The Patriot Class was a class of 52 express 4-6-0 passenger steam locomotives built for the London Midland and Scottish Railway. The first locomotive of the class was built in 1930 and the last in 1934. All of the Patriot class locomotives were withdrawn from service by 1965. The class was based on the chassis of the Royal Scot combined with the boiler from Large Claughtons earning them the nickname Baby Scots.
Background[]
The first two were rebuilt in 1930 from the 1912-built LNWR Large Claughton Class, retaining the original driving wheels with their large bosses, the "double radial" bogie truck and some other parts. Of the subsequent 50 locomotives of the class 40 were nominal rebuilds of Claughtons, being in fact new builds classified as rebuilt engines so that they could be charged to revenue accounts, rather than capital. The last ten were classified as new builds.
The two former Claughtons retained their original numbers until 1934, when they were renumbered 5500–1. The 40 built as replacements took the numbers of the Claughtons that they replaced; these were renumbered 5502–41 in 1934. The remainder of the class were allocated nos. 6030–9, but were numbered 5542–51 from new. BR added 40000 to their numbers to make them 45500–51. The numbering of the similar LMS Jubilee Class continued on from where the Patriots left off. This was because 5552–5556 were ordered as Patriots (to be numbered 6040–4) but built with taper boilers as Jubilees on the orders of Sir William Stanier.
Naming of the class was somewhat erratic. Some retained old Claughton names, whilst others continued the military associations of the names Patriot and St Dunstans, and 13 carried names of holiday resorts served by the LMS. Seven remained unnamed, although they had been allocated names in 1943.
Between 1946 and 1948 eighteen were rebuilt with Stanier 2A boiler, cab and tender, though again these were paper rebuilds. The rebuilt engines were (4)5512/14/21–23/25–32/34–36/45. These were originally built without smoke deflectors but starting in 1948 were fitted with LMS Royal Scot Class pattern deflectors. The two original members of the class, and the first ten of the nominal rebuilds, were not rebuilt due to their non-standard parts.
All were withdrawn between 1960 and 1965 and were scrapped. None have survived to preservation.
The Unknown Warrior[]
In 2007 a proposal to build a new built LMS Patriot, using the surviving drawings, was published in the 13 July issue of Steam Railway magazine. This led to the formation of a Limited Company with charitable status. The engine was built using the number of the last Patriot which is 5551. Since the original locomotive had no name, the new one will be named The Unknown Warrior.
In Fiction[]
- This class of engine forms the basis of the Big City Engine from the 'Railway Series' of children's books by the Rev. W. Awdry.
Gallery[]
_to_York_express_at_Bromsgrove_2093445_81a11e17.jpg "Bristol (Temple Meads) to York express at Bromsgrove 2093445 81a11e17.jpg (88 KB)")
