LMS (Midland) Jinty 0-6-0 16407 at Bury

The London Midland and Scottish Railway (LMS) Fowler 3F 0-6-0T is a class of steam locomotive, often known as 'Jinty'. They represent the ultimate development of the Midland Railway's six-coupled tank engines. Design of this class was based on rebuilds by Henry Fowler of the Midland Railway 2441 Class introduced in 1899 by Samuel Waite Johnson. These rebuilds featured a Belpaire firebox and improved cab.

 

 

422 Jinties were built between 1924 and 1930; this class was just one of the Midland designs used on an ongoing basis by the LMS. The locomotives were built by the ex-L&YR Horwich Works and the private firms Bagnall's Beardmores, Hunslet, North British and the Vulcan Foundry.

 

When new, they were numbered 7100–7149, 16400–16764. Numbers 7150–7156 were added when the LMS absorbed the Somerset and Dorset Joint Railway locomotives in 1930. In the 1934 LMS renumbering scheme, the locomotives were assigned the series 7260–7681. On the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939 they were initially chosen as the standard shunting locomotive for the War Department, but later the more modern Hunslet "Austerity" 0-6-0ST was chosen in preference. Nevertheless, eight were dispatched to France before its fall in 1940, and only five returned in 1948. Two, 7456 and 7553, were converted to the 5 ft 3 in (1,600 mm) Irish broad gauge in 1944 and 1945 for use on Northern Counties Committee lines in Northern Ireland, becoming the NCC Y Class, nos 18 and 19. A total of 417 thus entered British Railways stock in 1948.
British Railways numbers were the LMS numbers prefixed with '4'. Numbers 47478, 47479, 47480, 47481, 47655 and 47681 were fitted for push-pull train .working

 

Due to their large numbers, late withdrawals and renowned performances, nine of these engines (plus a spare set of frames and a boiler from 47564) have been preserved. They are most suited to a further working life and many were restored within years of leaving the scrap heap. Today only 47445 and 47564 have never steamed beyond their old BR days. 16407 was built in 1926 by the North British Locomotive Company.

 

An engine of this type can be seen in the Rev. W. Awdry's The Railway Series book 'The Eight Famous Engines'. The character's name was 'Jinty', and came from the "Other Railway" (aka British Railways) to help out when the main engines went on a journey to England.

 

http://www.eastlancsrailway.org.uk/

 

Many thanks also to Wikipedia for some of the above notes, other additions and pictures are of course by me