NER Class H
| NER Class H LNER Class Y7 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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 68088 Y7 under overhaul at Weybourne | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The North Eastern Railway (NER) Class H, classified as Class Y7 by the London and North Eastern Railway (LNER) is a class of 0-4-0T steam locomotives designed for shunting.
Description
Introduced in 1888 by Thomas W. Worsdell, six were built in 1888. Their simple, bare design easily navigated the tight curves and poor quality track which they ran on. The Y7 proved so successful, that the NER ordered a further ten in 1891, three in 1897 and five more were ordered by the LNER in 1923.
Due to their small size, these engines did not have a bunker in the traditional position behind the cab, so coal was piled up on top of the side tanks immediately in front of the cab. The Y7s shared their simple domeless boiler design with the J78 and J79 classes.
The locos were originally fitted with dumb buffers, but these were changed for small round buffers during the 1930s,[1] some also gaining vacuum brakes during this period; only hand and steam brakes were fitted when built.
Locomotives operating at Tyne Dock were altered to take shunting poles on each corner of the loco, giving the ability to pull a wagon on an adjacent line.[2]
Numbering and livery
The LNER originally painted the Y7s in black with ¼inch vermillion lining; repaints after 1928 omitted this with locomotives in plain black.[1]
Two entered British Railways stock in 1948, becoming BR 68088 and 68089.
Operation and preservation
The original work of these locos was on Tyneside, at Hull docks, and within Darlington works,[2] but LNER no.8088 was recorded working at Stratford works between 1943 and 1952.[3]
Dock work was hit hard by the depression, and between 1929 and 1932 the sixteen locomotives which made up the first two batches delivered were withdrawn, nine being sold to industrial use while the remainder were scrapped.[2]
Two have survived to preservation:
LNER No. 985 (8088), BR 68088, was sold to the National Coal Board in November 1952 and worked at Bentick Colliery until 1964 when it was purchased by the Y7 Preservation Society. This locomotive has been located at the North Norfolk Railway since 2004.[3] In December 2010 it was announced that when it's overhaul was completed, 68088 would be based at Beamish Museum for three years.
NER No. 1310 was bought by the Steam Power Trust, and has been located at the Middleton Railway since 1965.[4]
References
- ^ a b Campling, Nick (July 1972). "Locomotives of the LNER: Ex NER Classes Y7 and Y8". Railway Modeller. 23 (261). Beer: Peco Publications & Publicity Ltd: pp219–220.
{{cite journal}}:|pages=has extra text (help) - ^ a b c Marsden, Richard. "The T.W. Worsdell Y7 (NER Class H) 0-4-0 Shunters". The London & North Eastern Railway (LNER) Encyclopedia. Retrieved 2009-03-20.
- ^ a b "Y7 0-4-0T - 68088". Midland and Great Northern Joint Railway Society. Retrieved 2009-03-20.
- ^ "1310 North Eastern Railway 0-4-0T built 1891". Middleton Railway - Rolling Stock. Retrieved 2009-03-20.
Sources
- Ian Allan ABC of British Railways Locomotives, 1948 edition, part 4, page 46.