Maunsell SECR K & K1 River class 2-6-4T and U Class Rebuild

The SECR K class was a type of 2-6-4 tank locomotive designed in 1914 by Richard Maunsell for express passenger duties on the South Eastern and Chatham Railway (SECR), which operated between London and south-east England. The Southern Railway (SR) K1 class was a three-cylinder variant of the K class, designed in 1925 to suit a narrower loading gauge. They were among the first non-Great Western Railway (GWR) types to use and improve upon the basic design principles of power and standardisation established by GWR Chief Mechanical Engineer (CME) George Jackson Churchward. The locomotives were based on the GWR 4300 class, improved by the Midland Railway's ideals of simplicity and ease of maintenance.

The K class was designed to be mechanically similar to the SECR N class 2-6-0 mixed-traffic locomotives. The class was one of the earliest to use the 2-6-4 wheel arrangement in Britain.[2] Production began towards the end of the First World War, and the prototype rolled out of Ashford Works three years after design work was completed due to wartime production constraints. The class replaced obsolete 4-4-0 passenger locomotives in an SECR fleet standardisation programme.

Twenty-one locomotives were built: twenty K class (two cylinders) and one K1 class (three cylinders), the first in 1917 and the remainder between 1925 and 1926. They operated over the Eastern section of the Southern Railway network and were given the names of rivers, being referred as the River class from 1925. Crews referred to the K and K1 classes as "Rolling Rivers" because of their instability when travelling at speed. They were rebuilt as 2-cylinder SR U class and 3-cylinder SR U1 class 2-6-0s (respectively) following a railway accident at Sevenoaks, Kent in 1927. They continued in service with British Railways (BR) until the last was withdrawn in 1966.


K Class

A791 River Adur

https://railway-photography.smugmug...sell/SECR-Maunsell-K-K1-River-class/i-fVjdNNL

K1 Class

A890 River Frome

https://railway-photography.smugmug...sell/SECR-Maunsell-K-K1-River-class/i-T2RQMDW



Neil

 

K class rebuilds


The rebuilding programme that followed the derailment of K class No. A800 "River Cray" at Sevenoaks began at Ashford works in June 1928. The work involved in converting a 2-6-4 tank engine to a 2-6-0 tender locomotive included the removal of the side water tanks, rear coal bunker and trailing axles, although the 6 ft (1.83 m) driving wheels, right-hand drive and N class–type boiler were retained. The aesthetic aspects inherited from the K class were the former Midland Railway engineer James Clayton’s contributions to the design, creating a simple, functional locomotive similar to the N class.

The rebuilt locomotives were given a tender and a re-designed cab that bore a strong resemblance to those featured on designs by Henry Fowler. Two designs of Maunsell tender were used, the straight-sided 3,500 imperial gallons (15,911 l) variety, and the larger 4,000-imperial-gallon (18,184 l) design used on later batches of the N class with inward-sloping raves to prevent coal spillage. The first rebuild was No. A805 River Camel, which also became the first U class locomotive into service in March 1928, three months before the first production locomotive under construction at Brighton. The rapid turnaround was achieved as design work was already in place, and the rebuilding of existing locomotives was cheaper than building from scratch.

No. A805 was put on performance trials prior to work commencing on rebuilding of the rest of the class at Brighton and Eastleigh works. The rebuilds lost their names because of the bad publicity attached to the "River" class after the 1927 crash, and the heavily damaged No. A800 was the last member of the K class to be rebuilt to U class configuration in December 1928. The unique 3-cylinder "River" tank, K1 class No. A890 River Frome was also rebuilt to the general U class specification, becoming the prototype of Maunsell's 3-cylinder U1 class derivative in June 1928.


Over 40 photos starting here


31791

https://railway-photography.smugmug...River-class-tank-engine-31790-31809/i-JBCVK6p

 

https://railway-photography.smugmug...River-class-tank-engine-31790-31809/i-R4tZqpB = Eastleigh

https://railway-photography.smugmug...River-class-tank-engine-31790-31809/i-pJVvK5x = As above [duplicated]

https://railway-photography.smugmug...River-class-tank-engine-31790-31809/i-bq649w5 = Worgret Junction ?

https://railway-photography.smugmug...River-class-tank-engine-31790-31809/i-7B4T2Lp = Feltham [duplicates Image 31]

https://railway-photography.smugmug...River-class-tank-engine-31790-31809/i-L9qBK5P = Barry Scrap Yard

https://railway-photography.smugmug...River-class-tank-engine-31790-31809/i-w725LJm = As above

https://railway-photography.smugmug...River-class-tank-engine-31790-31809/i-7Cxh3qW = St Denys

 

Thanks Fred