NEW LMS 2-6-4Ts ON BOTH SIDES OF THE IRISH SEA?

Although it isn’t yet an active scheme, the LMS-Patriot Project has already planned what it is going to build next – a replica of LMS ‘4P’ 2-6-4T No. 42424.

Like the Churchward ‘Saint’, the Fowler Class 4 tanks were among the most influential locomotives built in Britain, their design evolving into the two and three-cylinder Stanier variants, and then the later Fairburn and BR Standard ‘4MT’ tanks – the latter entering service in 1951, 24 years after the Fowler tanks were introduced, and proving to be one of the most successful Standard designs. Quite a legacy, then.

The new No. 42424 was first mooted in May 2015 (SR441) and was estimated to cost £1.25 million to complete. As a well-loved design, a missing link and a useful locomotive for today’s railways, it fulfils all the criteria for an ideal new-build project, and the ‘5XP’ team should be able to capitalise upon its success with The Unknown Warrior in the same way the A1 Steam Locomotive Trust was able to with Prince of Wales after building Tornado.

Work won’t start until The Unknown Warrior is fully up and running, but don’t bet against seeing No. 42424 sooner rather than later.

Furthermore, the scheme could be aided by the existence in preservation of LMS (NCC) ‘WT’ 2-6-4T No. 4, the Northern Irish ‘Jeeps’ being a 5ft 3in gauge variant of Fowler’s standard gauge design, and the Railway Preservation Society of Ireland – which owns No. 4 – already has a number of spare components recovered from scrapped ‘WTs’ in stock, so the two organisations will work closely together.

Coincidentally, the RPSI has started building a boiler which may form the basis of its own new-build locomotive.

The society is considering using the boiler as a replacement for that currently fitted to No. 4, but it is also weighing up the option of using it to build either a new ‘Jeep’, or a replica ‘W’ 2-6-0. The latter were a tender variant of the ‘WTs’, sharing a number of components – including the boiler – and none survived into preservation.

Building a ‘W’ has considerable benefits, not least of which is a locomotive with greater coal and water capacity, and the RPSI already has a suitable Stanier-outline tender in stock should it decide to build an LMS (NCC) ‘Mogul’.

P.J. HUGHES/COLOUR RAIL A Fowler Class 4 2-6-4T No. 42424, the subject of the LMS-Patriot Project’s proposed follow-up to The Unknown Warrior, at Tebay in September 1961.

MIKE MORANT COLLECTION Could one of these also be replicated? LMS (NCC) ‘W’ 2-6-0 No. 94 The Maine passes through Goraghwood, Northern Ireland, on an unrecorded date sometime after 1959. The last – No. 97 Earl of Ulster – survived until 1967.