Midland Railway Johnson 0-6-0

The Midland Railway Johnson 0-6-0 were a class of locomotives serving Britain's Midland Railway system in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Between 1875 and 1908 the Midland Railway, under the control of locomotive superintendents Samuel W. Johnson and Richard Deeley, Midland Railway ordered 935 goods tender engines of 0-6-0 type, both from the railway's own shops at Derby and various external suppliers. Although there were many (mostly small) variations between different batches both as delivered and as successively rebuilt, all 935 can be regarded as a single series, one of the largest classes of engine on Britain's railways. The locomotives served as late as 1964, but none of them now survive.

As built

They were built at the following plants:

The H and H1 boilers fitted to the last 2 groups were larger, and made the engines more powerful. While these were being built there started a program of rebuilding many of the earlier engines (but not the first 2 classes) with the "H" boiler to increase their power. By 1915, 380 engines had been so upgraded, giving 450 class 1 and 485 class 2.

Beginning in 1916 engines were rebuilt with Belpaire boilers. Those from the first two classes (1142 & 1357), (none of which had received an "H") received the smaller G6 type boiler, the remainder the larger G7 type. The H & G7 boilered engines were classed "3" (later 3F) and those with B & G6 boilers were classed "2" (later 2F).

By 1925, production of the new superheated 4F 0-6-0s meant there was no shortage of goods engines of this power class, and from that point only G6 boilers were installed on rebuilding, sometimes on engines which had previously had "H" boilers, reducing them back to class 2. Three of the later examples were experimentally fitted with superheaters from 1923 to 1928, but generally the class remained saturated throughout. One-hundred thirteen engines remained with their original "B" boilers until scrapped, 22 had H boilers, 432 had G7 and 368 had G6. The class all retained their numbers at the grouping, but in 1934 2900-2984 (all class 2F) had 20000 added to their numbers to make way for newer locomotives. The same happened to 3000-3019 in 1947. At nationalisation those that were class 3F, along with other LMS locomotives, had 40000 added to their numbers, but the class 2Fs were reorganised into a new series 58114-58310.

Withdrawal of the engines from service began in 1925, starting with unrebuilt engines, and continued until 1964. Despite the large number of locomotives of the class and their late survival, none were preserved.

Later dimensions

References

• Summerson, S Midland Railway Locomotives, Vol.4, Irwell Press (ISBN 1-903266-26-2)
• Essery, R.J. & Jenkinson, D An Illustrated Review of Midland Railway Locomotives, Vol.4, Wild Swan (ISBN 0-906867-74-6)