Heavy haulage
It was surely tempting fate to nominate ‘Mayflower’ as my Locomotive of the Year 2015 as it promptly suffered a cracked axlebox, which ruled it out for its booked pre-Christmas trips, including the December 16 Kings Cross-York journey on which I was intending to report in this issue. So instead, inspired by the regular 600-ton loading of the Surrey Hills Belmond British Pullman, I decided to devote this article to heavy haulage by steam, contrasting the performance of Tornado on a recent Surrey Hills circuit with exploits by No. 35028 on the North Wales coast and No. 6024 on the GN main line and, for good measure, a French ‘Pacific’ on a Calais-bound boat train. Except for the Belmond Pullman, it is rare for British steam locomotives to have the opportunity to haul loads of 600 tons or more. In the past, of course, such loads were encountered in the 1930s and especially during the Second World War. Even if such lengthy trains were needed now, many stations - particularly termini where concourses have been extended to the detriment of platform lengths (such as at Paddington) - would be unable to accommodate them.
I believe the specification for ‘Pacifics’ was that they should be able to sustain 75mph on level track with 600 tons. One of the most notable feats of heavy haulage by a British locomotive was a wartime run by double chimney ‘A4’ Capercaillie (before its renaming as Sir Charles Newton) averaging 75mph over the 24.9 miles between Otterington and Poppleton Junction on practically level track with a 22-coach train of 730 tons gross. The maximum was 78½mph at Raskelf on the faintest of falling gradients (1-in-741). Writing in the March/April 1943 edition of The Railway Magazine, Cecil J. Allen includes numerous runs, mostly under wartime conditions, by ‘A4s’ and ‘A3s’ between King’s Cross and Grantham in both directions, with loads of between 16 and 21 coaches, grossing between 560 and 750 tons. All of the runs achieved net times of 128mins or less for the 105.45 miles (an average of 49.4mph).
Haulage feat
One of the most remarkable was a pre-war run on the Down ‘Flying Scotsman’ in 1938 behind ‘A4’ Empire of India, still fitted with a single chimney at the time. An unchecked run over the 105.45 miles to the Grantham stop was made in 107mins 55secs against a 110-minute schedule. Although speed fell to 39mph at Potters Bar, the average from Stevenage to Yaxley was 76.5mph with a maximum of 91mph at Three Counties, 59mph minimum at Leys summit and 85 at Connington. Even time had been achieved by Holme (69.4 miles) and after passing Peterborough in 75mins 23secs for the 76.35 miles (at the then compulsory 20mph) the minimum up the final 1-in-178 to Stoke Summit was 48mph. Continuing north the Gateshead driver, Dalrymple, achieved a net time of 83½mins for the 82.7 miles to York (including the Selby slack, of course) and ran the 80.2 miles thence to Newcastle in 86mins exactly. Such haulage feats were not, of course, confined to the LNER, but with the limited number of ‘Pacifics’ on the LMS, and none at all on the GWR or SR (until the Bulleid Pacifics appeared) recourse was more frequently made to double-heading. How would the current roster of Class ‘8’ locomotives compare when given the chance?