SR Leader class
The Leader was a class of experimental 0-6-0+0- 6-0 articulated steam locomotive. It was intended as a replacement for the ageing fleet of M7 class tank engines still in operation on the Southern Railway. Five Leader locomotives were begun, although only one was completed. The operational locomotive was trialled on the former Southern Railway network around Brighton. Problems with the design, indifferent reports on performance and political pressure led to the class being scrapped by 1951.
About SR Leader class in brief
The Leader was a class of experimental 0-6-0+0- 6-0 articulated steam locomotive. It was intended as a replacement for the ageing fleet of M7 class tank engines still in operation on the Southern Railway. Five Leader locomotives were begun, although only one was completed. The operational locomotive was trialled on the former Southern Railway network around Brighton. Problems with the design, indifferent reports on performance and political pressure surrounding spiralling development costs, led to the class being scrapped by 1951. The Leader prototype was constructed at Brighton railway works in 1946, work beginning in 1947. A further 31 were ordered in 1947, although, with nationalisation looming, this was merely a gesture, to allow public trials to be carried out on the prototype. Each of the two bogies had three chains, with the driving wheels connected by chains in an oil-bath, based upon Bulleid’s chain-driven valve gear on his Pacific locomotive. The first use of a sleeve valve arrangement was also tested on the ex-LB&SCR H1 class Hartland Point locomotive in parallel with the Leader locomotive, which was the first steam engine to use the sleeve valve. The prototype was also the first to use a form of valve gear that was not based on a Pacific valve, based on the sleeve-driven gear on the H1 Class Hartland point locomotive which was also built in parallel with the Leader.
The design incorporated many novel features, such as the use of thermic siphons, bogies and cabs at each end. The boiler was offset to provide space for a communication corridor, allowing the driver to access both cabs without leaving the locomotive,. The firebox was fed by the fireman from a third cab, linked to both driving cabs by the communication corridor. The entire ensemble was placed on a common frame and so often referred to as an 0-8-0 tank engine, even though the actual notation is 0-7-0-0 or 0-5-4-0. The final design was based on an early version of the SR Q1 class locomotive which had proved easy to maintain in service. It had a 0-4/4/0 wheel arrangement, which spread the weight more evenly over the rails and reduced the axle-loading of 20 long tons, which increased the risk of damaging the Southern railway’s track. The locomotive would be used on both passenger and freight trains, requiring high route availability. It would have been the first of its kind to be used in the UK, but was scrapped by the end of the 1950s due to lack of interest in the project and the cost of building new locomotive engines. It is the only locomotive of the class to have been built to the current design standards, and was the only one to be built in the United Kingdom. It has been suggested that the Leader could be used as a training locomotive for the British Army.
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This page is based on the article SR Leader class published in Wikipedia (as of Nov. 02, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
