LMS Route: Rugby to Tamworth

Tamworth Station: lnwr_tam2345

An unidentified LMS Class 5 4-6-0 locomotive leaving Tamworth on an up express service on 11th June 1935. Introduced by William Stanier in 1934 some 842 were built up to 1951. Members of the class survived to the last day of steam on British Railways in 1968, and eighteen are preserved. The Black Fives were a mixed traffic locomotive, a do-anything and go-anywhere type, designed by Stanier, who had previously been with the GWR. These were to be the LMS's version of the GWR Halls but not a copy, as the Hall was too wide to run most places in Britain. They shared similar cylinder arrangement (two outside), internal boiler design and size and 6 foot driving wheel diameters. In their early days the locomotives were known as the Black Staniers from their black livery, in contrast to Stanier's other class of 4-6-0, the LMS Jubilee Class, which were painted crimson (and known until April 1935 as the Red Staniers). Later on, the nickname of the former became Black Five, the number referring to the power classification. This was originally 5P5F, but from 1940 was shown on cabsides as the simple figure 5.

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