Rugby Locomotive Testing Station

LMS Route: Rugby to Wolverhampton
LMS Route: Rugby to Leamington
LMS Route: Trent Valley Line

The following introduction, originally written by CP Atkins, NRM Librarian, 27 January 1982, and updated by M Bashforth, Assistant Archivist, and Miriam Davey, volunteer, 2008-2009, accompanies a document detailing the list of records held by the NRM relating to Rugby Locomotive Testing Station. Listed beneath the introduction is a list of all tests carried out at the testing station'.

HN (later Sir Nigel) Gresley, CME of the LNER, expressed the desirability of the establishment of a national locomotive testing station to be at the disposal of the British main line railways and the private locomotive building industry, during the course of his Presidential Address to the Institution of Locomotive Engineers, 29 September 1927. By 1930 a site on the outskirts of Leeds had been provisionally selected, but subsequent appeals for funds to the Government of the day were rejected in view of the prevailing economic conditions. The GWR already had a stationary testing plant of its own at Swindon, and the Southern Railway considered its future lay with extensive electrification. In 1937 the LMSR and LNER boldly decided to jointly build a Test Plant at Rugby. For design characteristics inspiration was sought from the newly opened plant at Vitry in France (1933) and the well established plant at Altoona on the Pennsylvania Railroad in the USA. Specifications were issued during 1938, the contract for the test bed being let to Messrs Heenan & Froude of Worcester. Work on the building was well advanced when halted by the outbreak of World War 2 in 1939. Work resumed after the war and the Plant was officially opened in October 1948.

A total of 26 different locomotives rode the rollers at Rugby; surprisingly this included a four-coupled locomotive (Class D49) but no eight-coupled. No fewer than ten were 4-6-0s, and eight were 2-10-0s, mainly of the BR Class 9F type in its various forms. It can be said that by the time the Test Plant had got into its stride in the early 1950s mobile road testing had attained a high degree of sophistication, and that when steam locomotive testing ceased in the late 1950s data from stationary testing at Rugby could be satisfactorily reconciled with results from mobile testing. The last steam locomotive tests took place at Rugby in 1959, but nearly all the associated records and correspondence remained on those premises when the National Railway Museum came into being in 1975. This material was transferred to York in 1976 and over subsequent years sorted and listed. These records now reside in 117 numbered boxes. A large quantity of Amsler paper rolls and a large selection of contractors’ drawings for the Plant and its equipment have yet to be catalogued. In most cases a comprehensive report was subsequently prepared, with the notable exception of the ex-LMS Rebuilt ‘Royal Scot’ 4-6-0 No 46165. In some cases the locomotive in question, notably SR Class Merchant Navy 4-6-2 (original) and LMS ‘Duchess’ 4-6-2, were tested both on the road (Skipton-Carlisle) and on the Plant.

Summary of Tests at Rugby Locomotive Testing Station

Purpose of Tests:

A) Evaluation of infinitely variable Reidinger poppet valve gear
B) Comparison of Reidinger poppet valve gear and Walschaerts valve gear (piston valves)
C) Comparison of Reidinger poppet valve gear and Walschaerts valve gear (piston valves)
D) General performance and efficiency tests
E) Evaluation of Caprotti poppet valve gear
F) Single v Double blastpipe experiments
G) Dirty boiler tests
H) Variation of valve lead tests
I) General performance and efficiency tests
J) General performance and efficiency tests
K) Electrically augmented superheat
L) Improved draughting (double chimney) tests
M) General performance and efficiency tests
N) Demonstration only
O) General performance and efficiency tests
P) General performance and efficiency tests
Q) General performance and efficiency tests
R) General performance and efficiency tests
S) Test plant general calibration
T) Test plant general calibration
U) General performance and efficiency tests
V) Reduced regulator opening experiments
W) Evaluation of Franco-Crosti boiler
X) General performance and efficiency tests (for comparison with W)
Y) Evaluation of Berkley mechanical stoker
Z)
-)

Rugby Locomotive Testing Station: Information in the RC Bond Papers

Ref: lnwrrm2654 NRM Exterior view of Rugby Locomotive Testing Station a few months before the building was completed

Ref: lnwrrm2657 NRM An elevated view of Rugby Locomotive Testing Station seen on 23rd September 1948 just prior to its opening

Ref: lnwrrm2461 MA Griffin An elevated view of Rugby Locomotive Testing Station seen from the top of the coaling plant circa 1964

Ref: lnwrrm2644 NRM The control room showing an operator at the controls during tests of ex-LMS 4-6-0 Class 5 No 44765

Ref: lnwrrm2652 NRM A group of railway officials inside Rugby's Locomotive Testing Station's control room on 20th July 1962

Ref: lnwrrm2649 British Railways Ex-LNER A4 4-6-2 No 60007 and ex-LMS Coronation Class 4-6-2 No 46256 'Sir William Stanier FRS'

Ref: lnwrrm2487 L Goods Ex-LNER 4-6-2 No 60007 'Sir Nigel Gresley' being prepared for the opening of the Locomotive Testing Station

Ref: lnwrrm2658 British Railways An aerial view of the test bed with ex-LNER D49 4-4-0 No 62764 'The Garth' standing ready to undergo testing

Ref: lnwrrm1068 JM Jarvis View of ex-LNER 4-4-0 D49 Class No 62764 'The Garth' being put through its paces whilst under test at Rugby

Ref: lnwrrm2648 PA Reuter View of the crew working inside the cab of Bullied Pacific No 35022 'Holland America Line' in March 1953

Ref: lnwrrm2523 British Railways British Railways built Merchant Navy Class 4-6-2 No 35022 'Holland America Line' is seen going through its tests

Ref: lnwrrm2640 British Railways Another view of ex-LNER A4 4-6-2 No 60007 standing on the rollers at Rugby Testing station

Ref: lnwrrm2642 British Railways BR 7MT 4-6-2 No 70005 'John Milton' is seen going flat out on the rollers on one of its two visits to Rugby

Ref: lnwrrm2645 British Railways BR Standard Class 9F 2-10-0 No 92013, the first of the class to be tested, is seen going through its paces

Ref: lnwrrm2646 NRM British Railways Standard Class 9F 2-1-0 No 92023 fitted with Crosti boiler undergoing tests in July 1955

Ref: lnwrrm2650 NRM Ex-LMS 5MT 4-6-0 No 44765 is seen under test at Rugby Locomotive Testing Station on 29th August 1950

Ref: lnwrrm2659 NRM British Railways Britannia Class 4-6-2 No 70005 'John Milton' is seen being put through its paces

Ref: lnwrrm2647 British Railways British Railways built Merchant Navy Class No 35022 is seen under going tests on 5th September 1952

Ref: lnwrrm2653 British Railways Another view of ex-LNER 4-6-2 No 60007 'Sir Nigel Gresley' on the rollers ready to demonstrate the test facility

Ref: lnwrrm2660 British Railways BR Standard Class 5MT No 73008 is seen under test conditions at Rugby Locomotive Testing Station

Ref: lnwrrm2661 British Railways Ex-LNER B1 4-6-0 No 61353 is seen running at speed whilst being out through its paces on Rugby's test bed

Ref: lnwrrm2651 Anon English Electric Gas Turbine locomotive 4-6-0 GT3 is seen under going performance tests in late 1957

Ref: lnwrrm2655 NRM English Electric Gas Turbine GT3 4-6-0 is being prepared to be tested at Rugby circa 1957

Ref: lnwrrm2656 NRM Another view of the English Electric Gas Turbine GT3 4-6-0 locomotive undergoing test at Rugby circa 1957

Ref:lnwrrm2578 N Ratledge BR Standard Class 9F 2-10-0 No 92023 fitted with a Crosti boiler is seen equipped with test equipment

Ref: lnwrrm2517 N Ratledge BR Standard Class 9F 2-10-0 No 92250 stands ready to reverse into Rugby Locomotive Testing Station

Ref: lnwrrm2448 LH Goode English Electric Type 2 700 HP experimental gas turbine locomotive GT3 with a test load of two locomotives

Ref: lnwrrm2641 British Railways Sectional drawing showing the arrangement of equipment at Rugby Locomotive Testing Station

	From Pathe Film, film rushes (5 minutes 39 seconds) with little or no sound showing ex-LNER 4-6-2 No 60007 'Sir Nigel Gresley' demonstrating the test facilities at Rugby Locomotive Testing Station.
	Narrated short film (1 minute 15seconds) by Pathe Film of ex-LNER 4-6-2 No 60007 'Sir Nigel Gresley' being put through its paces at Rugby Locomotive Testing Station.
	A full list of the documents held by the NRM on Rugby Locomotive Testing Station is available via the PDF

Dennis Rock Carling 1906-1992

Dennis Rock Carling was Superintendent of the Rugby Locomotive Testing station. He was a son of Sir Ernest Rock Carling FRCS, an eminent surgeon and specialist in radiology who justified an entry in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. An obituary in the Journal of the SLS (supplied via Phil Atkins) recorded that Dennis Rock Carling was born 29 March 1906 and died 27 September 1992.

He gained the Mechanical Sciences Tripos at Trinity Hall, Cambridge in 1928, and went straight to Beyer Peacock for a two year apprenticeship during which time delivered the 1930 Garratts to the LMS. In 1931 he took a sabbatical and visited most of the locomotive builders in Europe before joining the family firm. He went to the LNER in 1936 as an assistant with the dynamometer car, going to the Admiralty in 1939 in a technical capacity. After the war he rejoined the LNER and owing to the unexpected death of D.W. Sandford was made head of the Rugby Test Plant throughout its steam operations, 1948-1959. Some of his contributions to the discussions on papers presented at meetings of the Newcomen Society are autobiographical and show that he had experience at Hunslet before joining the LNER to work on locomotive testing.

Phil Atkins (e-mail to KPJ) notes that DRC used to come in the NRM Reading Room in early years, a delightful old chap who had a distinctive 'chewy' way of speaking, which the late John Click (who worked with him at Rugby and who died exactly 20 years ago now, coincident with Phil's mother) who also came in, could mimic to a tee (see series of articles by Fred Rich). I am not sure where he served his time, but I think he worked for BP subsequently. I think he was involved with the first three LMS Garratts which it was found when on the hump at Toton the rear coupled wheels came up through the cab floor, so slots and covers were provided on the later 30 production engines. I fancy he had some personal recollections of the Kitson-Still loco (see below). During what proved to be some of his final visits he enquired on behalf of someone in South America the possibility of getting copies of a full set of 9F drawings, possiby with new construction in mind. It was not feasible then, but would be now, if expense was no object! He was the penultimate survivor of Mallard's record run, the last being Norman Newsome. I only wished I'd asked him more about Rugby than I did, amazingly in 1976 the NRM was able to acquire the full archive from the by then derelict Test Plant, from which asbestos sound proofing was hanging from the walls. This included fascinating pre-war corres which anticipated testing a P2 there, shades of Vitry. It was designed to handle a 4-8-4 or 2-10-2 if necessary.

The above notes on Dennis Rock Carling are courtesy of 'Steam Archive'.