fireboxes and nonspoked driving wheels, numbered no fewer than 935!
Although in many respects these two- cylinder, taper- boiler locomotives, with their long- travel valves and 6ft driving wheels, were the LMS equivalent of the GWR'Halls; they utilised Walschaerts valvegear rather than the GWR's inside Stephenson's variety, and being narrower also had a much wider route availability. Their universally- liked cabs were also a big improvement on those of their GWR counterparts.
Such was the difference between the Welsh steam coal that fed the Swindon- built ' Halls' and that generally used by the LMS, though, that it soon became clear that the first batches of'Black Fives' had an inadequate evaporative heating surface for their particular operating conditions - and without going into too much detail, an increase in superheater surface from 228 to 348 sq ft and in grate area from 27.8 to 28.7 sq ft, resulting in an overall increase of evaporative heating surface from 1616 sq ft to 1650 sq ft transformed the 4- 6- 0s into the lively, much- loved locomotives they became, capable of fulfilling any duty that could be thrown at them, including fast fitted freights and some meteoric express passenger performances of 90mph plus.
No fewer than 18 ' Black Fives' survived into preservation, where examples still at work never look a year older than when they were in their main- line heyday more than half a century after steam
Above: T ow eathero r not to weather. .. that ist he question. T hew riter's model of a G2a 0- 8- 0, echoing a reallife type frequently seen from a school classroomin 1956w heezingu phill from Arpleyt o the LatchfordV iaduct acrossth e ManchesterS hipC anal, w as expertly weathered by TMC. A slightly milder treatment might well be applied to the ' Black Five' to echo the reality ofa late 1930s main line scene, but it would be best left pristine to reflect modern heritage conditions.
Right: In real life, a heavy canvas bridging the gap between the scant cabr oofso f the long- lived0 - 8- 0s and their tender- front extensions made working tender- first through a blizzardo r thunderstorma little more bearable! B OTH: P ETEK ELLY
was supposed to have finished on Britain's railways for good - and that includes the ' Jacobite' heritage train, whose timetable has been hit badly by the coronavirus epidemic, with which this feature began.
In model form
The usefulness of'Black Fives'to heritage railway modelling is obvious, and the latest acquisition for my planned OO- scale 1937 LMS layout is Hornby's nicely- crafted and detailed No. 5089 in pristine red- lined LMS livery. The well- proportioned body is spray- painted overall, and the rest of the decoration, including tiny worksplates and tender water- capacity details, is applied by a printed process, not transfers.
The scale 6ft- diameter wheels are finished authentically in black, but the shiny connecting rod and valve- gear details could be slightly weathered to advantage. The perfectly- proportioned cab boasts doors and small crew lookout screens, a sliding roof plate and backhead control details picked out in copper, and among the other refinements are sprung metal buffers.
The model is powered by a sealed, long- life motor that's fitted to the locomotive rather than the tender, which carries a moulded coal load, and a separate small packet in the box includes front steps and the brake rod assembly.
Many small details are moulded into the accurately- modelled boiler and firebox, with separately- fitted handrails, and the safety- valves and whistle have a shiny brass finish. My ' Black Five' model cost £ 153 and in due course will join a well- weathered ' Super D' 0- 8- 0, a Midland Compound 4- 4- 0, a Midland 3F 0- 6- 0, an unrebuilt Royal Scot 4- 6- 0 and three Stanier Pacifies.
Heritage modellers love weathering and/ or renumbering their miniature locomotives, but as before the preservation era I rarely saw a really pristine example of a hard- working ' Black Five; whose modern design allowed 145,000 miles or more between general repairs, my new model will almost certainly join my ' Super D'by having some kind of weathered appearance.
In a way, it all depends on whether you're modelling history or preservation, because whereas heavy weathering would be perfect for, say, an early 1960s main line layout, it would hardly be appropriate for a present- day heritage scene.
Be careful about renumbering, too, because batches of'Black Fives' were fitted with different types of boiler from new, although to confuse matters further, different kinds were sometimes fitted during heavy overhauls, so a bit of research will be necessary to pick a number applicable to the particular boiler carried by the model. lTiil