INCEPTION OF AN‘ AUSTERITY ’

The outbreak of the Second World War resulted in the need for large numbers of freight locomotives to deal with the upsurge in traffic, both at home and overseas. The brief was a heavy freight locomotive that was faster and simpler to build using fabricated components instead of expensive castings. The Railways Executive Committee Chief Mechanical Engineer Robert Riddles decided to use an LMS ‘8F’ 2‑8‑0 as the foundation for his new ‘Austerity’ locomotive, swapping the Belpaire firebox with a round‑topped one and a parallel boiler instead of the ‘8F’s’ tapered design. The result was a rugged 2‑8‑0 with a projected five to ten year lifespan (there was a war on, you know). However, as the majority of these engines were expected to oper‑ ate over lightly constructed lines overseas, the 2‑8‑0s’ axle‑load of 16½ tons was too heavy. Riddles went back to the drawing board, and extended the 2‑8‑0’s frames to include an extra driving axle. The new 2‑10‑0 design had an axle loading of only 13½ tons. Riddles also gave his new design a wide firebox to improve steaming and a flangeless centre driving wheelset to negotiate sharp curves ‑ sound familiar at all? In many ways, the ‘Dub‑Dees’ were precursors to the famous ‘9Fs’, arguably the most successful British Railways Standard design. It is fitting that the North Norfolk Railway has an example from each of these classes, having acquired David Shepherd’s No. 92203 ‘Black Prince’ in November 2015.