NER Class A

The London and North Eastern Railway’s (LNER) class F8 was originally built by the North Eastern Railway (NER) in 1886 designed by T.W Worsdell and built at the Gateshead works with sixty being built between 1886 and 1892. At this time the class were designated class A by the NE and was the first loco in the company to be given an alphabetical letter classification, they were also the first locos to use steel boilers instead of an iron boiler which at the time was built to a non standard design that could not be swapped with any other class of loco however the design later evolved to be used on classes D23, G5, J24 and the J73’s the boiler later becoming Diagram 69 under the LNER. Worsdell also gave the F8 some aesthetic design features that would become characteristic of most NER locos from then on; these included a tapered chimney a brass cover for the safety valves and a large protective cab. All but the last twenty of the class had 18 inch diameter cylinders with the latter having 17 inch cylinders however these were increased to 18 inches during rebuilding in 1900, originally built with Westinghouse brakes 42 of the class were fitted with vacuum ejectors in a program during 1929 and 1930 however withdrawal of the class had begun in 1928 and 18 of the class never received vacuum ejectors. During its working life the class could be found all over the NER system working on suburban lines and country branch lines but during their life with the LNER they were mostly kept around Tyneside, Teesside, Hull and Leeds where they handled lightweight traffic. Withdrawals of the class took ten years with the last loco being No. 420 working at Tyne Dock, it was condemned on the 22nd of April and the class slipped in to history with non being preserved.