User:PST195J/GCR Class 11B

The Great Central Railway Class 11B were a successful class of 40 express passenger steam locomotive of the Edwardian era in Great Britain. . Built from 1901-1903, in later rebuilt form as 11D, some 11Bs would last in service until 1950, by which time the Great Central Railway had been absorbed into first the London & North Eastern Railway and then British Railways. The designer of these elegant and compact inside-cylinder 4-4-0 engines, J.G. Robinson, would go on to design many larger and more famous classes of steam locomotive, leaving the 11Bs, 11Cs and 11D|11Ds (all classed by the LNER as D9) in relative obscurity. Nevertheless, they were simple, robust and useful engines which outlasted many larger Robinson designs and were not long outlived by their more illustrious successors, the 11E and 11F "Directors".

Railwaymen continued to refer to the class as "11B" even after all were rebuilt to 11D. Being contemporary with and to some extent the 4-4-0 version of Robinson's much more numerous 0-6-0 goods class 9J, which were known as "Pom-Poms", the 11Bs  acquired the nickname "Pom-Pom Bogies". The London & North Eastern Railway classified the 11Bs, along with their 11C and 11D rebuilds, as Class D9.

Origins
When John G. Robinson took up the reigns at Gorton there was a serious and immediate shortage of suitable locomotives. Part of the requirement was for express passenger engines for the newly completed London Extension. Pollitt's locomotives of class 11 were performing satisfactorily but the piston-valved 11A 4-4-0s, intended for use on Marylebone expresses had been problematic. There were also some previously ordered 4-2-2 'singles' being delivered, but Robinson decided that more powerful locomotives were required.

The 11Bs therefore emerged as a robust and substantially enlarged evolution of GCR Class 11, with the then-conventional slide valves. Gorton was busy at the time and the engines were needed urgently, so outside builders (Sharp, Stewart and Vulcan Foundry) were used. Delivery was rapid and 25 were in service by May 1902, 30 by March 1903 and all 40 by June 1904.

Service History
As intended the 11Bs displaced Pollitt's 11As on the London Extension services, with engines shedded at Leicester, Gorton and Neasden.

The 11Bs were partially displaced in their turn by the arrival of Robinson's "Atlantics", a process largely completed by the arrival of the "Director" 4-4-0s. 11Bs then found uses on the older parts of the Great Central Railway network, based especially in Sheffield and Annesley, with others scattered elsewhere.

By the Grouping, increasing numbers of the engines had been rebuilt with larger superheated boilers and piston valves becoming GCR Class 11D. The last conversion was completed in 1927.

The class was largely displaced from the most glamorous duties on the London Extension around the time of rebuilding to 11D, ironically at a point where, although now outclassed by the 11E and 11F "Directors", they were more effective than ever. Nevertheless they would still head important expresses such as Manchester - Hull and were hard at work on both sides of the Pennines. The LNER found work for the 11Ds, now D9s, not only on former Great Central lines but also from 1933 in East Anglia on former Great Eastern Railway metals and from 1937 on Midland and Great Northern Joint Railway lines.

Withdrawals started in 1939 but the most were still in service when all remaining D9s were transferred to the Cheshire Lines Committee network in 1945-46 for use on fast Manchester-Liverpool expresses. The transfer of the former CLC section to the London Midland Region of British Railways in 1948 left the D9s an ageing and non-standard class and they were quickly swept away, the last being withdrawn from Trafford Park shed in 1950.

Performance
The performance of these engines was very much overshadowed by later Robinson engines such as classes 8B, 11E, and 11F. Nevertheless, they must have been at least reasonably satisfactory from the start to merit the additional order of 10 in 1904. Hancox records them as reliable and capable of working nine bogie coaches. London Extension schedules from 1905, at which time the 11Bs were still working some of the best trains, needed average speeds of nearly 60 mph and to keep these times much faster running must have been required. Even with relatively light loads this implies at the least a free-running locomotive. Their long lives (especially in later rebuilt form) suggest robust and trouble-free construction.

However effective they were, Robinson clearly identified a need for larger express passenger locomotives, with the 8B "Jersey Lilies" appearing in 1903, very soon after the 11Bs were delivered. There were also several distinct attempts to improve the 11Bs through rebuilding, creating GCR Class 11C and eventually 11D.

The 11Ds were clearly still effective engines even at the end of their lives, and probably superior to the much later LMS Class 2P 4-4-0 engines that replaced them on the Cheshire Lines.

Rebuilding
The class began and ended their lives in uniform condition, but from early in their history there were several attempts to upgrade the 11Bs before the emergence of the final superheated "11D" form starting with No. 1021 in 1913.

The first change was the fitting of No.s 104 and 110 with larger boilers and cylinders creating GCR Class 11C in 1907, apparently without significant success. Another rebuilding in saturated form gave No. 1026 a larger boiler and piston valves in 1909.

Naming
Four of the class were given names. Only one - 1014 - carried a name when still class 11B, the other three were named after rebuilding.

The high status of these titles demonstrates the prestige that the engines enjoyed at the time they were named.

Models
In 1904 Bassett-Lowke produced a Gauge 1 model of an 11B, complete with appropriate coaches, in association with a Great Central Railway marketing initiative. The engine represented was No. 1014 'Sir Alexander'.