View of ex-LNER 4-4-0 D49 Class No 62764 'The Garth' being put through its paces whilst under test at Rugby Locomotive Testing Station. Built as LNER No 361 at Darlington works in October 1934, No 62764 was a member of a class of locomotives designed by Sir Nigel Gresley named after fox hunts and shires. Renumbered by the LNER in 1946 as No 2764 it was renumbered by British Railways as No 62764 in 1948 and remained in service until November 1958 when it was withdrawn from 50B Neville Hill shed. This class of 4-4-0 locomotives were designed for intermediate express duties. The class being designed to replace aging North Eastern Railway (NER) and North British Railway (NBR) locomotives as well as supplementing ex-NER and ex-NBR Atlantics on the various routes which restricted the use of the new A1 class locomotives. Hence the design had to be powerful for its size. Nigel Gresley chose to use a three cylinder arrangement using his patented conjugated valve gear. Due to a need for economy the 4-4-0 wheel arrangement was chosen over a possibly more logical 4-4-2 wheel arrangement. Economic considerations also led to the use of the same boiler design as that used on the successful J39 0-6-0 goods engine. The design was completed in February 1926, and the first engine No 234 Yorkshire was completed at Darlington in October 1927. A total of seventy-six D49 locomotives were built, in three variants, between 1927 and 1935. Twenty eight D49/1 locomotives fitted with conventional piston valves were built in three batches between 1927 and 1929. Forty two D49/2s fitted with rotary cam operated Lentz poppet valves were built between 1929 and 1935. Only six D49/3s were built in 1928 and these were fitted with rotary cam operated Lentz poppet valves, and these were all rebuilt as D49/1s in 1938. The D49/1s were named after Shire counties, and the D49/2s were named after fox hunts. There were initially a couple of exceptions, but these were quickly renamed to bring uniformity to the the sub-classes. |
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