Wainwright SECR J Class 0-6-4T

The SECR J class was a class of 0-6-4T steam tank locomotive built for heavy freight service on the South Eastern and Chatham Railway, by Harry Wainwright.

The South Eastern and Chatham Railway (SECR) had a need for versatile mixed traffic locomotives which could accelerate quickly so as not to impede the heavy passenger traffic on the densely used lines around London. The SECR J Class passenger tanks were slightly unusual in that they were designed by Wainwright to work not just the SECR's own services, but to work any line south of London. Following the success of his C class 0-6-0 and his H class 0-4-4T Harry Wainwright sought to combine their good features but was limited by weight restrictions on many lines. The original drawings for the class were for a six-coupled radial tank with a boiler similar to that of the C Class to be called class N, but this idea was dropped and, in 1913, the first of the class appeared just as Wainwright's career with the SECR was drawing to a close. Five locomotives were constructed at Ashford during 1913, but Wainwright retired soon afterwards and no more were constructed. The result was an 0-6-4 tank. In all just five engines were made, the last to be built under his auspices (though the L class was designed by him before he handed over the tenure to Maunsell) which doesn't suggest there were many "south of London" trains requiring their services. The class were moderately successful on a variety of secondary passenger and freight services. All had completed more than one million miles at the time of their withdrawal between 1949 and 1951.

The locos had belpaire fireboxes, Schmidt superheaters and 8 inch piston valves. They were provided with two side tanks which held 350 gallons of water each, and a rear tank which held 1,300 gallons. As built the engines had Wakefield mechanical lubricators but Maunsell soon changed these for a sight feed lubricator. As with all SECR locomotives, steam reversing gear was provided. Initial numbering was, as was common with the SECR, somewhat haphazard but was re-organized by the Southern Railway into a logical sequence. Originally employed on the London-Redhill section and the Addiscombe Road line they were cascaded down to Ashford for working in that area when electrification made their services redundant on those lines.

The class were originally allocated unused numbers between 126 and 614. However, all but number 597 were renumbered by the Southern Railway in 1927/8 to create a unified sequence from A595 to A599. These later became 1595-9, and then 31595-9 under British Railways.

All were withdrawn from Ashford shed.
The first withdrawal was 31599 in November 1949 from Ashford shed.
The last loco 31596 was withdrawn in September 1951 from Ashford shed.
None are preserved





31598 Ashford June 1949





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Wainwright J Class - Railway-Photography
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596 Wainwright J Class Petts Wood





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Wainwright J Class - Railway-Photography
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614









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Wainwright J Class - Railway-Photography
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Wainwright J Class - Railway-Photography
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1596


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1597


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Wainwright J Class - Railway-Photography
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31596 Ashford


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Wainwright J Class - Railway-Photography
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Neil

 

Particularly handsome engines, although with some shortcomings. John Wilkinson of Ashford, who fired them, said they took a lot of getting hot. They were the first Ashford design with superheaters and piston valves; the design office obviously had something to learn about these features