GNoSR LOCOMOTIVES - EARLY YEARS

GREAT NORTH OF SCOTLAND RAILWAY ENGINES (1853 - 1883)

A number of engines were built for the opening of the GNoSR main line (1B) and the extension to Waterloo (1C). Other early railways in the north-east had their own engines, although most of these were subsumed into the GNoSR on amalgamation. In common with many other small railway companies, the railway had a "duplicate list" system of numbering, where older engines which were not quite ready for withdrawal were renumbered to allow space in the main number range for new locomotives. In the case of the GNoSR, this meant adding the suffix "A" to the number of the older engine. Those engines surviving until the grouping were then renumbered by the LNER in 1924 by the addition of 6800 - giving ex-GNoSR engines the number block 6801-6915.

The list below shows successive numbers allocated to engines and the date of their withdrawal or sale in brackets.

Appointed superintendent of the locomotive works at Kittybrewster in 1853, D K Clark designed 12 2-4-0 tender engines for the opening of the railway to Huntly, built by William Fairbairn & Sons of Manchester: 1-7 for passenger duties and the remaining engines for goods.

CLASS I
2-4-0
Daniel Kinnear CLARK
1854-5

1 (1879)
2 (1880)
3 (1882)
4 (1897)
5 (1897)
6 (1890)
7 (1898)
8 8A (1884)
9 (1898)
10 (1885)
11 11A (1884)
12 (1894)

Clark's successor at Kittybrewster ordered two small tank engines from Beyer Peacock to act as banking engines on the steeply graded extension from Kittybrewster to Waterloo Quay. They were placed on the duplicate list in 1890 and in their latter years were used for shunting at Keith and Elgin, and the Daluaine Distillery. They were sold to the government for war service but 14A survived at a colliery in South Wales until 1934 before being scrapped in 1943.

CLASS F
0-4-0T
John Folds RUTHVEN
1856

13 13A (1916)
14 14A (1916)

The very first locomotives ordered by Ruthven were actually designed by Clark and delivered by Fairbairn in 1856-7, the first three in time for the opening of the railway to Keith.

CLASS 8
2-4-0
John Folds RUTHVEN
1856-7

15 (1884)

16 (1884)
17 (1895)
18 (1893)

The first engines designed by Cowan were nine 2-4-0s built by Robert Stephenson & Co. Generally similar to the 1854 engines, they were the last 2-4-0s built for the Great North.

CLASS B
2-4-0
William COWAN
1859-61

19 19A (1905)
20 20A (1900)
21 21A (1907)
22 22A (1907)
23 23A (1902)
24 24A (1905)
25 25A (1907)
26 26A (1907)
27 (1909)

Cowan designed nine 4-4-0s built by Robert Stephenson & Co - a wheel arrangement from which the Great North would never depart.

CLASS H
4-4-0
William COWAN
1862-4

28 (1913)
29 (1905)
30 (1917)
31 (1905)
32 (1917)
33 (1913)
34 34A (1920)
35 35A (1920)
36 (1910)

With the amalgamation of the Banffshire Railway in 1867, the GNoSR inherited four engines which were incorporated into the numbering system. The first two engines had originally been allocated only names rather than numbers.

BANFFSHIRE RAILWAY
HAWTHORN 0-4-2T

37 Banff (1885)
38 Portsoy (1885)

The third Banffshire Railway engine was originally no 23 of the Scottish Central Railway. It was renumbered no 3 by the Banffshire Railway.

BANFFSHIRE RAILWAY
VULCAN FOUNDRY 0-4-2T

39 (1868)

The fourth Banffshire Railway was no 4 under their system. It was sold to the Deeside Railway and resumed its old number when the Deeside system was incorporated into the GNoSR.

BANFFSHIRE RAILWAY
HAWTHORN 0-4-2T

40 63 (1879)

Two Morayshire engines were taken into the GNoSR system when the company was amalgamated in 1880. The engines had carried the numbers 3 and 4 on the Morayshire. Two earlier engines - Samuel 2-2-0T locomotives built in 1852 - carried the numbers 1 and 2 but did not pass into GNoSR ownership.

MORAYSHIRE RAILWAY
NEILSON 2-4-0T
1859, 1861

41 (1885)
42 (1883)

Six 4-4-0s were delivered by Neilson in 1866 - the last new engines to be delivered for a decade because of the financial crisis that year - and three of them survived to be incorporated into the LNER numbering system in 1924. The LNER system involved allocating numbered blocks to each of its constitutuent companies. Ex-GNoSR engines were allocated the block 6801-6915 with 6800 being allocated to the original number.

CLASS K
(LNER CLASS D47/2)
4-4-0
William COWAN
1866

43 (1921)
44 44A 44As 6844A (1924)
45 45A 45As 6845A (1925)
46 (1921)
47 (1921)
48 48A 48As 6848A (1924)

The Deeside Railway had a fleet of eight locomotives, most of which passed into GNoSR hands, although they did not survive long after amalgamation and the numbers were soon allocated to other engines. DR no 1, a Hawthorn engine introduced in 1854, was withdrawn in 1866, while no 3, a Dodds locomotive also introduced in 1854, was withdrawn in 1864. The remaining engines were all Hawthorn 0-4-2Ts built between 1854 and 1866. The GNoSR number 39 had originally been allocated to Banffshire Railway engine no 3, but this was withdrawn in 1868, so the number was reallocated.

DEESIDE RAILWAY

39 (DR no 2) (1884)
49 (DR no 4) (1875)
50 (DR no 5) (1876)
51 (DR no 6) (1878)
52 (DR no 7) (1877)
53 (DR no 8) (1880)

By the time Cowan's next group of six 4-4-0s, also built by Neilson's, were introduced in 1876, some of the early GNoSR engines had been withdrawn, leading to a somewhat haphazard system of numbering. Indeed 57 was soon renumbered 52 to take the number of a Deeside Railway engine which had been withdrawn from service. Another nine 4-4-0s followed from Neilson in 1878.

CLASS L
(LNER CLASS D47/1)
4-4-0
William COWAN
1876

49 49A 49As 6849A (1924)
50 50A 50As 6850A (1924)
57 52 52A 52As 6852A (1926)
54 54A 54As 6854A (1924)
55 55s 6855 (1924)
56 56s 6856 (1924)

CLASS M
(LNER Class D45)
4-4-0
William COWAN
1878

40 40s 6840 (1932)
51 51s 6851 (1927)
53 53s 6853 (1927)
57 57s 6857 (1925)
58 58s 6858 (1927)
59 59s 6859 (1926)
60 60s 6860 (1925)
61 61s 6861 (1926)
62 62s 6862 (1926)

Three more similar engines followed from Neilson's in 1879, this time being allocated the numbers 1-3, with the older engines carrying those number being relegated to the A list.

CLASS C
(LNER CLASS D39)
4-4-0
William COWAN
1879

1 1s 6801 (1925)
2 2s 6802 (1926)
3 3s 6803 (1927)