Power type Steam Total produced 160 | Builder Stratford Works Configuration 2-4-2T | |
 | ||
Designer F4, Thomas William Worsdell
F5, James Holden Build date F4 built 1884-1909
F5 rebuilt 1911-1920 | ||
The GER Class M15 was a class of 160 2-4-2T steam locomotives designed by Thomas William Worsdell and built for the Great Eastern Railway between 1884 and 1909. The original (F4) class of locomotives were fitted with Joy valve gear which was notoriously difficult to 'set'. This earned them the nickname of 'Gobblers' thanks to their high coal consumption rates. As a result, between 1911 and 1920, 30 of them were rebuilt by James Holden with Stephenson valve gear and higher pressure boilers. Despite this, the nickname stuck for many years after.
Contents
Rebuilding
Rebuilding included the fitting of a higher pressure boiler, and also involved replacing Joy valve gear with Stephenson valve gear thus forming the M15R class.
Modifications
Many were fitted with condensing gear for working in the London area and a few were fitted with push-pull apparatus for working trains on the route to Ongar station.
London and North Eastern Railway
They all passed to the London and North Eastern Railway (LNER) at the 1923 grouping and received the following classifications:
British Railways
Some of the F4s and all of the F5s passed into British Railways (BR) ownership in 1948 and their BR numbers were:
Preservation
None of the F5s or F4s survived into preservation, however a project to build a new F5 was launched in the early 2000s and as of January 2014 has progressed well. So far the main frames, smokebox, cab/bunker platework and lots of smaller components have been acquired/manufactured. The project is partway through a move to Tyseley Locomotive Works for erection and construction work to continue following a long period at Mangapps Railway Museum. The completed locomotive (originally set to appear as 67218 in BR Black) is to be outshopped as No.789 in Great Eastern Railway blue livery.