last year of the ‘Big four’
‘B12s’ displace ‘D40s’ in Scotland, and the last of the ‘Caley’ Beattock bankers
1947 was a year of transition for motive power on the former Great North of Scotland Railway. Whereas other companies had done away with 4-4-0s on expresses during the first two decades of the 20th century, replacing them with ‘Atlantics’ and, later, ‘Pacifics’, the GNoSR stuck rigidly to four-coupled tender engines right up until the Grouping. At the forefront were the LNER ‘D40s’. The class was actually made up of two different, although ostensibly similar, locomotives - the Pickersgill class ‘V’ (introduced in 1899) and the Heywood class ‘F’ (introduced in 1915). Although the products of two different CMEs, the designs were effectively the same, the ‘F’ class being a superheated version of the original saturated ‘Vs’. Designated as class ‘D40’ under LNER ownership, unusually there was no sub-classification to distinguish the two variants. Originally, ten of the latter were ordered in November 1898 by the GNoSR from Neilson, Reid & Co., but after the first five were delivered, the order was cancelled and the firm sold the remaining five to the SECR. The ‘D40s’ held the fort on express and heavy passenger services from Aberdeen to Keith and Elgin, occasionally traversing Highland Railway metals to Inverness until 1931, when transfers of the Holden ‘B12s’ from East Anglia started to displace the venerable 4-4-0s. The LNER had looked to introduce the ‘B12s’ to the Aberdeen area in the 1920s to replace older designs, but a motive power shortage on ex-GER lines prevented this from happening until 1931. Over the next ten years, a total of 31 ‘B12s’ had been allocated north of the border, and aside from their Aberdeen-Elgin duties, they also worked the Buchan section and the Deeside line, as well as goods and fish services. The ‘D40s’ found themselves relegated to branch line work, with the majority shedded at Kittybrewster and small numbers at Keith
and Elgin. Withdrawals started in 1946, but by nationalisation only three had been withdrawn from traffic. By 1947, both the ‘D40s’ and ‘B12s’ were being superseded by the Thompson ‘B1s’; the remaining 18 ‘D40s’ were withdrawn between 1953 and 1958. The last to survive was No. 62277 Gordon Highlander (originally a Heywood ‘F’ class), which was repainted in GNoSR livery as No. 49 upon withdrawal and used for steam excursions until 1966, after which it was preserved in the Glasgow Museum of Transport. It is now on display at the Museum of Scottish Railways at Bo’ness.