LNER Route: Leicester to Marylebone

Catesby Tunnel: gcct2a

This close up of image 'gcct2' shows the unidentified Austerity in a very dirty condition. The Austerity was a redesign of Stanier's 2-8-0 8F which had originally been the initial War Department's standard design. However as it was anticipated that these locomotives would only be required for just a few years.

This, together with the need to save both time and scarce materials in the building programme, led to Riddles designing the Austerity whereby cast steel was used instead of forged steel and steel in lieu of copper fireboxes was the order of the day.

The reverse of the photograph gives the engine's running number as 3933. This I understand belongs to an O2 2-8-0 built in November 1923 and therefore is clearly a mistake.

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