Power type Steam Build date 1883-1913 Configuration 0-6-0 | Designer T. W. Worsdell Total produced 289 | |
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Builder Stratford Works (270)
Sharp, Stewart & Co. (19) | ||
The Great Eastern Railway (GER) Class Y14 is a class of 0-6-0 steam locomotive. The LNER classified them J15.
Contents
The Class Y14 was designed by T.W. Worsdell for both freight and passenger duties - a veritable 'maid of all work'. Introduced in July 1883, they were so successful that all the succeeding chief superintendents continued to build new batches down to 1913 with little design change, the final total being 289. During World War I, 43 of the engines served in France and Belgium.
Background
On 10–11 December 1891, the Great Eastern Railway's Stratford Works built one of these locomotives and had it in steam with a coat of grey primer in 9 hours 47 minutes; this remains a world record. The locomotive then went off to run 36,000 miles (58,000 km) on Peterborough to London coal trains before coming back to the works for the final coat of paint. It lasted 40 years and ran a total of 1,127,750 miles (1,814,940 km).
Because of their light weight the locomotives were given the Route Availability (RA) number 1, indicating that they could work over nearly all routes.
Accidents and incidents
Notable features
As built all the locomotives had a stovepipe chimney; this was replaced in LNER days by a cast chimney with a small lip. The original Worsdell and early Holden series had three-ring boilers with the steam dome placed in the middle. Also the Worsdell boilers had a flat grate, however from 1890 Holden developed a boiler with a sloping grate and a two-ring telescopic barrel with the dome located well forward. The advantage of the dome position was a short 5½ inch steam pipe which limited pressure drop between the boiler and the cylinders. This boiler was adopted as standard and persisted on all Great Eastern Locomotives down to 1898; from then on it was perpetuated on the smaller locomotives as long as these remained essentially in their original configuration - which could be down to the 1960s.
As with all Great Eastern classes, the Y14 had a cab with a low wooden roof covered with canvas sealed by a coat of lead paint. This was replaced in LNER days by a higher arched sheet metal roof. Some engines had special side window cabs for service on the exposed Brightlingsea and Colne Valley branches.
Allocations
On 1 January 1923 there were 272 J15 locomotives in existence. They were allocated as follows:
On 1 January 1948 when British Railways took running the nation's railways, there were 127 J15 locomotives in existence.
Unusually in 1957 a couple of the class were allocated to Aylesbury and worked freight trains on the former Great Western Railway branch from Princes Risborough to Watlington before being withdrawn in 1958.
In fiction
In The Railway Series children's books by Christopher Awdry, a Class J15 appears in the book Toby, Trucks and Trouble nicknamed "The Old Engine" despite the locomotive being younger than Toby.
Preservation
Number 564/7564/65462 is preserved on the North Norfolk Railway and owned by the Midland and Great Northern Joint Railway Society. In 2002 the locomotive reached the end of a major overhaul and was painted in LNER (numbered 7564) and BR black numbered 65462) liveries for the duration of its boiler ticket. It originally operated in these liveries when classified as a J15 in LNER and BR days. Following withdrawal from service in 2013, the locomotive received another overhaul (completed 2015) where it was outshopped in GER lined blue and sporting its original number of 564 and representing its days when classified as a Y14.
Models
Hornby produces a ready-to-run model of the J15 in 00 gauge (4 mm) in BR (with the rebuilt high-arched cab roof) and LNER liveries (both as-built and high-arch cab roofs). Also in 00 gauge, there are kits from Alan Gibson and Nu-Cast. Finley and Smith produce a 3 mm kit.