Portal:Trains/Selected article/Week 50, 2007

The LSWR M7 Class is a class of 0-4-4 passenger tank locomotive constructed in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries in England. The class was designed by Dugald Drummond for use on the extensive London network of the London and South Western Railway (LSWR), and performed well in such tasks. Because of their utility the class went through several modifications over five production batches, and for this reason there were detail variations such as frame length. Demoted to rural branch line services in Devon and Dorset, the class was fitted with push-pull operation gear that enabled efficient use on such duties without the need to change to the other end of its train at the end of a journey. Members of the class lasted in service until 1964, and two examples have survived into preservation: number 245 in the National Railway Museum, and 30053 on the Swanage Railway.