The Southern Railway 'V' Class
The locomotives
One of the pleasures that I have each day as I come into Westminster School’s science building is to see the nameplate of the Southern Railway’s ‘Schools’ Class No 908 ‘Westminster.’ There should be both of them, but the second disappeared in transit to the School – so if you know who has it, it would be interesting information. There is a quantity of other material relevant to 908, including the picture which was given to each of the Westminster pupils who went to Charing Cross in 1933 to see 908 on her first turn, and a fine ‘O’ gauge model given to the school by the widow of Dr Stephen Hughes OW.
I do not have a suitable picture of 908 yet, but the fine one of 928 ‘Stowe’ from Mike Esau gives the flavour.
900 Eton
901 Winchester
902 Wellington
903 Charterhouse
904 Lancing
905 Tonbridge
906 Sherborne
907 Dulwich
908 Westminster
909 St Paul’s
910 MerchantTaylors
911 Dover
912 Downside
913 Christ’s Hospital
914 Eastbourne
915 Brighton
916 Whitgift
917 Ardingly
918 Hurstpierpoint
919 Harrow
920 Rugby
921 Shrewsbury
922 Marlborough
923 (2) Bradfield
(1) Uppingham
924 Haileybury
925 Cheltenham
926 Repton
927 Clifton
928 Stowe
929 Malvern
930 Radley
931 King’sWimbledon
932 Blundells
933 King’s Canterbury
934 St Lawrence
935 Sevenoaks
936 Cranleigh
937 Epsom
938 St Olave’s
939 Leatherhead
The drawing
below is from the series of 4mm:1ft drawings for model makers produced by FJ
Roche in May 1948 and published by Ian Allan more recently. The scale is unlikely to be
preserved if you print this drawing! But it was nice of Roche to choose 908.
The complete list of names is given in the table at right; 923 carried two because the
Headmaster of Uppingham objected to the vulgarity of a locomotive carrying the
school’s name, so it was renamed.
In every case the British Railways Southern Region number was the Southern Railway number + 30000, so Westminster became 30908 in 1947.
The ‘Schools’ were also known as the ‘V’ class. They were said to
be the heaviest and most powerful of the
4-4-0’s in Europe. They were used mostly to
the Kent coastal resorts and on the Hastings line, and were not usually seen west of
Bournemouth in normal service. All the locomotives had been withdrawn from service by 1963; three, Stowe, Cheltenham
and Repton, are preserved.
Data:
|
Origin: |
Southern Rly |
Designer: |
REL Maunsell |
|
Introduced: |
1930 |
Purpose: |
Passenger |
|
Driving wheel: |
6 ft 7 in |
Cylinders: |
(3) 16½ x 26 in |
|
Bogie wheel: |
3 ft 1 in |
Boiler pressure: |
220 lb in -2 |
|
Length: |
58 ft 9 ¾ in |
Tractive effort: |
25,135 lb |
|
Weight: |
109 tons 10 cwt |
Coal capacity: |
5 tons |
|
Water capacity: |
4,000 gal |
Power classification: |
5-P |