5MT  73000 – 73171  4-6-0  BR Standard Class 5

 

Power Classification	5MT
Introduced	1951 – 1957
Designer	Riddles, designed at Doncaster
Company	BR
Weight – Loco	76t 4cwt
Tender	BR1 4,250 gallon – 49t 3cwt BR1B 4,725 gallon – 50t 5cwt BR1C 4,725 gallon – 53t 5cwt BR1F 5,625 gallon – 55t 5cwt BR1G 5,000 gallon – 52t 10cwt BR1H 4,250 gallon – 49t 3cwt
Driving Wheels	6ft 2ins
Boiler Pressure	225psi superheated
Cylinders	Outside – 19in x 28in
Tractive Effort	26,120lbf
Valve Gear	Walschaert (piston valve) 73125 – 54 were built with Caprotti valve gear

In 1948 locomotive exchanges took place in advance of further locomotive classes being constructed. For mixed traffic locomotives the trials were held on four routes.

• St Pancaras – Manchester
• Marlebone – Manchester – Great Central Line
• Perth – Inverness – Highland Main Line
• Bristol – Plymouth

The locomotives involved were-

	Modified Hall class introduced on GWR in 1944. 6990 Witherslack Hall on the Great Central Main Line
	B1 class introduced on LNER in 1942 61251 Oliver Bury on the Bristol – Taunton – Plymouth 61292 on the Highland Main Line
	LMS Black five class introduced in 1934 44799 on the Highland Main Line 45253 on the St. Pancras – Manchester run and GCR.
	West Country class introduced on SR in 1945. Many were rebuilt after 1957. 34004 Yeovil on the Highland Main Line 34005 Barnstaple on the St. Pancras – Manchester route 34006 Bude on the Bristol – Taunton – Plymouth run and GCR

The general view of the trials is that they were an unnecessary publicity stunt and provided very little information that was not already available. This theory is possibly valid as all of the classes of locomotives used in the trials had run for a number of years by the time of the trials in 1948.

The Stanier 5MT Black Five introduced on the LMS in 1934 were undoubtedly the most efficient design of general purpose mixed traffic locomotive ever built in Britain. In all 842 were built between 1934 and 1951.

The 172 Standard class 5MT engines introduced in 1951 were based largely on the LMS Black Five with a few modifications of which the exceptionally high running plate which had been adopted for Standard engines was the most noticeable. The Standard design incorporated features designed to make disposal easier: a self-cleaning smokebox and a rocking grate removed the necessity for crews to undertake dirty and strenuous duties at the end of a long shift. The locomotive had a boiler which was almost identical to that of the Black Fives.

The Standard class 5 was a much more economical high speed express engine than the earlier locomotive. The Standard Class 5 were fast, they could really fly with good steam, easily to 100mph in the view of many engine drivers. Like the Clans, which could only manage one more carriage on an express than these locomotives, the Standard class 5 took a long time to shake down, and only started to really pull when different firing techniques, which allowed them to steam using poor quality coal were developed, for these low emission passenger locomotives, came into use. They pulled much of the traffic on the last express lines for steam in the mid and late 1960s: Edinburgh-Aberdeen, London- Southampton-Bournemouth- Weymouth and the last semi fast express trains between Nottingham and London on the Old Great Central route which closed in 1966; and local express traffic in the North and Midlands around Sheffield and Leeds. They were also used on the locals between Liverpool, Manchester and Blackpool.

The last batch of 30 locomotives (73125-73154) completed at Derby between June 1956 and June 1957 were built with Caprotti valve gear and poppet valves.

In 1959 20 of the Southern Region locomotives were named, the names being transferred from SR King Arthur class locos that were then being withdrawn.

The first of the class, 73000, was outshopped from Derby in April 1951 and 30 were in service by January 1952. There was then a gap in construction before Derby resumed building its remaining 100 engines. 42 were built at Doncaster, starting in August 1955 and finishing in May 1957, with Derby’s last engine following a month later.

Number in Service.

	Built		Withdrawals	No. in Service
	BR Numbers	Quantity
1951	73000-73028	29		29
1952	73029	1		30
1953	73030-73049	20		50
1954	73050-73074	25		75
1955	73075-73108 and 73110-73119	44		119
1956	73109 and 73120-73144	26		145
1957	73145-73171	27		172
1958-63				172
1964			16	156
1965			41	115
1966			39	76
1967			53	23
1968			23	0

• 73000-73099 and 73125-73154 were built at Derby
• 73100-73124 and 73155-73171 were built at Doncaster
• 73000-73049 had BR1 tenders
• 73050-73052 had BR1G tenders
• 73053-73064 had BR1H tenders
• 73065-73079, 73090-73099 and 73135-73144 had BR1C tenders
• 73080-73089, 73100-73109, 73120-73134 and 73145- 73171 had BR1B tenders
• 73110-73119 had BR1F tenders
• The BR1C tender had a 9 ton coal capacity whilst the rest were limited to 7 tons
• 73125-73154 had Caprotti valve gear

The first locomotive to be withdrawn was 73027 in February 1964. It had been first based at Blackpool Central in December 1951 at which it moved to St Phillips Marsh in September 1953 and then to its final base of Swindon in July 1954

Some of the class had even shorter short working lives. 73164 entered service at York in March 1957 but after spending time at Huddersfield, Bath Green Park and Bristol Barrow Road it was withdrawn from service at Oxford in December 1964. 73161 began its service at Blaydon in January 1957 before travelling south via allocations to Gateshead, Normanton, Leeds Neville Hill and Wakefield before ending up at Exmouth Junction from where it was withdrawn in December 1964. 73000 which started its working life at Derby in April 1951 and survived until March 1968 as one of the 23 members of the class that were still in service at the start of 1968.

73000 motive power depot allocations.

Date Arrived	Depot
April 1951	Derby
November 1951	Stratford
March 1952	Derby
January 1953	Millhouses
March 1953	Derby
September 1953	Nottingham
April 1958	Sheffield Grimesthorpe
January 1961	Canklow
January 1962	Derby
September 1962	Woodford Halse
January 1965	Oxley
March 1965	Shrewsbury
April 1966	Agecroft
October 1966	Patricroft

73050 was withdrawn from service in April 1964 but steamed again in September 1968 when it ran on BR metal from Manchester to Peterborough one month after the introduction of the steam ban on the BR network.

Twenty-three members of the class survived until 1968 with 73069 being the last to be withdrawn in August 1968 along with the other seventy-eight steam engines taken out of service that month with the end of steam on the BR network. Interestingly forty-six of the seventy-nine withdrawn that month were the Stanier 5MT Black Fives on which the Standard 73000 locomotives were based.

Allocation of locomotives in service as at 1st of January.

Depot	1952	1956	1958	1964	1965	1966	1967	1968
Summary
London Midland Region	19	35	42	53	58	55	55	23
Eastern Region	2		5
North Eastern Region	3	5	17	3
Scottish Region	4	29	45	48	42	29	3
Southern Region		25	25	44	37	31	18
Western Region		25	38	24	19
Rugby Testing Station	1
	29	119	172	172	156	115	76	23
London Midland Region
Banbury						3
Blackpool Central	4
Bletchley					10
Bolton							10
Chester	3	6	4
Cricklewood				4
Croes Newydd						7
Derby	2	5	1
Holyhead			8
Leicester Midland	1	4	8
Millhouses	3	5	5
Nottingham	3	3	3
Nuneaton					4
Oxley					5	2
Patricroft	2	12	13	10	22	37	45	23
Rowsley				10
Sheffield Grimesthorpe	1
Shrewsbury				9	12	6
Tyseley						4
Willesden				10
Woodford Halse				10	5
	19	35	42	53	58	59	55	23
Eastern Region
Neasdon			5
Stratford	2
	2		5
North Eastern Region
Huddersfield				2
Leeds Holbeck	3	5	5
Normanton			2	1
York			10
	3	5	17	3
Scottish Region
Aberdeen Ferryhill					2
Carstairs					1	1
Corkerhill		6	10	15	15	9	2
Eastfield		6	5	4	1	1
Grangemouth					2
Motherwell		3			1	1	1
Perth	4	5	8	4
Polmadie		9	12	15	10	8
Stirling						3
St Rollox			10	10	10	6
	4	29	45	48	42	29	3
Southern Region
Bristol Bath Green		5	5
Eastleigh					20	9	2
Exmouth Junction				5	2
Feltham				9
Guildford						13	6
Nine Elms		10	10	21	8	1	6
Stewarts Lane		10	10
Weymouth				9	6	8	4
Yeovil Town					1
		25	25	44	37	31	18
Western Region
Bath Green Park				6	4
Bristol Barrow Road			4	3	4
Cardiff Canton		2	4
Chester (GWR)		4	4
Gloucester					4
Gloucester Barnwood				8
Leamington Spa					4
Llanelly				3
Oxford					3
Oxley		1	3
St Phillips Marsh		5	4
Swindon		2	8	4
Shrewsbury		11	11
		25	38	24	19
	29	119	172	172	156	115	76	23

• Croes Newydd, Oxley, Tyseley and Shrewsbury depots were transferred from the Western Region to the London Midland Region in September 1963.
• Bath Green Park was originally a Southern Region depot which transferred to the Western Region in February 1958.
• The engine (73008) at Rugby Testing Station was transferred there from Perth in August 1951 and returned to Perth in March 1952.

As the Southern Region track was not equipped with water troughs the ten locomotives (73110-73119) attached to BR1F tenders which had a capacity of 5,625 gallons of water were all initially allocated to Nine Elms. From Nine Elms they mainly worked on the London to Salisbury and London and Bournemouth lines

They moved away from Nine Elms in 1965, at which time one was withdrawn from service but remained based at Southern Region depots. Six of the engines remained in service until 1967. The locomotives allocated to Stewarts Lane had 4,725 gallon tenders. When the Chatham main line from London Victoria to Dover and Ramsgate was electrified in 1959 the Stewart Lane locomotives were reallocated to Nine Elms.

Three engines (73050-73052) which were based at Bath Green Park were fitted with the BR1G tenders which had a capacity of 5,000 gallons for working over the Somerset and Dorset line from Bath to Bournemouth.

The locomotives initially allocated to Scottish depots largely remained in Scotland for the whole of their working lives. Two engines spent a month at Polmadie when new in July and August 1953 before moving to Shrewsbury. Three engines were similarly allocated to Carlisle Kingmoor around this time before also going to Shrewsbury. At that time Carlisle Kingmoor was coded as a Scottish Region depot but transferred to London Middland Region control in February 1958.

Accidents and Incidents

• On 25 August 1958, locomotive 73042 was hauling a sleeper car train from Glasgow to Eastbourne which overran a signal and was in a head-on collision with a train formed from two electric multiple units at Eastbourne. The Sleeper train consisted of 16 vehicles (two coaches, three sleeping cars, ten vans for luggage and motor cars and a guards van at the rear) when it passed the home signal at danger at a speed of about 25mph into the path of the oncoming Ore to London Bridge two unit electric multiple unit train of 12 coaches. The front carriage of the Electric units telescoped onto the second coach which forced both vehicles into the air and onto their sides. The leading coach struck a signal gantry which then collapsed but landing away from the coaches. The steam locomotive derailed and the front end and smokebox were damaged but the leading coach was buffer locked with the tender, although some vans towards the rear of the sleeper train did suffer some damage by derailing and bent buffers.
  • There were 36 passengers on the train from Glasgow and 150 on the train heading for London Bridge. Five people were killed on the train to London Bridge including the driver and 40 were injured.

• In 1958, locomotive 73111 was hauling a passenger train that derailed at Millbrook, Hampshire due to a faulty point motor moving a set of points under the train.

• On 1^st December 1965 locomotive 73001 was hauling a passenger train Bath to Bournemouth when it suffered a serious firebox blowback when the steampipe to the blower fractured whilst in the station at Midsomer Norton. Miracculously the crew escaped serious injury. The locomotive was surprisingly repaired but only lasted in service until after making its last run on 1^st January 1966.

73057 on Corkerhill shed in Glasgow-July 1965. The locomotive was based at Corkerhill at the time having transferred across Glasgow from its only previous base of Polmadie in June 1964     73154 at Dundee-July 1965. 73154 was entirely Scottish based during its working life. When I took this photograph it was based at St Rollox (Glasgow). It was withdrawn from service at Motherwell in December 1966.     73059 at Carlisle-August 1965. This locomotive was based at Polmadie for its entire working life. It was withdrawn from service in May 1967     73107 at Carlisle-October 1965.Another locomotive that spent all of its life based in Scotland. It started life at Eastfield (Glasgow) before having a brief spell at Inverness before going to Pert in October 1957. It moved to Motherwell in July 1964 and was withdrawn from there in September 1966     73099 at Carlisle-October 1965. 73099 started its working life at Patricroft before moving north of the border to Polmadie in November 1958. It was withdrawn from service there in October 1966     73142 on Carnforth shed-March 1966. Having ben based at Leicester, Derby & Rowsley it ended its working life whilst allocated to Patricroft. It was withdrawn from service in April 1968.       73059 on Carlisle Kingmoor shed-July 1966. See above.         73045 at Chester-July 1967. This locomotive had many homes during its working life. It was based at Patricroft when I took this photograph. It was withdrawn from service in the following month.

Preservation

Only five members of the class have survived into preservation and of the 5 only 73096 has operated on the mainline. 73096 Is currently undergoing an overhaul at Southall and is being done to mainline standard.

• 73050
• 73082 Camelot
• 73096
• 73129
• 73156

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