NCC Class WT

NCC Class WT
File:UTA4YorkRoad09-06-1957.jpg UTA No.4 at York Road, Belfast on 9 June 1957
Type and origin Power type Steam Designer H.G. Ivatt Builder LMS Build date 1946-50
Specifications Configuration: ​  • Whyte 2-6-4T Gauge 5ft 3in (1600mm) Wheelbase 37ft 9in Length 46ft 5¾in Width 9ft 3in Height 13ft 2in Adhesive weight 17ton 10cwt on each pair Fuel type Coal Fuel capacity 3½ton Water cap. 2 500gal Boiler G8AS Boiler pressure 200psi Heating surface: ​  • Firebox 129.75  • Tubes 1 042sq ft  • Total surface 1 416.75 Superheater: ​  • Heating area 246sq ft Cylinders 2 Cylinder size 19in x 26in Valve gear Walschaerts Loco brake Steam Train brakes Automatic vacuum
Performance figures Tractive effort 22 160lb Factor of adh. 5.3
Career Nicknames Jeep Last run April 1971 Preserved No.4 Current owner RPSI

The LMS Northern Counties Committee (NCC) WT Class is a class of 2-6-4T steam locomotives built for service in Northern Ireland.

History

File:4 at Drogheda.jpg

Preserved No. 4 at Drogheda on 3 July 2004

18 Class WT locomotives were built at Derby Works in England to the design of George Ivatt between 1946 and 1950. They were numbered 1-10 and 50-7. They were a tank engine version of the NCC Class W moguls. A tank engine did not require turning at termini and the LMS had produced a series of successful 2-6-4Ts. Like the LMS Fairburn 2-6-4T built at the same time, they had a hopper bunker and absence of plating ahead of the cylinders.

In December 1962 locomotive No.50 received a boiler from one of the ex-NCC 2-6-0 tender locomotives, the boiler and firebox being overhauled and repaired at Derby.

In early 1966 and towards the end of their careers, the Class WT locomotives were involved in working notable traffic. This was on spoil trains that transported fill for motorway construction from the Blue Circle cement works at Magheramorne to Greencastle near Belfast. Three trains of twenty hopper wagons each were made up, with a Class WT locomotive at each end. Each train when filled carried 600 tons of rock and in all, some 7 600 trains had carried 4¼ million tons of material by the time the contract ended in May 1970.

The last of the Class WT locomotives was withdrawn in 1971. This made them the last steam locomotives in mainline operation in the British Isles; Córas Iompair Éireann steam in the Republic of Ireland having ended in 1962 and British Railways steam in Great Britain having finished in 1968,

One of these locmotives, No.4, has been preserved by the Railway Preservation Society of Ireland which operates it on special mainline trains.

Technical Details

The locomotives were built with many LMS standard features such as a self-cleaning smokebox, rocking firegrate, self-emptying ashpan, side window cab and a simplified footplate together with others which followed NCC practice, such as a water top-feed on a parallel boiler (as opposed to the taper boilers being used by the LMS at the time), Dreadnought type vacuum brake gear, Detroit sight feed cylinder lubricator and a cast number plate.

References

Arnold, R.M. (1973) NCC Saga, David & Charles, Newton Abbot, ISBN 0 7153 5644 5

Currie, J.R.L. (1974) The Northern Counties Railway, Volume 2: 1903-1972, David & Charles, Newton Abbot, ISBN 0 7153 6530 4

London Midland and Scottish Railway (Northern Counties Committee), Class WT general arrangement drawing, Belfast

External links

• http://www.rpsi-online.org/locomotives/loco4.htm