METROPOLITAN RAILWAY ‘A’ 4-4-0T
Designer: ............................................................................................. Beyer Peacock/john Fowler
Builder: ..... Beyer Peacock – Nos. 1-18 (1864), Nos. 19-23 (1866), and 39-49, delivered 1870)
Driving wheel diameter: ....................................................................................................... 5ft 9in
Cylinders: ................................................................................................................... 17in by 24in (2)
Boiler pressure: ............................................................................................................. 130lbs/sq in
Tractive effort: ..................................................................................................................... 13,100lb
Students of railway history will hardly be surprised that, having opened the world’s first underground railway on January 3 1863, by August, the Great Western Railway, which supplied the trains, had fallen out with the Metropolitan (which had built the line). Met chief engineer John Fowler hastily gave Beyer Peacock the specification for a new locomotive and the Manchester firm filled in the rest, using a 4-4-0T design it had already supplied to Spain. The result was a classic: the first 18 were supplied in 1864 and the Metropolitan would go on to order more; so would the District Railway, the LSWR, the Midland and the LNWR, while Beyer
Peacock would supply them to railways as far afield as Australia.
Electrification in the early years of the 20th Century meant the end of the ‘A’ 4-4-0Ts, and London Transport only inherited five in 1933 (the last District 4-4-0T was withdrawn in 1932). They’d been rebuilt with cabs and three, Metropolitan Nos. 27, 48 and 49, were retained by LT for permanent way trains. Nos. 23 and 41, however, had a rather special duty, for they were in charge of the Wotton Tramway.
It’s hard to believe that this ramshackle six-mile railway, built by the Duke of Buckingham, linking the delightful Buckinghamshire village of Brill with the Metropolitan main line at Quainton Road could be part of London Transport. It was so lightly built that, even when it was upgraded in 1911, the heaviest locomotives that could work it were the ‘As’. Nos. 23 and 41 worked the branch turn and turn-about until November 30 1935 when LT finally divested itself of this rural folly.
LT retired five of its ‘As’ shortly after but retained No. 23 – which became No. L45 – for engineering trains until in 1948. Stored at Neasden for over a decade, it was restored to Metropolitan appearance for display at the Museum of British Transport in Clapham.
Where can I see one? Metropolitan Railway No. 23 is one of the star attractions at the London Transport Museum in Covent Garden. Can I model them? Ks once produced a 4mm:1ft scale whitemetal kit that can still be found second-hand.