Highland Railway Loch Class

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The Highland Railway Loch Class were small 4-4-0s normally used north of Inverness.

There were introduced in 1896, the design of David Jones and had the typical Jones appearance of outside cylinders, domed cab roof, louvred chimney, Allan style front framing and Allan valve gear.

Leading Dimensions were

Boiler Pressure 180 lb/sq inch

Cylinders 19 inches bore by 24 inch stroke

Driving Wheels 6 foot 3.5 inch diameter

Weight 54 tons 10 cwt

Starting Tractive effort 17560 lbf

Fifteen were built by Dübs and Co in Glasgow, all going into traffic between July and September of 1896.

   HR Number                  LMS  Number

    119    Loch Insh
    120    Loch Ness
    121    Loch Ericht
    122    Loch Moy
    123    Loch an Dorb         14383
    124    Loch Laggan
    125    Loch Tay
    126    Loch Tummel
    127    Loch Garry
    128    Loch Luichart        14388
    129    Loch Maree
    130    Loch Fannich
    131    Loch Shin
    132    Loch Naver
    133    Loch Laoghal 

Three more were built in 1916 by the North British Locomotive Company in Glasgow

    70    Loch Ashie
    71    Loch Garve
    72    Loch Ruthven

These were needed primarily for the increased traffic on the Kyle line where they were the heaviest locomotives permitted. It should be remembered that this period was when the initial traffic of the United States effort in WW 1 was flowing, and much was brought to the west coast of Scotland in an effort to reduce the effect of the U-Boat menace. The trains ran from Kyle to Invergordon so it was a wholly HR traffic.

One (Loch Tay) survived to reach British Railways ownership.

No 119 (Loch Insh) is known to have survived to 1938 as LMS Number 14379.

They were classified '2P' by the LMS