LMS Stanier Mogul

The London Midland and Scottish Railway (LMS) Stanier Class 5 2-6-0 or Stanier Mogul is a class of 2-6-0 mixed traffic steam locomotives. Forty were built between October 1933 and March 1934.

Overview
Although all built at Crewe Works, they were designed at Horwich Works and were developed from the Horwich Mogul, the LMS Hughes Crab 2-6-0. They had the addition of several features brought over from the Great Western Railway by newly arrived Chief Mechanical Engineer William Stanier, most notably the taper boiler (Stanier would have been familiar with the GWR 4300 Class). In an effort to please Stanier, Horwich had designed a GWR style top-feed cover and locomotive 13245 appeared with the feature fitted. Stanier was not at all pleased, ordering it promptly removed and replaced with the normal LMS cover.

Due to a higher boiler pressure than the Crabs the cylinders were 3" smaller in diameter and so the cylinders were able to be mounted horizontally: the only Stanier design to do so. Like the Crabs they were connected to a Fowler tender that was narrower than the locomotive. When built the first ten locomotives had no water pick-up gear fitted to their tenders.

They were initially numbered 13245–13284 (following on from the Crabs), but as standard locomotives, in the LMS 1933 renumbering scheme they were renumbered 2945–2984 in 1934 (the Crabs becoming 2700–2944). BR added 40000 to their numbers so they became 42945–42984. They were always painted black, and this was lined out except during the austere periods of the 1940s and towards the end of steam.

From the end of 1934 Stanier turned to a larger 4-6-0 for his mixed traffic class, this being the LMS Black Five Class.

Withdrawal
Withdrawals commenced in November 1963 with the last one being withdrawn in February 1967.

Preservation
One, 13268/(4)2968, the penultimate member of the class to be withdrawn, has been preserved. This locomotive was acquired from Woodham Brothers scrapyard in Barry, South Wales by the Stanier Mogul Fund in December 1973. It was restored on the Severn Valley Railway, first entering service in April 1991 as LMS 2968. It was main line certified in 1996 and was the first locomotive, together with GWR 4300 Class 7325, to work a train over the Lickey Incline in preservation.

After withdrawal for overhaul in 1998, it re-entered service in 2003 in BR lined livery as 42968, which it carried for ten years. Following another overhaul, it re-entered service in late 2023, being repainted in LMS Lined Black as 13268 in April 2024.

On two occasions, firstly between 1994 and 1998, and again between 2010 and 2012, it ran with the tender from Black 5 no. 45110, while its own Fowler-pattern one was undergoing repairs.

Models
Bachmann Branchline has produced a model of the Stanier Mogul including the preserved example.

Initial releases from Bachmann Branchline include the LMS Black Lined version 31-690 in February 2017, BR Black early emblem and BR Black late emblem. Later liveries to follow.