Power type Steam Builder Neilson & Co. Total produced 15 | Build date 1878–1879 | |
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The GER Class 527 was a class of fifteen 2-6-0 steam tender locomotives designed by William Adams for the Great Eastern Railway. This was the last design that Adams prepared for the GER, although they did not enter service until his successor Massey Bromley had taken office and incorporated some modifications to the design.
Contents
Overview
In order to haul heavier trains and compete for the coal traffic into London, the GER asked William Adams to design a locomotive capable of hauling a train of 400 long tons net (700 tons gross).
Prototype
Tests were carried out with 265 class 4-4-0s to ensure that such trailing loads were feasible, followed by a prototype 2-6-0 number 527. Number 527 was the first locomotive in Britain to use the 2-6-0 wheel arrangement, and was named Mogul after the Great Moguls of Delhi, the epithet becoming the generic name for locomotives with that wheel arrangement.
Numbering
As was the GER's practice for locomotives built by outside contractors, the class was referred to by the number of the first locomotive, subsequent locos being numbered sequentially up to 541.
Performance
They were used on coal trains from Peterborough to London, but were found uneconomic, and so had short lives, being withdrawn between 1885 and 1887.