J15 0-6-0 - 65462
Approaching Deadman's Cutting
(Photo: Ben Boggis)
History
The J15 - East Anglia's Durable Workhorse-by
Steve Marshall
The Great Eastern Railway's Yl4 ‘small goods' class 0-6-0,
was designed by TW Worsdell and introduced in 1883 to haul
coal trains on the newly opened GN-GE Joint line from
Doncaster. They were very successful, and construction was
continued by the three succeeding locomotive
superintendents until 1913, when the 289th appeared from
Stratford Works, making the Y14 numerically the largest
class on the GER. Of that total, 19 were built by Sharp,
Stewart & Co., whilst the rest came from Stratford. The
Y14's carried the following numbers:- 37 - 40, 119-24,
507-71, 592-600, 609-49, 680-99, 801-934 and 936 - 45
although they were not built in that order (610 was first
and 551 last).
Due to their very low axle-loading (13.5 tons) the ‘small
goods' could work on almost every GER line, a fact noted
by the railway's management who had the final forty built
fitted with balanced wheels, steam heating and air or dual
brakes so they could be used on branch passenger, ECS and
excursion work. 272 Y14's were passed on to the LNER in
1922 when they were reclassified as J15's. At first the
J15's had a ‘7' added in front of their GER numbers, then
in the 1946 renumbering they were allocated 5350-5479. The
127 locos that survived until nationalisation were
allocated the numbers 65350-65479, but some were scrapped
before they could be renumbered. The j15's were given the
BR power classification I P/2F and route availability I.
About fifty of the class were still active in 1958 and
even at that late date, they could sometimes be found
hauling the through coaches of Suffolk expresses. The last
survivors were not withdrawn until the end of steam in
East Anglia.
The M&GN Society's loco was built as GER No. 564 by
Stratford Works and first saw the light of day on 22nd
February 1912. It was one of the penultimate batch of ten
(order number B70) and had a Macallan variable blastpipe,
dual-brakes and steam heating fitted during construction.
The loco had a trial run to Broxbourne with Foreman
Cookson on 1st March and entered traffic later that month,
probably at Norwich. To begin with, No. 564 was paired
with a third-hand tender originally built in May 1895 for
T19 2-4-0 No 1022.TheT19 later swapped tenders with GER
P43 4-2-2 No. 12. When that loco was scrapped around 1908,
the tender was put into store before being reused with the
newly built Y14. After the grouping, the Ioco became No
7564, then No 5462 in November 1946, before becoming BR
65462 in 1949. Both the LNER and BR painted the Ioco plain
black. Originally the engine had a dished smokebox door, a
rolled steel stovepipe and encased Ramsbottom safety
valves. During LNER ownership it received a bevel-edged
smokebox door, a cast iron J72 type chimney and Ross pop
safety valves. The LNER also fitted coal guards to the
sides of the tender in the late I 920s and then replaced
the GER wooden cab roof with a higher pitched steel one
around 1933.
Between June 1947 and April 1950 No. 5462/65462 carried a
GER boiler with Ross pop safety-valves and the whistle
mounted on the former Ramsbottom valve seat.At that time
it was coupled to an ex-GER watercart oil-tender, which
had been built in the 1890s for a P43 4-2-2, and later
modified to carry coal. The tender had previously been
coupled to the D13 4-4-0 No.8023, which was withdrawn in
1944. A GER standard small tender, No 7558, replaced the
watercart in April 1950. (This R43 class watercart was
later paired with two E4 2-4-Os becoming the last GER
oil-tender in existence before being scrapped in 1955).
During a general repair in May 1953, 65462s boiler was
changed for one which had a short Darlington chimney, the
whistle on a tall mounting just in front of the cab and no
safety-valve seat The tender was swapped at the same time
for No. 7543, a similar Holden one. A tender cab, made
from the cab of a condemned GER 2-4-2T was fitted between
then and 1956 to protect the crew from rain or blowing
coal dust when the engine was travelling tender first. In
June 1957, the boiler was replaced by one with the more
usual tall J72 chimney. 65462 carried a variety of
chimneys over the years: GER stovepipe; tall cast LNER;
short cast LNER; tall LNER again; and finally a fake
stovepipe which was several inches shorter than the GER
original and was produced by cutting off the top flared
section from a tall LNER chimney and adding beading around
the rim. Two were made by the Norwich Shedmaster, the late
Bill Harvey and fitted to 65469 and 65471 for use on
railway society specials. When 65471 was withdrawn in June
1960, its chimney was transferred to 65462.
Continued
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