British Rail Class 98

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No 8 Llewellyn apart from being allocated a TOPS code, it was also painted in rail blue livery.

TOPS Class 98 has been used to cover all steam locomotives used on the mainline in Britain, but also has a particular usage for the three Vale of Rheidol Railway-design 2-6-2T locomotives that remained in the ownership of British Rail after the end of mainline steam traction in August 1968. The locomotives on the Vale of Rheidol Railway were the only steam locomotives ever officially to carry the British Rail corporate blue and the double arrow logo.

[edit] Vale of Rheidol locomotives

These three steam locomotives, numbered 7-9 by the Great Western Railway and British Railways, were the only ones to survive in BR's ownership after the end of mainline steam traction in August 1968. Under TOPS they were allocated Class 98 and were nominally numbered 98007-98009, but these numbers were never actually carried on the locomotives.

[edit] Registered steam locomotives

The Class 98 series has also been used for privately-owned steam locomotives registered to run on the mainline since 1971. The numbers are allocated in the following way:

• Third digit: 0-9 representing the 'Power Class' 0-9 (see here for details)
• Fourth & Fifth digits: The last two digits of the locomotive's original number. If this results in a duplication of an existing number, then the number is increased by 1.

So, as an example, the power class 8P locomotive number 46200 would be allocated 98800, and then power class 8P number 71000 would be allocated 98801.

[edit] List of Steam Loco with TOPS numbers