BR Standard 9F 2-10-0
| The British Railways class 9F 2-10-0 heavy goods engines were not really Southern engines but just about squeeze into our website as they performed sterling work on the Somerset & Dorset line, which took them to Bournemouth, and due to a brief allocation of five locomotives to Eastleigh in 1961-3. They were, without a shadow of a doubt, the most successful of the British Railways Standard designs. |
| We do not think it was allocated to Feltham, but BR Standard
2-10-0 Nº92217 was seen there in November 1963.
Photograph by Keith Harwood |
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| The 9F class, the first of which entered service in 1954,
consisted of 251 locomotives by the time the last was built. The final member
of the class, Nº92220, was the 999th BR Standard locomotive, and also the
last steam locomotive to be built by British Railways. Emerging from Swindon
works on 18th March 1960, this locomotive was turned out in fully lined
passenger livery, given a copper capped chimney and the name Evening
Star to commemorate the end of BR steam building. 92220 had a mixed career,
starting in a blaze of glory working crack express trains, she was soon moved
to the freight duties the class was designed for, plus passenger trips to
Bournemouth when working on the S&D line in the summers of 1962 and 1963,
and at least one visit to Yeovil Town shed during 1964. She then, following an
accident, became one of the first of the class to be withdrawn when only five
years old, though already earmarked for preservation as part of the National
Collection. She is still around today and, as can be seen below, has re-visited
Southern metals since preservation.
Designed by R A Riddles, with a lot of influence from the wartime WD 2-10-0s, and built in eleven batches, the construction was shared between British Railways' Crewe and Swindon works. There were several variations between class members, for example the fitting of double chimneys to some, but by far the strangest were the Franco-Crosti boilered examples which had a double barrelled boiler, emitting their exhaust from a chimney half way along the right hand side of the boiler. They also had a "normal" chimney on the top of the smokebox which was only used when lighting up. The second, smaller, boiler was between the frames and was used to preheat the feed water, though these were later removed. There were just ten of these Franco-Crostis, none of which was ever shedded on the Southern. |
 |
92209, whilst shedded at Bath Green Park, paused at Blandford
Forum on 8th March 1964 with the SCTS "South Western Rambler
railtour". 92209 hauled the train from Salisbury to Templecombe, then down
the S&D line to Hamworthy Junction then Bournemouth Central.
Photograph: Mike Morant collection |
| As mentioned above, the class performed sterling work on the S&DJR route between Bath and Bournemouth, being able to haul an eleven coach train over the hilly route from Bath to Evercreech Junction without assistance. In the summer of 1960 four locos, 92203/4/5/6, were allocated to Bath for these duties and others returned in subsequent years, including 92220 herself. |
| Class 9F 92220 "Evening Star" standing at Platform 10
at Brighton on the occasion of the last day of traffic on the Kemp Town branch, 26 June 1971. This area is
now the car park, the wall to the left of the locomotive was part of the former
Brighton Works. This photograph demonstrates clearly the different arrangement
for the Western Region lamp irons where the wider dimension faces sideways
whilst with the Southern variety it faces the front.
Photograph by Glen Woods |
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| In 1961 five ex-Western Region 9Fs (92205/6/11/31/39) were allocated to Eastleigh for use on the Fawley - Bromford Bridge (West Midlands) oil trains. When these were dieselised in 1963 the 9Fs moved to Feltham for three months before being transferred to York in September 1963. |
 photograph by Michael Taylor. |
At the 1974 Eastleigh open day one special was worked by David Shepherd's 9F 2-10-0 Black Prince. This was one of the earliest steam specials over the 3rd rail electric system. This view shows the train entering the works from the mainline station. |
Technical Details
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| 9Fs known to have worked on the Southern (listed in the order they were built) |
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| Nº | Built | At Bath for S&D | To Eastleigh | To Feltham | Transferred away |
| 92000 | Jan 1954 | Jun-Sep 1961 | - | - | - |
| 92001 | Jan 1954 | Jun-Oct 1961 & Jun-Sep 1962 | - | - | - |
| 92006 | Feb 1954 | Jun-Sep 1960 & Jun-Sep 1961 | - | - | - |
| 92224 | Jun 1958 | Aug-Sep 1963 | - | - | - |
| 92231 | Aug 1958 | - | 1961 | Jun 1963 | Sep 1963 |
| 92233 | Aug 1958 | Jun-Sep 1962 | - | - | - |
| 92239 | Sep 1958 | - | 1961 | Jun 1963 | Sep 1963 |
| 92245 | Nov 1958 | Jun-Sep 1962 | - | - | - |
| 92203 | Apr 1959 | Jun-Sep 1960 | - | - | - |
| 92204 | Apr 1959 | Jun-Sep 1960 | - | - | - |
| 92205 | May 1959 | Jun-Sep 1960 | 1961 | Jun 1963 | Sep 1963 |
| 92206 | May 1959 | Jun-Sep 1960 | 1961 | Jun 1963 | Sep 1963 |
| 92210 | Aug 1959 | Jun-Jul 1961 | - | - | - |
| 92211 | Sep 1959 | - | 1961 | Jun 1963 | Sep 1963 |
| 92212 | Sep 1959 | Jun 1961 - Jun 1962 | - | - | - |
| 92217 | Dec 1959 | - | - | Visited? Nov 1963 | - |
| 92220 | Mar 1960 | Jul-Sep 1961 & Aug-Oct 1963 | - | - | - |
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This page was last updated 12 May 2009
