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Mr. J. Ramsbottom
1858 — DX Goods
1863 — 4ft Shunter
1870 — Special Tank
Mr. F.W. Webb
1873 — 17in Coal Engine
1880 — 18in Goods
1881 — Special DX
1881 — Coal Tanks
1893 — ‘A’ class
1894 — Crane Tank
1896 — Dock Tank
1901 — ‘B’ class
1903 — 1400 Class
Mr. G. Whale
1904 — ‘C’ class
1904 — ‘E’ class
1906 — ‘D’ class
1906 — ‘F’ class
1906 — ‘G’ class
1912 — ‘G1’ class
1906 — 19in Express Goods
Mr. C.J. Bowen Cooke
1911 — 1185 class
Capt. H.P.M. Beames
1923 — 380 class
Ex GCR
1919 — ‘MM’ class
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Coal Tank
Vital Statistics |
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| Official Name |
4ft 3in Six wheel Coal Engine Side Tank |
| Nickname |
Coal Tank |
| Water & Coal Storage |
Side Tanks and Bunker |
| Water Capacity |
1150 gallon |
| Coal Capacity |
2 tons |
| Wheel Arrangement |
0-6-2 |
| Driven Wheels |
Six 4ft 5½in wheels |
| Carrying Wheels |
Trailing radial truck of two 3ft 9in wheels |
| Wheelbase |
7ft 3in + 8ft 3in - 5ft 9in |
| Total Wheelbase |
21ft 3in |
| Boiler |
4ft 2in diameter; 9ft 9½in long |
| Boiler Pressure |
150 psi |
| Grate Area |
17.1 sq.ft. |
| Tubes |
198 |
| Total Heating Area |
1,074.6 sq.ft. |
| Cylinders |
Two inside 17in diameter; 24in stroke |
| Weight in full working order |
43 tons 15 cwt |
| Designer |
Mr. F.W. Webb |
| Number in Class |
300 |
| Lifetime |
1881—present |
The 0-6-2 tank was perhaps that most uninspiring
configuration yet paradoxically the ‘Coal Tanks’ became a
firm favourite. They were maids-of-all-work with not the slightest
hint of glamour; only a middling amount of power (compared to later
designs); and their inadequate brake leverage led mostly to
excitement in their inability to stop: Crews must have had many a
nervous moment!
But they were work-a-day engines, hard to beat for value for money
with a wide range of flexibility. Lacking even the shapely spokes of
normal wheels, perhaps it was Webb’s H-spoked  wheels of cast
iron which set the seal on their rugged chunkiness.
It was 1881 when Mr. Webb designed this tank engine version of the
successful 17” Coal Engine, the first of 300 built over the
next eighteen years. It was almost entirely built of Crewe standard
parts, including the radial rear axle – a simple
and excellent
design. Most were relieved of freight duties when the extent of
their appalling brakes (initially made of wood!) were uncovered, and
some were fitted for motor train working. Between the
front and rear
tanks there was a tall step over a flexible water hose, and this was
always good for tripping the crew up when getting in or out.
No.1054 is the last surviving example, now preserved on the
Keighley and Worth Valley Railway, Yorkshire.
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